Method Description, Instructions and Tips for Success

General Description

High-level players use thousands of dragonhides to level Crafting quickly, and are willing to pay a premium to have someone else engage in the boring task of running the hides to the tanner to have them made into dragon leather. The difference in price between hides and leather is not much, but with the right technique you can do thousands per hour, making this a good moneymaker even at very low levels.

The process is identical for all four leather colors. Before you start tanning, check the prices of hides and leathers for all four types at the Grand Exchange; depending on which has the highest spread, you may wish to try tanning blue, red or black dragonhides instead. Also, be patient when buying and selling hides and leather, as sometimes it can take a while for them to sell. Try buying hides for a few coins over the median price and selling leathers for a few coins below average price; don't buy the hides and max price and sell leathers at min price or you'll eat up all your profit.

This is one of the few gathering/running techniques where I recommend just having an energy restoring potion or scroll in your inventory at all times -- this costs you an inventory slot, but the weight of the hides and the constant running means you need to restore energy constantly. I used to also recommend using super energy potions instead of energy potions at lower levels -- the cost per energy point was nearly identical when I first published the Moneymaking Guide. However, recent changes in the Herblore skill caused the price of super energy potions to skyrocket -- they are used to make the new recover special potion -- so energy potions are now the best option (even though they are a little slower to use).

Once you reach level 52 Summoning you can summon a spirit terrorbird. You should only use the bird for its special move to save the cost of energy potions; trying to store hides in it will slow you down.

Specific Method Details

Go to the bank in Al-Kharid and put on your boots of lightness and spotted cape; summon a spirit terrorbird. Take out from the bank around 100k of gold, a stack of 200 or so Tireless Run scrolls and 26 dragonhides. Run north to Ellis, trade him and choose "Tan All" to turn all the hides to leather, then run back to the bank.

Use the terrorbird's special move when your energy is down by more than half your Agility level (so, down more than 25% at Agility level 50). This only works when the bird is near you, but with practice you'll learn when to click the special move bar.