Sadly, unless you desperately need crushing damage, it still doesn't stack up against a crafted axe of the same level even with the talent. Nails and moonstone (for damage upgrade) are also both exceptionally rare, nails being far more useful for fortifying your boots anyway.
Spears and Swords both have their uses. Swords have a higher minimum damage and spears have longer range (which is especially good for whirlwind attack), but nail clubs do less minimum, less maximum, and have no higher range or any other special property compared to any other 1hander, except the fact that they do crushing damage.
