Leather working

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.20.7.

Leather working is a specialized series of barrel recipes that players can use to convert raw hides into leather .

Required materials

To create leather, a player needs:

• A supply of lime or powdered borax .
• A supply of oak or acacia logs to make tannin .
• A bucket or clay bowl to transfer liquid. A bucket holds 10 liters of liquid. A bowl holds 1 liter.
• Barrels to process hides. A barrel holds 50 liters (or 5 buckets) of liquid.
• Raw hides.
• A knife .
• A hammer or quern .

Hides

Hides can be looted from wild or domesticated animals upon death.

A barrel containing a full 50L of solution can process up to:

• 25 small hides (2L per hide and will use all of the solution)
• 12 medium hides (4L per hide and will have 2L left over)
• 8 large hides (6L per hide and will have 2L left over)
• 5 huge hides (10L per hide and will use all of the solution)

Lime & Powdered Borax

Lime can be obtained by grinding limestone , chalk , or marble stones, or sea shells in a quern . One stone yields one lime, while one shell yields two lime. Alternatively, lime can be purchased directly from Commodities traders .

Lime can also be baked into quicklime in a firepit (two lime per quicklime) for creating plaster and mortar .

If lime is unavailable, a chunk of borax can be ground in a quern to yield two powdered borax, which can be used in place of lime for leather working.

Example Shopping List

To process 8 leather, which would be sufficient to craft 1 leather backpack , the player would need the following materials (rounded up in parentheses):

• Oak or Acacia Logs: 6 for any type of hide
• Lime or Powdered Borax - one limestone or chalk stone can be ground into one lime; one borax can be ground into two powdered borax
  • Lime: 16 for small, 16 for medium, 18 for large and 20 for huge
  • Powdered borax: 8 for any type of hide
• Hides: Either 8 small, 4 medium, 3 large or 2 huge
• Limewater or Diluted Borax: 16 L for small, 16 L for medium, 18 L for large and 20 L for huge
• Weak Tannin: 32 (40) L for small, 32 (40) L for medium, 36 (40) L for large and 40 L for huge - of which half will be turned into:
• Strong tannin: 16 (20) L for small, 16 (20) L for medium, 18 (20) L for large and 20 L for huge

Hide Processing Sequence

Players may only process one size of hide at a time: small, medium, large, or huge. Also, each of the sizes use different amounts of solution. One huge, large, medium or small hide require 10, 6, 4, or 2 liters respectively.

Raw hides can be converted into leather through a lengthy but rewarding process. First the raw hides are sealed in a barrel for 20 hours in either limewater or diluted borax. Then those soaked hides are scraped with a knife in the crafting grid. After that, the scraped hides are sealed in a barrel for 3 days in weak tannin . Finally, the prepared hides are sealed in a barrel for 4.5 days with strong tannin . This results in leather.

Please note that all times refer to in-game time. Additionally, values are written to be exact. Some of them may need to be rounded up to a whole number, as fractions of items do not exist within the vanilla game.

Tannin Production

Tannin production should be started before or at the same time as the soaking process so that it is prepared for the later stages of the leatherworking process.

Tip: If you are processing bear hides, consider how many huge hides they will produce, and plan accordingly.

Weak Tannin

Weak tannin is created by sealing water and oak or acacia logs in a barrel for 1 day. 1 log and 10L of water creates 10L of weak tannin. The chart below shows how much weak tannin you will need for only soaking, as well as for both soaking and converting into strong tannin for the final stage.

	Seal For 1 Day
Desired Amount/Size	Weak Tannin Only		Weak and Strong Tannin
Scraped Hide	Log	Water	Log	Water
1x Small	0.2	2L	0.4	4L
1x Medium	0.4	4L	0.8	8L
1x Large	0.6	6L	1.2	12L
1x Huge	1	10L	2	20L
25x Small (Max)	5	50 L	10	100L
12x Medium (Max)	4.8	48L	9.6	96L
8x Large (Max)	4.8	48L	9.6	96L
5x Huge (Max)	5	50L	10	100L

• 
  Weak tannin being created from water and oak logs.

Strong Tannin

Strong tannin is created by sealing weak tannin and additional oak or acacia logs in a barrel for 1 day. 1 log and 10L of weak tannin creates 10L of strong tannin.

Desired Amount/Size	Seal For 1 Day
Prepared Hide	Log	Weak Tannin
1x Small	0.2	2L
1x Medium	0.4	4L
1x Large	0.6	6L
1x Huge	1	10L
25x Small (Max)	5	50 L
12x Medium (Max)	4.8	48L
8x Large (Max)	4.8	48L
5x Huge (Max)	5	50L

• 
  Strong tannin being created from weak tannin and additional oak logs.

Soaking

After the tannin production is complete or started, the first step of processing the actual hides is to soak them in a barrel with the proper ratio of either limewater or diluted borax to create soaked hides.

1. Fill the barrel with the necessary amount of water.
2. Add the correct ratio of lime or powdered borax to the water. This will instantly create your soaking liquid.
3. Place the raw hides into the barrel with the solution.
4. Seal the barrel for 20 hours.

