Base type

I've been trying to combine items to better items, but failing miserable.
Looked around a bit and every one is talking about "base types".
Cant find what base type means though....I figured 5 "shortswords" or 3 "goatskin boots"
but apparently different apparel can have the same base type....

so

what is this "base type" everyone talks about?

cheers

Afaik base item types are what's listed on these sites:
Weapons
Armours
Others

You should be able to see the item's base type from its name. For example:

As you can see the second line in the name is "Mesh Gloves" which is listed on the Armours list. Blue items on the other nahd can have 1 or 2 mods (prefix and/or suffix), making it a bit harder to see what's the base type:

"Wicked" and "of Rejuvenation" are mods, meaning that Basket Rapier is the base type. Mods also have their page under Game -> Items.

You could find items like Mesh Boots, but its base type is "Mesh Boots", not Mesh, meaning it won't work together with "Mesh Gloves" in a recipie where you'd need more of the same base type.

damn...no wonder i was having trouble figuring that out - thanks.