The Art of Crafting Content . The Basics . The Basics Bardus , Your father still hasn ' t forgiven you for destroying his prized beehives when you decided to use them as practice targets for your sword thrusts . If I remember correctly , the incident required you to spend three days in the healer ' s tent . And still you didn ' t learn a thing . Your mother , likewise , hasn ' t forgotten the episode with the serving maid and the love potion . The poor lass has to shave her back every full moon . So , martial and magical training are out of the question . Your parents have now charged me to educate you in the virtues of tradecraft . They hope that with this basic knowledge ( and a large honorarium ) they can apprentice you to a master crafter . I have written this primer to reinforce today ' s lesson and to provide you with something you can review at your leisure . All tradecrafts follow the same fundamental principles . Whether you intend to bake a pie , forge a sword , or craft and enchantment , the methodology is the same . Ingredients . In any tradecraft , you combine two or more ingredients to create a single superior product . This is not like the time you tried to smash two pony guar together to make a larger Pack Guar . You must combine the correct ingredients and use the correct tools : a hammer and anvil , mortar and pestle , or cauldron and fire , depending on the craft . Only then can you succeed . Most crafted items require at least two ingredients . For example , a sword needs smelted iron for the blade and tanned leather for the hilt . Potions require dried flowers and pure water . Enchantments need gems and setting materials . You must gather the raw ingredients from the wilderness or , knowing your approach to everything you do , find them in an unattended crate . Next , the raw ingredients must be refined . Smelt the ore into ingots , spin the raw cotton into cloth , and cut and polish the gems . Then , at your workbench , you can create something your father might actually be proud of . Additives . With basic ingredients you can craft basic items . You can create improved items by increasing the quantity and quality of ingredients . As you discovered last year , a ten - pound sledge is more effective in smashing your mother ' s urns than a one - pound hammer - - though , as you learned , the ten - pound sledge is also more difficult to control . To solve this problem , tradecrafters infuse their ingredients with additives . Resins and oils make wood more supple and strong . A dash of Imp Stool makes a health potion more effective . ( Wipe that smirk from you face . You know I was talking about the mushroom , young man . ) Additives also interact with each other to imbue a crafter item with magical properties . It requires three different additives for a magical effect to take hold . What combinations of additives produce what effects we shall save for another lesson . The Art of Crafting : Research and Learning . Bardus , You are , no doubt , celebrating my sudden turn to ill health . I don ' t believe that you purposefully poisoned me with that sweet roll you made , only because I don ' t believe you have the skill to make anything on purpose . Never - the - less this brush with death has brought one element of your education to the fore . An element that I have avoided to broach because , to be frank , my lack of success in teaching you has provided me a well paying job , courtesy of your parents . I speak of how to improve yourself in your chosen skill . In the end it is the responsibility of each crafter to train themselves . Most craftmasters just allow their apprentices to use their tools in exchange for work . They do not share their secrets . So what to do once I am gone ? Well the traditional way is to make something and then test it until it falls apart . Then you see where the item failed and the next time you make it avoid that mistake . Of course making the same thing over and over , only to destroy it , really doesn ' t improve your skill very much . It also fills the store room with broken iron daggers . The key is to gain examples of other ' s works , and see how they made them . See their points of failure and compare them to how you make the same item . And then make them better . That is how you learn , both in crafting and in life . Study and research your failures and the failures of others . Take those lessons to heart and apply them the next time you craft something or solve a problem . And of course this philosophy fits in well with your own destructive personality . I am sure you will do well . Crafting : Tempers and Tannins . Bardus , Today ' s lesson is about the tempers and tannins used by armorers and weaponsmiths . As you have noticed while hiding from the nightwatch in your father ' s armory , each race has its own style of arms and armor : for example , Redguard swords are curved , while Dunmeri leathers are smoky blue . These different styles are achieved by the use of tempers and tannins . Tempers and tannins are used by the crafter to balance hardness and resilience in armor and weapons . A hardened sword can hold a sharper edge , but might shatter when struck . A flexible blade will bend rather than break but cannot hold much of an edge . Thus weaponsmiths use tempters in their quenching troughs to strike a balance between the two . Likewise a leather chestpiece can be treated to be as rigid as a board , able to turn an assassin ' s knife - - but if it is too rigid , the wearer is unable to turn his body . Thus , armorers use tannins on leathers and fabrics to strike a balance between stiffness and flexibility . What does this have to do with the look of a Redguard sword or Dunmeri leather ? If only you had asked that question in your lessons rather than daydreaming about impressing the scullery maid with that wisp of a mustache . The tempers and tannins used by each race also imbue them with basic properties that are characteristic of the race ' s gear . The flexibility that must be forge into the curve Redguard swords is achieved by adding Yokudan sands to the smith ' s quenching trough . Likewise the distinctive bluish sheen of Dunmeri leather is achieved by using Volcanic Ash - based tannin . The only race that does not employ tempers and tannins is the Argonian . Culturally they cling to their ancient methods of crafting armor and weapons . Before they were enslaved by the Dark Elves , Argonians used flints and feathers to enhance their obsidian axes and padded armors , rather than metals and leathers . When the first Argonian flint axe shattered on the iron breastplate of a Dunmeri warrior , they started to change . Their adoption of modern methods came too late to stop the enslavement of their race , by change they eventually did . Argonian weapons and armor now use traditional metals , leathers and cloth as their bases . But Argonian smiths decorate them with ancient materials , such as flints and feathers , to honor their ancestors . The Wood Elves of Valenwood also decorate their armor with bone for the same reason , but they have always used iron and other metals in their weapons and armor , which explains why their tribes avoid the enslavement visited on the Lizard - Folk .