Profiting off birds

[Jephraim]

So in my current game I have been doing a lot of trapping and I am building up a big pile of bird leather. My only problem is that it is almost all harsh. I would like to make leather clothing for trade, but harsh leather is no good for making trade-worthy clothing.

My questions:
What is the best way to kill trapped birds to obtain fine leathers?
Is there profit from trapping birds for leather?
Is there another avenue of profit that I am overlooking from birds?

Thank you.

[Privateer]

 Your hide working has a good deal to do with getting quality 'skins'
For birds I usually loop snare, and kick them to death for minimal skin damage.

The small size makes them very fast to work on, thus good to try and get skill ups.

Harsh 'skins' for me used to be put in a stack to make cord from, though now with plant cord/recovery of cord from cooking etc. I'm not sure.

[Jephraim]

Thank you for the advice to kick the birds. I got a fin skin the first time I kicked a tufted duck to death.

[JP_Finn]

Alternative to kicking is to use Blunt weapon on Head. (Kicking is considered blunt too)
Added benefit is skill improving for the weapon used.

[PALU]

Any "safe" killing of animals ought to be done with blunt attacks to keep the skin of the animal in as good a condition as possible. You can use blunt attacks with most (all?) weapons. It has the additional advantage of requiring more attacks than the normal sharp attacks, and thus gives you more chances to increase the weapon skill (and kicking trains the Unarmed skill).
You should aim all attacks at the head, as hitting the head is the only hit location that doesn't damage the skin (the neck does damage the skin).

If you're dealing with an animal that fights back you should obviously focus on minimizing the risks (I throw rocks at trapped predators, as that's both blunt attacks and out of the reach of the animal), and when attacking an animal that is neither trapped nor exhausted you may want to focus on actually harming the animal sufficiently that you'll be able to catch it, rather than preserving the skin on an animal that may get away.

However, as far as I'm concerned, production of bird leather is mainly a way to train the hide working skill, rather than a profitable action in itself (the leather can be used, of course, so it's not a wasted effort).

[Tom H]

In crafting with leather, if you choose a regular quality piece of leather to start with, you can make a regular quality item even if you then add harsh leather to meet the quantity required to craft. I don't use more harsh than regular quality leather but that may not matter. I can't say if villagers will be able to discern that harsh quality leather was used. I suspect that they'll simply reject the item in trade if they do.

I've used the same method in crafting with fur. I've not noticed any change in armor quality when patching damaged armor with lesser quality.



 

[GrimmSpector]

In crafting with leather, if you choose a regular quality piece of leather to start with, you can make a regular quality item even if you then add harsh leather to meet the quantity required to craft. I don't use more harsh than regular quality leather but that may not matter. I can't say if villagers will be able to discern that harsh quality leather was used. I suspect that they'll simply reject the item in trade if they do.

I've used the same method in crafting with fur. I've not noticed any change in armor quality when patching damaged armor with lesser quality.

That is an amazing tip!