"Each item is made of up to 5 components. When you salvage an item, you have a chance to get any, all, or none of the components that it was made from. You can then combine the various parts that you collect to make a new weapon.
Advanced Crafting Note: When you craft and then break your own equipment, sometimes the effects can get switched around. For example if you have a blade that has +10 damage and you build a longsword with it, then break that longsword down, you might get a hilt that has +10 damage on it. This can be especially effective when combined with Sagecrafting. Make a powerful gem, create a junk item with the gem, salvage the junk item to get the gem's effect on other components. Then use those powerful components to build a real weapon with another gem, for a double-gem effect weapon! Savescum to avoid wasting components."