In Bukkit and old versions of Spigot this has worked.

setDurability() metod on an axe (ItemStack from player.getItemInHand()) does no longer break the item when the durability value is larger than the items breakpoint anymore.

Breakpoints;

• Gold - 33 uses
• Wood - 60 uses
• Stone - 132 uses
• Iron - 251 uses
• Diamond - 1562 uses

Source code for my plugin using this; https://github.com/enjikaka/WoodCutter/blob/master/src/se/enji/WoodCutter.java#L102