Smithing





Smithing is a production skill where a player makes useful metal items from ore and bars. It is considered one of the most profitable skills as a player can make excellent profits from selling his/her bars and other smithed items. Because of this, it is also one of the more popular skills.

Smithing actually incorporates two distinct processes. The first, Smelting, is the process of taking unrefined ore(s) obtained from the mining skill, and refining it into a solid metal bar. The title process, smithing, is the process in which a player forges one or more metal bars into a metal item using an anvil.

Smelting
For a list of furnaces, see Furnace Smelting is the process of extracting a metal bar from metal ore, which can be obtained using the mining skill. To obtain a metal bar, a player must use an ore of the desired metal on a furnace, or left-click the furnace and select the appropate bar. Some metals require different kinds of ore, and smelting some metals require coal to be added to the furnace to raise the furnace's temperature.

When smelting bars that require only two ores, it is recommended that fourteen of each ore should be carried for each trip to the furnace. When making a bar that requires two coal, eighteen coal and nine ore should be carried, and so forth, carrying the right ratio of ore and coal to smelt as many bars as possible per trip.

When smelting just a few ore, it can be faster to choose the 'Smelt 5' or 'Smelt 10' options, as bars will be smelted until the player runs out of ore.

Success rate
All metals have a 100% success rate with the exception of iron. As a balance to iron bars only requiring one ore, the smelting of iron ore using a furnace may sometimes fail. This success rate is raised to 100% under the following conditions: *Note: The last 2 conditions are members-only.
 * The iron is being smelted using the Superheat Item spell.
 * The player has a Ring of Forging equipped*
 * The iron is smelted in the Blast furnace mini-game*

Smelting using Magic
With level 43 Magic, a player can smelt bars using the Superheat Item spell. Doing so grants the same amount of smithing experience, and has a few advantages:
 * The player can emerge from a mine with a full inventory of bars, instead of a full inventory of ores which will smelt into only a fraction of the bars.
 * The player receives both Smithing and Magic experience.
 * The player saves time by not having to commute between a bank and a furnace.
 * The player is granted a 100% success rate in smelting iron ore.

Smelting table
A player will need higher smithing levels to smelt progressively higher level metals. Bars that can only be smithed by members are italicized.

Smithing
For a list of anvils, see Anvil

Smithing is the process by which a player crafts metal items out of one or more metal bars.

Smithing is almost always done at an an anvil; some require special anvils at certain locations. When a player uses a metal bar on an anvil, a dialog is shown in which the player selects which item to forge. The player can either click the item to smith one such item, or may right-click on the item and select a higher quantity of items to smith.

Smithing table
Below are tables with information about smithing and what players can create. It is important to note that black armour and weapons cannot be smithed.

As is standard, items which can only be smithed by Members are italicized.

Experience can be found by taking the experience for smithing 1 bar, and multiplying it by the number of bars required to smith the given item. For example, the bronze platebody gives 62.5 experience, and it uses 5 bars. 1 bar is 12.5 experience, and 5 x 12.5= 62.5. This works for all types of the standard smithable bars.

Buying and selling bars and ores
If a player just wants to sell their bars or ores they get from mining, then these prices are what he/she should follow. However, these prices can change over time.

Steel bars are the most recommended bars to sell, as many players make steel platebodies or cannonballs to level up their smithing level, so there is a large demand for these bars. The best places to sell or buy steel bars is in Falador and Varrock.

Ore prices

 * Clay: 1 to 5 coins
 * Copper/Tin Ore: 5 to 10 coins
 * Iron Ore: 50 to 100 coins
 * Silver Ore: 100 to 200 coins
 * Coal: 125 to 200 coins
 * Gold Ore: 250 to 600 coins
 * Mithril Ore: 350 to 500 coins
 * Adamant Ore: 1200 to 1600 coins
 * Rune Ore: 11 000 to 13 000 coins

Bar prices

 * Bronze Bar: 20 coins
 * Silver Bar: 150 to 300 coins
 * Iron Bar: 150 to 250 coins
 * Steel Bar: 550 to 650 coins
 * Gold Bar: 200 to 400 coins
 * Mithril Bar: 800 to 1000 coins
 * Adamant Bar: 2000 to 2400 coins
 * Rune Bar: 13, 000 to 15 000 coins

Free to play training
Here are recommended methods that a free player can use to raise his/her smithing level.


