Written guides (not video) on how to make leather?

[Haltingpoint]

I am making leather for the first time. I see the leather calculator which is nifty, but I am unclear on the process, how many barrels I need, etc. I have watched a video guide but honestly I do not retain video content. I want a clear step-by-step written guide I can reference. Are there any good ones?

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Haltingpoint said:

how many barrels I need

Technically you just need one barrel, but the process works best if you have three(I prefer six so I can transfer leftover liquid to three of them for later use). One is for the limewater or diluted borax, one is for the weak tannin, and one is for the strong tannin.

1. Fill each barrel completely with water(50L).

2. On the first barrel, add 50 lime to create limewater, or 20 powdered borax to create diluted borax. It doesn't matter which one of these options you pick, you will just need one of them to process raw hides into scraped hides.

3. On the second and third barrels, add 5 oak logs each to create weak tannin. Once the weak tannin is created, add 5 more oak logs to the third barrel to create strong tannin. Make sure the oak logs still have their bark, as stripped logs will not work.

4. Once you're ready to process your hides into leather, stick the raw hides into the limewater/diluted borax solution to turn them into soaked hides after they have soaked in the solution for the appropriate amount of time. Place the soaked hides into the crafting grid with a knife to process them into scraped hides.

5. Stick the scraped hides into the weak tannin solution and let them soak for the appropriate time to turn them into prepared hides.

6. Stick prepared hides into the strong tannin solution and let them soak for the appropriate time to turn them into leather.

That is the basic leatherworking process. Do keep in mind that sealing things into barrels does take time, so it's possible to take care of multiple steps at once in some cases(like making tannins while waiting for raw hides to soak in the limewater). Likewise, if the barrel doesn't have the appropriate item ratios, it won't give you an output text or let you seal it. If the ratios are correct though, the barrel will list the output of the item combination, as well as the sealing time required, and will allow you to seal the barrel once you click the seal button.

[Venusgate]

To dovetail a little off LadyWYT, I try for four barrels, 2 for the lime wash. Once a hide goes thru the lime wash, it no longer decays, but if you suddenly have a lot of rawhides to process, it can get stressful to watch the clock before your hides decay. And then I have a few buckets to store residual tannin of each strength.

Note, treating a hide with fat to make a pelt disqualifies it for leathermaking in the future.

 

[TJ Pepler]

Also note that there is a you can only process so many units per barrel, if you try to add too many it will not work. If in doubt add 1 unit at a time until the barrel is full.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

5 hours ago, TJ Pepler said:

Also note that there is a you can only process so many units per barrel, if you try to add too many it will not work. If in doubt add 1 unit at a time until the barrel is full.

just to note that the Handbook tells you how much of a particular resource it takes to process each type of pelt (small, medium, large) so you can actually math it out once you memorize these numbers.

[Vexxvididu]

21 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

....you can actually math it out once you memorize these numbers.

Don't make assumptions about other people's mathematical ability!  lol.  I love math but for many others, there's this:

https://elias288.github.io/LeatherCalculator-VintageStory/

[LadyWYT]

On 12/16/2025 at 6:51 AM, TJ Pepler said:

Also note that there is a you can only process so many units per barrel, if you try to add too many it will not work. If in doubt add 1 unit at a time until the barrel is full.

 

On 12/16/2025 at 12:29 PM, Teh Pizza Lady said:

just to note that the Handbook tells you how much of a particular resource it takes to process each type of pelt (small, medium, large) so you can actually math it out once you memorize these numbers.

 

3 hours ago, Vexxvididu said:

Don't make assumptions about other people's mathematical ability!  lol.  I love math but for many others, there's this:

https://elias288.github.io/LeatherCalculator-VintageStory/

My general strategy is to just ignore the math and shove hides into the barrel until the output reading goes away. Then I know I added too many hides, so I remove one or two to get the output reading back and then seal the barrel. Granted, I've made leather enough times to memorize the hide stack sizes for full barrels, but when it comes to partial barrels I just can't be bothered. 

Edited December 17, 2025 by LadyWYT
grammar