These are the basic methods to use each of the currently available alchemy tools:

• mortar and pestle
  -This pair of instruments will be used in the first step of all herb preparations, the crushing of the herb into a pulp or powder.
  -Holding one in each hand, if you crush the item in your mortar with your pestle, you will begin to see the item ground down from its natural form.
  CRUSH <item> in my mortar with my pestle
• Wayerd pyramid
  -To use this device, open it and put in the herb you would like to dry
  -Close the device and, during good weather in the daylight hours, head outside and look for a place you can safely place the pyramid on the ground
  -A good rule of thumb to help prevent honest mistakes is to guard your pyramid once on the ground, and to tie a piece of string around your finger to remember to pick it up when you move on
  -Once on the ground, if the sun is shining, you should hear a low humming come from the pyramid
  -After a number of hums, and it is said the number of herbs in the pyramid will affect the length they need to dry, collect your pyramid and remove your dried herbs (you can tell they are dried because they will say so, for example you will see 'a dried eghmok moss'); they are ready to be used or crushed into a powder
• unlonchai bucket
  -Put your herb or water in it and close, shake it once and wait, in a few moments, the water or herb will have cooled to freezing
  -Be forewarned, the elementals that live in the buckets have formed a sort of union, and no longer tolerate excessive shaking of their homes. If you push your luck with shaking them too much, they may leave the buckets, thereby leaving the bucket useless.
• portable stove
  -To use this device, you will need a combustible material, such as charcoal, place the charcoal into the stove, light the charcoal (with a knife and flint or magical means), close the stove and drop it, then guard
  -Get yourself a jar and fill it with what it is you want to heat, put the jar onto the stove and wait
• tincture jar (detailed listing here)
  -To use this device, put in healing herb powder and grain alcohol in a 4:1 ratio (4 parts alcohol to 1 part herb).  Close the jar, wait 10 minutes, shake the jar, wait 10 minutes, shake the jar, wait 10 minutes then open and retrieve your mix.
• vial/small jar/bottle (use 'pour help' in game)
  -although not a 'proper' alchemy tool in the sense of the ones above, you will always be needing to transfer water, oil or other liquids from one container to another.  When you are mixing, you need all your items into consolidated items (for example if you need 3 doses of water, you can't use "a water, a water, a water", you need 1 'a water' that counts as 3 parts.  To combine the waters, you need to:
  pour my <container1/potion/water/etc> into my <container2>

Also useful to check for in game syntax:

• BREAK my <item> half/piece
• COMBINE <item> (when holding 2 of the same things)
• COUNT my <item>
• CRUSH <item> in my mortar with my pestle
• POUR  my <container1/potion/water/etc> into my <container2>

If you wish to get a broader perspective on the different types and tools of alchemy from an IG standpoint, seek out the book titled "Alchemy", call number "MRxxA", which can be found in most of the main city libraries.