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. They should be only used for crafting items, and no outcome profit is available. Buying silver ores is strongly NOT recommended.

Power levelling
Power levelling mainly uses metal bars for Smithing, raising a quick experience incurring a minimum loss of cash.

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 A list of loss per XP for individual equipment is obsolete because smithed equipments can rarely be sold properly.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 to power level smithing in free worlds, for lower level trainers currently.

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 8 iron platebodies.

Smelting other bars
Currently, smelting other bars is less efficient and doesn't yield a much higher experience compared to steel bars.

Superheating bars
This is a combination method explained here. The requirement as mentioned, is 30 mining, 30-50-70-80 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 smithing 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.

=The Universal Smithing Equations= While this equation can be used for most aspects of the game that require a ratio of items. This equation is popular among players for making bars of metal for a profit. Since the cost of certain ores and runes changes everyday(based on the GE pricing) the equation has no constants. For each aspect of the equation a numeric value must be plugged in. R1 represents the value of the amount of ore needed to make one bar of metal that you want while R2 is the amount of the other ore needed. PO1 is the maximum GE price of the ore corresponding to R1 while PO2 is the Maximum GE price of the ore corresponding to R2. BP is the minimum GE price of the bar of metal that you want to create. X is the quantity of bars that you want to make and Y is the total price of producing the bars of metal. Finally P is the profit made from smithing bars. Players are also strongly aurged to include the cost of teleportation in the equation. The Equations are as follows.

Determining the cost of smithing bars
$$(R1*PO1)*X)+(R2*PO2*X)=Y$$

Determining the Profit made from smithing bars
$$(BP*X)-Y=P$$

Now say that you want to keep some bars for making weaponry/armour but don't want to cut into your original investment
$$P/BP=(This value rounded down is the amount of bars that can be kept)$$