Skyrim: How to Get Leather Strips

Leather strips are a commonly used smithing material in Skyrim, used as an ingredient for even the most powerful armor and weapons. You can make these leather strips yourself, purchase them from particular shops around the map, as well as find them in certain locations. In this guide, we’ll cover all of the above so you can get smithing.

How to Get Leather Strips in Skyrim

Leather strips are made using a tanning rack and animal hides and pelts. These racks can be found in numerous locations around the world, though some easily accessible ones can be found at Falkreath, where there are three outside of the blacksmith’s shop, and outside of Warmaiden’s in Whiterun. Bring your animal hides or pelts with you to a tanning rack of your choice.

First, you will need to convert the pelts or hides into leather, which can then be made into leather strips. The conversion rates into leather are listed below:

• One bear pelt gives four leather
• One cave bear pelt gives four leather
• One cow hide gives three leather
• One deer hide gives two leather
• Two goat hides give one leather
• One fox pelt gives one leather
• One horse hide gives three leather
• One ice wolf pelt gives one leather
• One sabre cat pelt gives four leather
• One sabre cat snow pelt gives four leather
• One snow bear pelt gives four leather
• One snow fox pelt gives one leather
• One wolf pelt gives one leather

These hides and pelts can be obtained by harvesting dead animals, though they can also be obtained by killing Giants, who wear hides as clothing, dropping up to three at a time. Use the tanning racks to convert your pelts and hides and retrieve your leather. Run this leather back through the same tanning rack to create four leather strips per piece of leather.

If you don’t have many pelts or hides, and don’t feel like hunting, you can buy leather strips directly from merchants around Skyrim. General goods merchants and blacksmiths will both often sell 10-20 strips at any given time, saving on your need to hunt.

From blacksmiths, you can also get iron ingots, which with the strips, give you everything you need for iron armor. Leather strips can also be found on countertops or shelves in houses or shops, as well as in some dungeons as loot. 

That should be just about everything you need to know about how to obtain leather strips in Skyrim. Find whichever method works best for you in getting as many strips of leather as you need. If you’re interested in learning more about Skyrim, do consider checking out our many other guides in our guides hub!

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• Skyrim: How to Craft & Find Daedric Armor
• Skyrim: How to Craft & Find Daedric Weapons
• How to Join the Thieves Guild in Skyrim
• How to Get Ebony Mail in Skyrim