Is there any way to craft "masterwork" upgrade for weapons?

Question

I'm playing a Pathfinder campaign, playing a level 3 Magus (Soul Forger archetype) in a Open-World mostly Sandbox game. My plan is to make him a professional crafter. I've already bought Mastercraft Tools and a little workshop for him to work, sell and craft.

I have some questions about MasterWork weapons based on these rules:

To create a masterwork item, you create the masterwork component as if it were a separate item in addition to the standard item. The masterwork component has its own price (300 gp for a weapon or 150 gp for a suit of armor or a shield, see Equipment for the price of other masterwork tools) and a Craft DC of 20. Once both the standard component and the masterwork component are completed, the masterwork item is finished. The cost you pay for the masterwork component is one-third of the given amount, just as it is for the cost in raw materials.

Then, I think as a "roleplayer", can't someone come, with his own weapon, and ask me to make it "Masterwork"?

I can't find any resources about "Upgrade" weapons from crafting. The strange thing is, you can upgrade them by paying. By that I mean, if you have a normal weapon, you can make it masterwork/magic enhancement just paying the difference.

So, is there no way to "un-craft" your original weapon to "lower" the cost of making a new one? I am thinking about a way to "re-forge" it or get the raw materials of it. How can I do this?

Answer 1

There is no such rule. You can't upgrade to masterwork an already existing non-masterwork weapon.

And that makes perfect sense: If your sword is made of poor quality steel with a bad designed handle it is easier to just make an other one than "upgrading" yours.

On a gameplay aspect, non-masterwork weapons usually costs a ridiculously small amount of gold compared to the masterwork price (between 0 and 20 gp when the masterwork difference is 300 gp). For this reason you don't really gain anything by re-crafting an already existing weapon.

Concerning dismanteling a weapon to salvage its components there is no reason for that to be impossible but I can't remember of any rule about that. As a GM I would say you can recover up to the cost of the materials used to craft it, depending on how high you roll on an appropriate craft check.

Answer 2

Here are 2 ways to turn a non-masterwork weapon into a masterwork weapon.

Masterwork Transformation

You convert a non-masterwork item into its masterwork equivalent.

This spell can be obtained as a Scroll then any of these classes cast it for you:

arcanist 2, bard 2, cleric/oracle 2, druid 2, hunter 2, occultist 2, red mantis assassin 2, skald 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, warpriest 2, witch 2

The 2 after the class name indicates the minimum Spell Level (not caster level) needed to cast the scroll without problem.

Remember that this spell exists in both Arcane and Divine form, GM may be a stickler for which version you get and which version can be cast. A scroll has a market price of 25 x spell level x caster level so this scroll would cost you 150gp, but then the material component included a total of 450gp.

Services may also be directly purchased by hiring a spellcaster for a price of spell level x caster level x 10gp + material component. So 360gp.

Exemplar Weapon Salve

This alchemical salve strengthens the material of a weapon, improves its balance, gives it greater flexibility without sacrificing resilience, and enhances its ability to hold an edge or point and survive an impact. An application turns a typical nonmagical melee weapon into a masterwork weapon. A double weapon requires 2 doses of exemplar weapon salve, and 50 arrows, bolts, or similar ammunition can be enhanced by a single application.

Note it can only turn melee weapons from non-masterwork to masterwork but it's only 350gp. It's an item you can buy and apply yourself or even craft.

However it doesn't seem that you can get this back, just as if you pay someone to dig a ditch, filling the ditch back in isn't going to grant you back the money you spent paying the person to do the original work. You can still sell the new masterwork item for its market value.