Tips On Crafting?

I just came back after a year and a half break and I’m a bit confused as to how to go about leveling up the things and how exactly I get the mats to make bows and knives and stuff. I guess I’m just a bit confused as to how to get high tier gear from crafting and stuff

I read the intro thing that salted posted but I’m still confused

 

Professions but oversimplified:

There are four gathering professions available (Mining, Fishing, Farming, and Woodcutting). When you use the gathering professions to get stuff, you get raw materials. You have to then go to a refinery and refine raw materials into processed materials. You then use processed materials to craft stuff, and when you craft stuff, you get XP for that profession.

 

when leveling a crafting profession, always use ingredients when crafting because they probably over triple the xp you gain, you should also probably only level crafting during profession bombs as you use half the materials and gain double the xp