40d:Crafts

Crafts are a group of items made specifically by a craftsdwarf. These include rings, amulets, bracelets, scepters, and crowns.
Crafts can be made from stone, wood, leather, cloth, bone, shells, metal and gems. However, gem crafts cannot be made normally, instead they are an uncommon product of cutting gems.

You cannot specify what a craftsdwarf will make, but one resource can often produce two or three different items. The chance of multiple crafts being produced from one resource is increased with the craftsdwarvf's skill.

Different Crafting Materials

Stonecrafting is an easy but timeconsuming way to make export goods early, as your stone crafter will have access to tons of stone in a typical fortress. Stone crafts are worth very little, but many of these can be made and will not be denied by any traders.

Making crafts from bone or shell is easy to set up if you have any dwarves hunt or fish, but elves will not accept these crafts.

Cloth and leather crafts tend to be very light, and can be more valuable than stone crafts, but it takes more effort to produce cloth and leather than it does raw stone.

Wooden crafts have low value, the same value as common, non-economic and non-obsidian stone, and cannot be traded to elves. This is generally a poor use of wood on maps with few trees.

Mass producing crafts from glass is very difficult and unprofitable unless there is a ready source of magma and sand. Even so, green glass crafts are only twice as valuable as ordinary stone crafts.

Metal crafts can be highly profitable; however, if metals are scarce on your map you may prefer to save metal for weapons, armor, and/or furniture.

Whenever a gem cutter is assigned to cut a gem there is a small chance that the dwarf will make the gem into a craft good or a large gem. This may or may not be desirable, depending on whether you want gems for encrusting or not. Depending on the gem used, this may create a very valuable good.

Other Trade Goods

Some other trade goods, such as instruments, toys, and mugs, are functionally identical to crafts, except that certain goods may not be made of certain materials. For example, a toy mini-forge may not be made from leather. Also, mugs and flasks always seem to be made in groups of three.

Occasionally a gem cutter will make a large gem instead of a craft good; again the two are identical in terms of function.