Crafting Equipment
Tools
If you want to craft (unless you happen to be a Dragon), you'll need equipment! There are a wide variety of items available to crafters, from the necessary tools to perform a task to items that increase your storage capacity so you can carry more items at a time.
Tools serve several functions. Each skill you have requires a special tool - you cannot smelt metal bars with your bare hands, after all! Each tier of tool restricts your skill to a certain level, though. The training tools you get from your trainer cap your skill at 50. Tier I tools cap your skill at 250, and then each subsequent tier raises your skill cap by 200 points. If you wield a tool and your skill is higher than the tool's skill cap, your skill will be reduced to the skill cap as long as you hold the tool. Tier I tools have no wield requirement, but tier II requires 200 active skill to wield and each subsequent tier adds 200 points to the wield requirement. For now, tier IV tools do not apply a cap to your skill, though at some point (when tier V and VI items are introduced), expect tier IV tools to cap out at 850.
Tools themselves do not offer any bonuses to your skill, aside from increasing your skill cap. However, you can add techniques to your tools to increase your skill. Tools follow the same rules as every other crafted item.
Cargo Items and Packs
You will find that the initial 1000 burden units of space your starter backpack allots you is woefully inadequate. You can do something about it though, especially if you are a Biped. No matter what race you are, you can upgrade your starting backpack/scale pack even at level 1. Tier 1 backpacks provide 1400 units of capacity and every 20 levels, you can get a new pack that adds 400 units to your capacity. At level 60, you will have 2600 units of capacity from your pack alone! You can further augment your capacity with a sack if you are a Biped. You can wield a tier I sack at level 5 and you can get a new one every 20 levels. Tier 1 sacks provide an extra 150 units of capacity and each tier adds another 100 units. Note that the level requirement on backpacks and sacks accept levels in any school, even adventure levels.
Bipeds can increase their carrying capacity even further with Cargo Armor. Cargo Armor is special cloth armor made exclusively by Tinkerers that adds to your carrying capacity. The first piece, a belt, is wieldable at level 6, and then the other pieces - wristbands, cap, boots, sleeves, leggings, and tunic - become useable every two levels. Each piece adds at least 50 burden units to your capacity, so level 18, you will have another 500+ units of capacity. Each higher tier adds about 30% to the capacity of each piece. The armor itself does not have an armor use wield requirement like regular armor, but it does have an active crafting level requirement. Adventure levels and levels in other crafting classes will not help!
Last, but not least, every race can use another Tinkering product - the Cargo Disk. Cargo Disks are items that act as a mobile vault. You can use your disk in two ways - attached and grounded. If you attach your disk, it will follow you and you can use the disk's capacity to augment your own. However, an attached disk substantially limits your run speed. If you ground your disk, you can deposit items in it, but it will not serve to increase your capacity per se. Most crafters use their disks by grounding them next to refineries and then storing processed resources in them until they are needed. Disks come in two varieties - standard and deluxe. Standard Sandstone disks hold 1000 units of capacity and have space for 5 stacks of items. Deluxe Sandstone Disks have a capacity of 2000 units and can hold 10 stacks. The trade-off between standard and deluxe is run speed - deluxe disks slow you down to a crawl. Standard disks have a requirement of 5 levels in any craft school and deluxe models require 15 levels. You can use a higher tier disk in a secondary crafting class without trouble.