Tanning (old)
The Basics
What You'll Need
Stop by your local, or not so local Tanning Shop To pick up your supplies. You'll want some thread, a bodkin, some shears, tanning salts (lotion or potion depending on what sort of skin you're working with) and a pattern. If you don't have your own materials, you can buy those in some locations as well.
You'll also want to pick up a hide scraper if you don't have one, to prepare the pelt for curing. Scraping hides is a great way to learn mechanical lore, even if you don't plan to use the skins for tanning.
Preparing Your Material
Find a nice cushy spot to sit for a while and scrape your skins. Taking your time and scraping carefully will decrease your chances of snagging the pelt and reducing the quality of your item. For most items you'll need several pelts or skins, and you won't know how many you need until after you start cutting them. So scrape plenty.
After you've scraped your skins, you can now start them curing. To do that, hold your scraped material and your salts (lotion or potion). POUR LOTION/POTION on PELT/SKIN/HIDE until you're sure you've got enough on there. Once that's done (and you'll know when its enough), the curing process begins. This is a long wait - several RL hours. So again, make sure you've got plenty of skins to make whatever it is you're trying for. You don't have to be logged in during this time, and you can also store them in your vault and they will continue to cure.
WARNING: Potion is for pelts and lotion is for hides and skins. If you use the wrong one on your pelt/hide/skin it will melt and disappear.
Here's an idea of how long your wait will be. It depends on the size of the skin or pelt you're tanning.
- 5 scrapes - 8 hrs
- 4 scrapes - 6 hrs
- 3 scrapes - 5 hrs
- 2 scrapes - 3 hrs
- 1 scrapes - 1.5 hrs
When you think enough time has passed, LOOK at your skin to check on it. When the skin looks completely cured, it's ready to be tanned. -Do to the new skinning change all skins are now 5 pieces, and take 8 hours to cure.
Tanning Your Item
Once all of your skins are cured completely, you can try to craft them into something. Hold a cured skin and your pattern, then PUT PATTERN on SKIN/PELT/HIDE. This will allow you to mark out the pattern on the material. If you've goofed, RUB the material to take the pattern off and try again.
With the pattern marked, you can now cut your pieces. With your shears and marked material in hand, CUT your SKIN/PELT/HIDE. This will leave you with some pieces if you succeed. At this time you will know if you need to mark and cut another piece of material for what you're making or not. If you end up with some pieces, you'll need some more material cut. BUNDLE your pieces until you have "a set". Now you're ready to move on.
Now get your bodkin out and POKE your set with it. Put the set aside after this so you can thread your bodkin with your stout thread. To do this, PUT THREAD on BODKIN. Now you can put the rest of the thread away and get your set again.
Say a little prayer to the tanning gods and STRING SET until the item is completed. With skill and some luck, you'll end up with a brand new piece of gear.
Quality
If you succeed in making an item, the make and quality of the item will vary depending on many factors including the quality of the skins, your mechanical lore skill, and your skill in the item you are creating (leather armor skill for armor, shield skill for shields, etc).
From Best to Worst these qualities are:
- Perfect
- Superior
- Superb
- Elegant
- Sturdy
- Well-Made
- Normal (no adjective)
- Home-Made
- Rough
- Shoddy
- Crude
Patterns
1 skin = 5 pieces
| Pattern | Skins needed | String Set times | Mech Needed to start | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| Reinforced Leather | 2 | 9 (60 sec each) | 350-400 | |
| Cowl | 1 | 4 (60 sec each) | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> | |
| <pattern type> | # of skins | # of string sets | <skill amount> |
What to Tan
For normal, non-armor tanned goods such as clothing and cloaks and straps, anything will do, from rat pelts and up. For armor and shields, its usually a better idea to use skins or hides as they will make better quality gear. Generally, the harder the critter was to kill, the harder it is to use their skin for tanning. Better quality goods is the result.
Some examples of skins used in armor/shields:
- Serpent Skin
- Crocodile Skin
- Gargoyle Hide
- Leucro Hide
- Azure Scale Hide
- Black Firecat Skin
- Damaska Boar Hide
- Bison Hide
Appraisals
Perfect and Superior Quality only.
| Armor Type | Skin | Quality | Maneuv./Stealth Hindrance | Puncture | Slice | Impact | Fire | Cold | Elec | Durability | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thick Leathers | Azure Scale Hide | Superior | ?/? | Mod/Fair | Fair/Fair | Fair/Mod | Fair/Fair | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Moderately Strong | 387 |
| Reinforced Leathers | Black Firecat | Superior | Mod/Fair | High/Mod | High/Mod | Good/Mod | Fair/Mod | Low/Mod | Mod/Mod | Very Strong | 324 |
| Cowl | Azure Scale Hide | Perfect | ?/? | Fair/Fair | Low/Fair | Low/M | Fair/Fair | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Average | 42 |
| Cowl | Bison | Perfect | Light/Insig | Good/Fair | Good/Fair | High/Mod | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Mod/Fair | Very Strong | 84 |
| Cowl | Crocodile | Perfect | ?/? | Good/Fair | Good/Fair | High/Mod | Mod/Fair | Low/Fair | Mod/Fair | Very Strong | 70 |
| Cowl | Gargoyle | Perfect | Insig/Insig | Good/Fair | Good/Fair | Good/Mod | Fair/Fair | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Very Strong | 58 |
| Thick Gloves | Gargoyle | Perfect | Light/Insig | Good/Fair | Good/Fair | High/Mod | Fair/Fair | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Very Strong | 32 |
| Scaled Leathers | Crocodile | Perfect | ?/? | Mod/Fair | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Fair/Fair | Poor/Fair | Mod/Fair | Fairly Sturdy | 300 |
| Scaled Leathers | Gargoyle | Perfect | ?/? | Mod/Fair | Fair/Fair | Mod/Fair | Fair/Fair | Low/Fair | Mod/Fair | Fairly Sturdy | 300 |
| Reinforced Leathers | Black Firecat | Perfect | Mod/Fair | High/Mod | High/Mod | Good/Mod | Fair/Mod | Low/Mod | Mod/Mod | Quite Hard | 320 |
| Reinforced Leathers | Black Leucro | Perfect | ?/Fair | Mod/Fair | Fair/Fair | Fair/Fair | Low/Fair | Low/Fair | Fair/Fair | Fairly Sturdy | 420 |
| Reinforced Leathers | Gargoyle | Perfect | High/Fair | High/Mod | High/Mod | High/Mod | Low/Mod | Fair/Mod | Mod/Mod | Quite Hard | 336 |
| Reinforced Leathers | Serpent | Perfect | Mod/Fair | Good/Mod | Mod/Mod | Good/Mod | Low/Mod | Fair/Mod | Mod/Mod | Mod Strong | 288 |
| Reinforced Leathers | Storm Bull | Perfect | Great/Fair | High/Mod | High/Mod | High/Mod | Low/Mod | Fair/Mod | Mod/Mod | Quite Hard | 400 |