Since barbs can use heavy armors, you should certainly go for those in order to take this advantage of additional defence.
Plate mails have higher def then chains, so if you see 2 of these armors with similar stats, rather go for the plate.
Barbarians have high life and defence usually thus, so you can tank your way, but damage output is another important chapter.
Usually, barbarian players are relying on consistent damage rather than critical hits. So you prefer strength as the main stat and round it up with some dex.
Adds such as life steal, max life, additional experience and other melee mods ( see here:
http://ladderslasher.d2jsp.org/index.php?g=15 ) in addition are always nice.
Another method is to get massive EE on an armor in order to have even more defense. You may also go for a dexterity build instead of strength.
Check e.g. over here for some help on these 2 barbarian builts:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=18377324&f=272On weapons, the main thing to look for is enhanced effect ( ee ).
Basically, you need to upgrade your weapon every 5-10 levels, because ee just effects the basic damage of a weapon and the higher the tier, the higher the basic damage gets.
Check this table to see how powerful your ee item is in comparison to the next higher tier:
and if you see a weapon to upgrade for a good price, go for it
In general, if you spend more fg and buy better gear, you will be able to kill faster. But you can tnak your way with low fg, too.
It will take longer, but especially if you got the knowledge to buy the right things you can make your way nevertheless.
At the end of the day, every weapon class should do the same amount of damage and the choice is just preference, but results can vary in single fights.
Axes have very consistent damage, so you can plan your fights better, but wont see any high critical hits. In my opinion, they are best for barbs for this reason.
Swords and clubs have a huge range of the maximum and minimum damage possible.
If lucky, you can have a decent amount of high damage hits and kill monsters you wouldnt be able to kill usually, but you can be unlucky as well.
In your case, you may upgrade your weapon to a level 20 version with similar or better stats.
The armor is ok for now, you may go for high ee or more stats/more mods in addition in 5-10 levels.
The charm should be upgraded with some stat points, max life and/or life steal.
For more general knowledge, you should check through this collection:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=18560908&f=272 or the general helping station:
http://ladderslasher.d2jsp.org/index.php?a=1