 * Level 1 to 29 - obtain 2 iron bars and then do The Knight's Sword quest. It gives 12,750 Smithing experience, granting many levels to a low-level smither.
 * Level 1 to 20 - Smelt bronze at Al-Kharid.
 * Level 20+ - Smelt and sell silver bars at Al-Kharid.
 * Level 40+ - Smelt and sell or craft gold bars at Al-Kharid. This can also a good way to make money.
 * Level 48+ - Smelt and smith steel. Players are recommended that they smith steel plates and then cast high level alchemy them.
 * Level 68+ - Smelt and smith mithril. This will be very long and boring, though mithril plates give great xp as well as a great amount of coins from high alching the plates.
 * Level 71+ - Players can try selling adamant axes for 2000 coins each (costs roughly 1600 to make the bars from buying the materials).
 * Level 86+ - Players can sell rune axes for 17 000 coins each, and 15 000 coins each in bulk.

Other strategies

 * Mining the ores, buying the coal - Players can mine mithril or adamant ore, buy the coal, smelt bars, smith platebodies, and high-alch them. High levels are necessary for this, and mithril platebodies approximately break-even, and adamant ones can make profit from this method..


 * Spending on fast experience - Players can buy all ores mentioned above along with the appropriate amounts of coal, make the bars, make platebodies, then cast high alchemy them. This results in a major loss of money, but is fast smithing experience. It is even more costly and fast if a player buys the bars to start out with.

Members Training
Members can train smithing using different methods than non-members.


 * Gold ore is very fast experience while wearing Goldsmith Gauntlets from the Family Crest quest. Smelting gold ore while wearing the Goldsmith Gauntlets will result in 56.25 experience per bar made, or 1574 experience per full inventory trip to the furnace. It is very easy to find people selling Gold Ore on the RuneScape forums, and the price of gold ore can be rather high in large quantities, because of the speed of the experience. However, it is somewhat costly, and there is low demand for gold bars in large quantities.


 * The Blast Furnace, found in the dwarven capital city of Keldagrim, is a very good way to level smithing because half the amount of coal is used for smelting certain bars than at a normal furnace, and iron has a 100% chance of succeeding in smelting iron ore. Many things can be smelted here, but high alchable items and/or stackable items are preferred, because they will not result in immediate banking.


 * Cannonballs are slow, and worse experience than any other steel smithing, but there is profit from them. Four cannonballs are made per steel bar, and the price of cannonballs is about 180-220 each (4 x 200 = 800 gp / bar), whereas steel bars sell for 500-600 each, and the iron and coal cost about 350 coins per bar. Cannonballs are often in high demand by those who are training Ranged and/or Slayer.


 * Selling bars on the forums - Players can make some bars and sell them on the forums. This is slower than other methods.


 * Throwing Knives and Darts - This is done by buying iron ore, using rings of forging to make them into bars (or buying iron bars), and smithing them into Iron knives to sell. A player can make money by starting from ore, and break even by starting from bars.

Magic
Many items made from smithing can have High Level Alchemy casted on them. This turns them into money. Casting high alchemy requires a magic level of 55. Such items that are recommended for high alchemy are:


 * Steel platebody
 * Mithril sword
 * Mithril platebody
 * Adamant sword
 * Adamant platebody
 * Rune sword

Players are recommended that they do not use the weaker Low Level Alchemy spell, as this spell gives players a much smaller amount of coins and experience compared to high level alchemy.

Crafting
Players can make gold bracelets for casting High Alchemy on, gold necklaces for maximum profit of selling to Grum's Gold Exchange, or gold amulets for maximizing Crafting experience. It is recommended that a player wears the Goldsmithing gauntlets while smelting the ore in order to maximize Smithing experience.