Seal For 20 Hours
Barrel Contents		Solvent Options
Raw Hide	Water	Lime	Powdered Borax
1x Small	2L	2	0.8
1x Medium	4L	4	1.6
1x Large	6L	6	2.4
25x Small (Max)	50 L	50	20
12x Medium (Max)	48L	48	19.2
8x Large (Max)	48L	48	19.2

Seal For 20 Hours
Barrel Contents		Solvent Options
Raw Bear Hide	Water	Lime	Powdered Borax
1x Sun	6L	6	2.4
1x Panda	6L	6	2.4
1x Black	10L	10	4
1x Brown	10L	10	4
1x Polar	10L	10	4
8x Sun (Max)	48L	48	19.2
8x Panda (Max)	48L	48	19.2
5x Black (Max)	50 L	50	20
5x Brown (Max)	50 L	50	20
5x Polar (Max)	50 L	50	20

Seal For 20 Hours
Barrel Contents		Solvent Options
Raw Other Hide	Water	Lime	Powdered Borax
1x Fox	2L	2	0.8
1x Arctic Fox	2L	2	0.8
1x Raccoon	2L	2	0.8
25x Fox (Max)	50 L	50	20
25x Arctic Fox (Max)	50 L	50	20
25x Raccoon (Max)	50 L	50	20

• 
  The maximum amount of small hides in one barrel of limewater.

Tip: If you are making your tannin as you go, this is a good time to start producing all of the weak tannin you will need for the hides and the strong tannin.

Scraping

The second step is to convert the soaked hides into scraped hides with a knife. This can be done in either the crafting grid or on the ground. Scraping bear hides will result in varying amounts of scraped huge hides. Scraping fox, arctic fox, and raccoon hides will result in a single small scraped hide.

1. Remove the soaked hides from the barrel.
2. Place any knife above the soaked hides in the crafting grid.
3. Obtain the scraped hides from the output slot.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Knife 1x Soaked hide

Scraping Bear Hides
Soaked Bear Hide	Scraped Huge Hide
1x Sun	2
1x Panda	2
1x Black	2
1x Brown	3
1x Polar	3
8x Sun (Max)	16
8x Panda (Max)	16
5x Black (Max)	10
5x Brown (Max)	15
5x Polar (Max)	15

Scraping Other Hides
Soaked Other Hide	Scraped Small Hide
1x Fox	1
1x Arctic Fox	1
1x Raccoon	1
25x Fox (Max)	25
25x Arctic Fox (Max)	25
25x Raccoon (Max)	25

Preparing

The third step is to create prepared hides by sealing the scraped hides in a barrel with the proper ratio of weak tannin for 3 days.

1. Fill the barrel with the necessary amount of weak tannin.
2. Place the scraped hides into the barrel.
3. Seal the barrel for 3 days.

Seal For 3 Days
Scraped Hide	Weak Tannin
1x Small	2L
1x Medium	4L
1x Large	6L
1x Huge	10L
25x Small (Max)	50 L
12x Medium (Max)	48L
8x Large (Max)	48L
5x Huge (Max)	50L

• 
  The maximum amount of small scraped hides in one barrel of weak tannin.

Tip: If you are making your tannin as you go, this is a good time to start converting your remaining weak tannin into strong tannin.

Completing

Finally, the prepared hides need to be sealed again with strong tannin for 4.5 days.

1. Remove the prepared hides from the barrel.
2. Fill the barrel with the necessary amount of strong tannin.
3. Place the prepared hides back into the barrel.
4. Seal the barrel for 4.5 days.

Seal For 4.5 Days
Prepared Hide	Strong Tannin
1x Small	2L
1x Medium	4L
1x Large	6L
1x Huge	10L
25x Small (Max)	50 L
12x Medium (Max)	48L
8x Large (Max)	48L
5x Huge (Max)	50L

• 
  The maximum amount of small prepared hides in one barrel of strong tannin.

Leather

After the entire process is complete, the player will find that their barrels now contain leather.

Hide	Leather Amount
1x Small	1
1x Medium	2
1x Large	3
1x Huge	5
25x Small (Max)	25
12x Medium (Max)	24
8x Large (Max)	24
5x Huge (Max)	25

Usage

Leather can be used in recipes for

• The leather backpack which adds 6 inventory slots
• Several types of armor
• A few clothing items
• The sling
• Books
• Dyed leather
• The glider
• The longbow and recurve bow
• Leather reinforced wooden shield
• Antler mounts
• Elk medallions
• The saddle, saddlebags, and bridles

For a detailed overview check the leather page.

See also

Recipes in the Handbook can't always be easily discerned. Move your mouse cursor over a hide to check whether the image represents a raw hide, or a soaked one, etc. Remove the cursor to see the recipe resume cycling through all the possible options. Be sure to prepare the correct sort of hide for the recipe you want to craft.

Pelt

Making pelts is much simpler than making leather, requiring only lumps of fat and time to cure.

Several crafting recipes use cured pelts:

• Lamellar armor
• Fur coat
• Knee-high fur boots
• Fur gloves
• Fur lined reindeer herder shoes
• Reindeer herder fur coat
• Hunter backpack which adds 4 inventory slots
• Sling
• Longbow

Raw hide

A few crafting recipes use untreated hides:

• Warm robe
• Rawhide mantle
• Rawhide trousers

History

Version	Description
v1.19.4	Icons and models were changed in 1.19.4-rc.1. "Hides have new models and textures, and can be placed on the ground"

Video Tutorials

Detailed explanation how to make leather.	Fabrication de Cuire(leather) FR/ALL.