Free-to-play Smithing training

Smithing in F2P worlds is a somewhat tedious skill to train, given they yield relatively low experience over time, although a very distinct power levelling method is possible, sacrificing large amount of money in contrast to its money-earning nature. Many players give up on training to very high level, satisfied by the profit gained at lower levels. Below is a guide how to train smithing effectively and discussion about balance between experience and profit.

Beginners
Below is a list of things for players to do before they can power level themselves effectively or even make some modest profit.

Knight's Sword
Knight's Sword is a free-to-play quest which gives 12,725 smithing experience upon completion, directly pushing the smithing level from 1 to 29. If a player manages to finish the quest, he/she needs to smith only a few items before changing to steel.

Level 1-14
For beginners not willing to complete Knight's Sword, they can only smelt bronze and smith bronze weapon in the period. The most convenient mining sites are the Mining tutor mine, Varrock east and west mine, which the first should be mainly used for mining and the other two as a drop-off to Varrock. Beware of giant rat and dark wizards near the Varrock mines for new players. Either way, buying the ores from Grand Exchange and selling the bars makes some profit.

Level 15-29
Iron bars can be smelted from iron ores, giving 50% success except using superheat item. Superheating is not recommended as the cost is very high compared to the products. With 15 mining players can mine the iron ores in various mines, which is highly recommended.

Level 20-29
Silver bars can be smelted from silver ores. The most efficient place to mine silver is Al Kharid mine, but it can be hard to train on as silver has a long mining and respawn period. At current Grand Exchange prices, buying the ore, then smithing it will result in gaining about 15gp per bar. Crafting them into unstrung symbols reduce the value so it will LOSE 15gp per bar, although the true problem is silver items can rarely be sold except the ores and bars, in F2P view.

Level 30-50
You can smelt steel bars which sell for around 900 gp in the Grand Exchange. Steel bars are smelted using one iron ore and two coal per bar. It is recommended you buy the coal ores but mine the iron ores.

Level 50+
Mithril bars can be smelted at this level, giving 30 experience. They sell for coins in the Grand Exchange, with the Mithril ore and coal costing 0 coins. You can make roughly 250 bars per hour, at a profit of coins per bar and 0 coins per hour.

Power levelling
Power levelling mainly uses metal bars for Smithing, raising a quick experience incurring a maximum loss of cash. Basically, players can select between speed or less cost, even in between these power levelling methods. All the power levelling loss is calculated by buying the bars at market price, smithing them and then selling the products at market price. If the products cannot be sold at GE the loss would be even more, up to 20% up.

Level 15
Iron equipments can be smithed. Iron equipments is currently the best way to power level Smithing for players except for very experienced smiths, for low cost of iron bars and high experience outcome. A list of loss per XP for individual equipment is obsolete because smithed equipments can rarely be sold properly.

Level 18
Bronze platebody can be smithed. The loss using bronze platebodies to power level is coins per XP.

Level 33
Iron platebody can be smithed. The loss using iron platebodies to power level is coins per XP. Iron platebodies is the most efficient way for lower level smithers to power level smithing in free worlds.

Level 48
Steel platebody can be smithed. The loss using steel platebodies to power level is coins per XP.

Level 68
Mithril platebody can be smithed. The loss using mithril platebodies to power level is coins per XP.

Level 88
Adamant platebody can be smithed. The loss using adamant platebodies to power level is coins per XP. Adamant platebodies is the most efficient way to power level smithing in free worlds currently. The smithed platebodies may be high alched or sold to Grand Exchange.

Profit making through smithing

 * See this page for reference of profit gained using these methods to train smithing.

Smithing with profit always cause slow experience, mainly due to the low experience outcome smelting the bars alone, which is essential for profit making.

Smelting steel bars
At level 30, steel bars can be smithed using one iron ore and two coals. Various ways of obtaining the ores are available: mining, buying from GE or combination of them. Coal is mined much slower than iron, causing many players to buy both type of ores, or buying coal and mining iron ores. Smelting 100 steel bars yields 1750 XP, which is equivalent to smithing 14 iron platebodies.

Smelting other bars
Currently, smelting other bars is less efficient and doesn't yield a much higher experience compared to steel bars, but if you cannot use that method, iron or mithril is not bad.

Superheating bars
This is a combination method explained here. The requirement as mentioned, is 30 mining, 30-50-70-85 smithing for steel-mithril-adamantite-rune bars, and 43 magic. Coal is mined in locations abundant of coal and bars are superheated using the mined coal. This method yields the lowest smithing experience over time, though mining and magic experience are greatly raised.

Profit vs experience
For a player to train smithing repeatedly, switching between power leveling and profit is essential. While smelting steel bars can yield profit of possibly 80k in a few hours, money losing through power leveling is even faster, making this skill nearly impossible to train if not treated properly. It is not advised to directly make equipments using your own mined ores, since mining costs time and bars are difficult to be transported. The process should be split up to several parts, picking the most efficient ones, most probably would not match in the training process. For example, training by using iron bars and earning through smelting steel bars are not related at all, if you buy the iron bars, iron ores and coal separately (not using bought iron ores to smelt iron bars)

Determining profit
Ideally, gaining experience while making a profit is what players strive to achieve. If this is not possible, then players strive to minimise the loss involved. Therefore, some calculation is necessary to determine exactly how much money is gained or lost per experience gained, and to minimize the loss or maximise the profit.

Profit/loss for smelting bars
For a given bar, the price of the smelting the bar is simply the price of the individual ores, optionally added with the price of the nature rune if Superheat Item is used.

The profit then is simply the the price of the bar minus the cost of the materials. If the profit is positive, then money is gained, and if it is negative, then money is lost. If it is zero, then you break even. If this value is p, then the profit or loss per experience is p/x where x is the experience gained by smelting a single bar.

Profit/loss for smithing bars
For a given item, let n be the number of bars required to make that item. If k is the cost of one bar and x is the price of the item made, then the profit is simply x − nk. If the profit is positive, then money is gained, and if it is negative, then money is lost. If it is zero, then you break even. If this value is p, then the profit or loss per experience is p/x where x is the experience gained by smithing a single bar.