40d:Crafts

Crafts are a group of items made specifically by a craftsdwarf. These include idols, rings, amulets, bracelets, scepters, and crowns.
Crafts can be made from stone, wood, leather, cloth, bone, shells, metal, glass 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 produce up to three different items. The chance of multiple crafts being produced from one resource is increased with the craftsdwarf's skill. Some items such as mugs will always be made in threes, so they are more productive in terms of value than other crafts.

Materials

Stonecrafting is a timeconsuming but easy to set up way to make export goods early, as your stone crafter will have access to tons of stone in a typical fortress. Stone crafts are not that valuable, but many of these can be made and they will be accepted by any traders.

Making crafts from bone or shell is easy to set up if you have any dwarves hunt or fish, but it is easy for production to outstrip supply with legendary bonecrafters. Additionally, bones and shell have potentially more important uses, such as producing bone ammo and crossbows, or shell armor.

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. Cutting raw glass won't create crafts.

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, cups, goblets and flasks seem to always 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.