Silk

"It comes from a spider's butt!"

- Wilson

Silk is a resource obtained from Spiders which is not necessary for basic survival, but is used in the creation of many useful items. Although it can be obtained on Day 1 it is often sought once a base camp has been established and an adequate food supply secured; as acquiring silk can be a dangerous venture and it is used only in the creation of non-essential items.

Farming
Silk can be easily farmed using a trap, spiders will not make any attempt to avoid traps or obstacles meaning that if you do not wish to fight multiple spiders you can lure them to follow you and lead them straight into the trap, this means that you will not take any damage and the spider will be destroyed immediately, giving you the items that it would normally drop. Another good tactic for farming a lot of silk is to firstly kill a tier 3 Spider Den or Spider Queen to obtain a Spider Eggs, this will allow you to place your own tier 1 Spider Den. Now proceed to place the spider den in the middle of a large pigman village near home, whenever a spider spawns from the den the Pigs will instantly attack and kill the spiders leaving the loot on the ground to be picked up whilst ignoring the den itself. A good example of this is pictured. - Note pigmen may eat the monster meat if not attended to quick enough.

Unless you are confident you've got it well locked down or are looking for a Spiderhat, Spider Dens should be destroyed ideally as soon as they reach tier 3. As tier 3s drop Spider Eggs, this will enable you to reset your farm without having to deal with a Queen.

Gathering
Silk is generally found after killing different types of Spiders. It has an approximate drop chance of 25% per kill. Silk is also dropped in bulk from the destruction of Spider Dens. A large Den yields 6 units of silk, a medium Den 4 units, and a small Den 2. Spider Dens will not drop any Silk if burned; it all turns to Ash, although silk already on the ground will not light up. Spider Queens drop 4 Silk when killed (along with the Spiderhat).