Wear and mending

Tools, weapons, carts and boats don't last forever. The more you work them the more they wear, and like the real thing they need looking after. Nothing wears just sitting in your pack or standing in the yard. It's the work that does it.

Tools#

An iron tool keeps its edge for about 3 hours of work at the jobs it's for. Only the time you spend chopping, digging or mining with it counts, so carrying it around while you do other things doesn't hurt it. After that it's worn. It shows up in your pack as a worn axe or a worn pick, and it still helps, but only 50% as much as it did. Keep working it and after about 1.5 hours more it gives out for good.

How long a tool lasts comes down to what it's made of and how well it was made. A stone axe or pick lasts about an hour of work before it goes worn, a wooden spade about 1.5 hours, and neither can be mended, so when one gives out you make another from sticks and flint. Iron lasts longest. A fine one lasts a quarter longer than a plain one and a masterwork half as long again, on top of doing the job better.

Those are hours of work before it goes worn. If you've got two of the same kind in your pack, you work with the better one, and that's the one that wears.

Weapons#

A weapon wears with every swing or shot, whether it hits or not. A wooden sword or a bow is good for about 150, and an iron sword for about 400. Then it's worn and hits only 70% as hard, and if you keep fighting with it, it gives out after about half as many again and leaves your hand empty. A fine or masterwork weapon lasts longer, the same as a tool.

Wood can't be mended. A wooden sword is only a log and a bow a log and a hide, so when one's worn, make another at a fire and keep the worn one for a spare. Iron is worth mending.

Shears, rods and other kit#

The things you need for a job wear too: shears, a milk pail, a fishing rod and net, snares and the iron plough. These work as well worn as they did new, so the only thing a worn one tells you is that it hasn't long left. Once it's worn, it gives out after about half as long again.

A rod and a net wear by the time you spend fishing with them, waiting for a bite included. A snare wears a little with every catch you take out of it, and once it's worn it stays worn when you pick it up and set it somewhere else. The plough only wears when it's turning the extra rows behind an ox or a horse. If you have a worn one and a new one, the worn one gets used first, so you're not left with two half worn.

Mending#

Iron can be mended, tools, swords, shears and ploughs alike. Take a worn one to a forge with 1 coal in your pack, tap the forge and choose Mend. It doesn't matter whether it's in your pack or in your hand. It comes back as good as when it was made, the same grade and all, and you get 15 Smithing for it. You need the Smithing it takes to make that tool or sword, so if you traded for your pick you might have to take it back to a smith.

Mend iron when it goes worn, not after it gives out. A lump of coal is a lot less than a new iron bar.

Carts and wagons#

A cart wears as it goes, and it's the wheels that give out. Empty, over rough ground, a handcart goes about 8 km before a wheel breaks. A wagon has iron tyres on its wheels and goes about 24 km. A full load wears them twice as fast. Paving, whether it's a road, flagstones, a plank walk or a gravel path, wears them half as much as open ground, and an iron axle runs truer and saves a bit more again.

Inspect a cart to see how its wheels are. Once they're getting worn you can put a new one on: tap the cart and choose Put on a new wheel. The wheel comes from your pack or from piles nearby, the same as building, and the cart's as good as new after. If you leave it too long a wheel breaks and the cart stops right where it is. Nothing in it is lost, but it won't go anywhere until it has a new wheel.

Boats#

A boat wears with every metre she goes. What she's made of is what counts here. A raft is logs lashed together and works loose after about 5 km. A rowboat is planked, nailed and caulked and lasts about 30 km, and a sailboat, with her bigger hull, about 60.

When she's worn through she springs a leak. She still floats, so you're never stuck out on the water, but she goes at 50% of her pace until she's patched. Inspect her to see how her hull is, and once it's getting worn, bring her in close, tap her from the bank and choose Patch the hull. The planking comes from your pack or from piles nearby, and she's as good as new after.

If you're heading out to sea, patch her before you go. A leaking sailboat gets home, but slowly.