Gold necklaces
At smithing level 40 with Crafting level 6 and a necklace mould, gold necklaces can be made at the same furnace in which gold ores are smelted into gold bars. Grum's Gold Exchange in Port Sarim buys a gold necklace at 315 coins each if his stock is at zero; the price decreases 9 coins for each gold necklace he has, dropping to 45 coins at a stock of 30 or more. Selling to a general store gives only 180 coins at maximum. High alching (270 coins) using nature runes (street price 290+ coins) may be a poor value unless a player is able to runecraft natures (level 44 runecrafting and members-only).

Gold bracelets
At smithing level 40 with crafting level 7 and a bracelet mould, gold bracelets can be made at the same furnace in which gold ores are smelted into gold bars. A gold bracelet can have High Level Alchemy casted on it for 310 gold, making it the best value for high alchemy.

Gold amulets
At smithing level 40 with crafting level 8, an amulet mould, and balls of wool, gold amulets can be made. These give more crafting experience than any other gold jewelery, as well as additional crafting experience from stringing the amulet. As with gold necklaces, Grum's Gold Exchange will buy them, although for 245 coins each at zero stock.

Fletching

 * Arrows - Players can smith arrowtips and use them to make arrows. However, there is a lot of competition - it's more profitable to sell the cheaper arrows, such as iron or steel. However, they are lower experience per bar, feather, and log.

Experience per ore used
This compares how much experience is earned for the number of ores used. Gold using the members Goldsmith's gauntlets is first with 56.2 xp; iron is second with 37.5 xp.

The Keldagrim blast furnace minigame requires only half the amount of coal for steel, mithril, adamant and rune smelting, and iron ore has a 100% chance of smelting properly without the Ring of Forging.

Tips

 * It is not recommended players sell what they make to general stores, as these stores give players low prices.
 * Players should always use a furnace that is close to a bank. For free players, they should use Al-Kharid's furnace or Falador's furnace. For members, they should use Port Phasmatys furnace if they have completed the Ghosts Ahoy quest. After completion of The Fremennik Isles quest, the furnace in Neitiznot is the fastest way to smelt ore. If players have completed any part of the Varrock Diary, they can use the Edgeville furnace if they are wearing Varrock armour, which is conveniently located next to the bank. Additionally, there is a chance of smelting two bars simultaneously while using this furnace with Varrock armour on, reducing the amount of time spent at the furnace.
 * For smelting, it is recommended that players mine as many ores as they want and bank them all, not mine 28 ores, smelt them, and then smith them, unless the furnace is on the way to the bank from the mine, such as in Al Kharid, or the player is using the superheat item spell on ores.
 * For smithing, it is recommended that players smelt all of their ores and then smith their bars. This is much faster than smelting 28 ores and then smithing 28 bars.
 * For anvils, members are highly recommended to use the anvils on the Void Knight Outpost, in Yanille, or in West Varrock.
 * The dwarven city of Keldagrim is recognized as the capital of mining and smithing. Because of its large number of smithing features, it is a popular destination for players to smith, particularly in world 58. Inside Keldagrim can be found five anvils, the blast furnace, a bank, armour shops and a general store to sell smithed items to, a hammer respawn, several mines, a pickaxe shop, and the Mine cart network.

Temporary boosts

 * A Dwarven Stout will raise mining and smithing by 1. It can be bought in Falador, is a common drop from dwarves, and can be bought in several places in members areas, as well as brewed using the Cooking skill.
 * A Mature dwarven stout will raise mining and smithing by 2. You receive 2 as a reward for completing the Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf, and it can be brewed by using the Cooking skill.
 * An orange spicy stew can raise smithing temporarily by up to 6; however, it can also decrease it by up to 6.

Trivia

 * In the early days, smithing was considered one of the best skills for making money. As such, Jagex kept anvils and furnaces far away as an attempt to prevent people from leveling smithing too quickly. However, this practice has often been considered obsolete ever since banks were able to hold items.
 * In early 2001, smithing had very different requirements. For example, players needed level 96 smithing to make steel plates rather than 48.
 * On November 5, 2007, the Smith-X option was released. This allowed more than 10 items to be smithed on an anvil at a time.