A Sword in Hand
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 2,490 EXP, which places it 6th of the 6 Lv 5 Carpenter tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, Shields for the Serpents, returns 6,840 EXP for the same allowance, 175% more.
Across that rung the return runs from 2,490 EXP to 6,840 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 175%, so the wrong pick leaves 4,350 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 10 Carpenter tradecraft leve returns 13,090 EXP per allowance, 91% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 1 rung behind tops out at 1,690 EXP.
At Lv 5 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 4,554 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 28,481 EXP, which puts this leve 45% below its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 170 gil per allowance is 1st of 6 on the same rung against 6th on EXP, with the best there paying 170 gil.
Ash Macuahuitl ×1 is a Lv 10 Carpenter recipe, 2 steps deep through 1 intermediate, costing 4 units of raw material and 3 crystals.
Handing that in returns 623 EXP and 43 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.