Smithing



Smithing is a production skill in which players make a wide variety of metal items from raw ore and purified bars of metal. It is one of the more popular money making skills, with players selling bars and other smithed items for a decent profit. This works especially well if some or all of the raw materials are gathered by the player via the mining skill.

Smithing is a very slow process and players can quickly spend vast amounts of money if they are after fast levels. Purchasing a complete set of raw materials, smelting into bars, then selling them will result in a modest profit but a slow xp gain. Smithing the bars into metal items will usually result in a net loss, but will produce much more experience. Gold is a major exception, as gold bars sell for significantly less than gold ore.

Smithing has two distinct parts: Smelting and Forging.

Smelting
For a list of furnaces, see Furnace.

Smelting refers to refining a raw ore into a metal bar. It is the process of exposing mineral rich rocks to high heat and extracting the valuable metals via melting then refining them into useful alloys. After the metal is extracted from the rock, the molten extract is automatically gathered into an ingot mold in the bottom of the forge where it is refined.This is the point at which an iron bar would be lost due to impurities, and where molten copper and tin metals combined to form bronze. The resulting the bar of metal is what the player receives.

Raw ores are obtained using the Mining skill, some assorted monster drops, or purchased from other players. For a player to begin smelting metal, They must use an unnoted, raw ore on a furnace. Players can also use the forges interface to select the type of metal they wish to make, as well as using the make-x option it provides. Most Metals require completely different kinds of raw ore. Many higher level metals require vast quantity of coal. Firing a furnace with extra coal can serve up to 2 purposes. Some types of alloy, such as adamant or runite, require extreme temperatures to melt the ore, burning large amounts of coal raises the forges temperature to achieve this. The other reason is more complex, and related to the structure of the metal itself. For example, iron and steel are both created from the iron ore. Steel, however, is not simply iron which should melt at the same temperature anyway. Steel is actually a crystalline structure made from both carbon and iron, without carbon, it's just another iron bar. The carbon component comes from the coal added to the firing of the iron. In this situation the coal is not simply functioning to increase the forges overall temperature, but is actually an ingredient. The other higher types of metal may actually require both functions of coal, being an ingredient and heat source at the same time. This could easily explain the very high requirement for smelting runite.

For expediency sake when a player is smelting few ores, it is faster to choose the Smelt 5 or Smelt 10 options over the Smelt-X option, as bars will be smelted until the player runs out of ores.

Success Rate of Iron
All metals have a 100% success rate of being smelted with the exception of Iron. To balance this fact, iron bars only require a single iron ore. The smelting of iron ore will initially succeed approximately 50% of the time beginning at level 15 and slowly increasing to a maximum of an 80% success rate at level 45 onwards. However, the success rate is not absolute. A player with a 50% success rate may find that they success in making 8 out of 28 iron ores one trip, then 18 out of 28 the following trip. The 'purity' of each individual iron ore is determined on a case by case basis. The following methods raise the success rate of iron smelting to 100%: Note: The last 2 conditions are available only to members.  * 
 * 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. Using the Superheat Item spell grants the same amount of Smithing experience as smelting at a forge, and brings a few advantages:


 * The player can become a mobile forge, emerging from a mine with a full inventory of bars instead of a full inventory of ores that would have smelted into only a fraction of the same type of 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.
 * The maximum number of ores to be mined in a single trip is greatly increased.

Downside: ~The cost of the Nature runes required to this method en-mass is enough to be a serious deterrent to most players.

Smelting table
A player will need a higher Smithing level to smelt progressively higher level metals. Bars that can only be smithed by members are italicised.

Smithing
For a list of anvils, see Anvil. Main article: Smithing tables

Smithing is the process by which a player crafts various metal items from one or more individual bars of alloy. Smithing is almost always done at an anvil; certain items require special anvils at specific locations. To begin smithing, players must use a metal bar on an anvil. This generates a dialogue box within which the player selects which item to forge, and how many. 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. All anvil smithing requires a hammer.

While smithing metal items, the player will begin beating vigorously on the anvil with their hammer, sending sparks flying in several directions. Bars of metal in their inventory will vanish in varying increments, and completed metal items will appear, until the player has used all their metal bars. The animation seen is considerably shorter than a real world equivalent, when an individual could spend many hours, if not days, crafting a single item. A point of contention raised from this component of smithing amongst people with a firm grasp of reality, is that the avatar works the metal while it is cold. In the realm which most of us know as Earth, smithing is almost always done at high temperatures, with the metal on the verge of melting as it is worked. However, the 'cold-working' of metal does have specialized real world applications. Unfortunately, things crafted from metal via cold working are usually very brittle (depending on the metal), which when applied to runescape, would completely defeat the purpose of smithing an item in the first place. Who wants a steel platebody that is going to crack like an eggshell the first time something hits it? In order to get metal to dent instead of crack, it must be worked while hot, which allows the metal to recrystallize into it's new shape. Cold working simply shatters the internal crystal structure of most metals. Jagex turned a blind eye to this issue for a very long time, it was eventually referenced during the Swan Song quest. The implication of a conversation which the player has with an NPC was that the innate magic of the world of runescape bends what we would call physics in such a way that this becomes a non-issue.

Some items require several bars of metal to smith as realistically these items require a larger amount of material to construct. The item which consumes the largest amount of bars at a time is the platebody, consuming 5 bars at once. Simple items use only one bar of metal, but most armour pieces such as shields and legs consume two or three bars at once.

Smithing experience gained can be calculated 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 medium helm used one bar and gives 12.5 experience. The bronze platebody requires 5 bars, each of them gives 12.5 experience, for a total of 62.5 experience. This works for all types of the standard smithable bars, except when making cannonballs, which is members only. The 'Fabrication exp' column in the Smithing Table above lists the smithing experience per bar.

Money From Steel
Steel bars are the bars most recommended to smelt for profit. Many players who are power-leveling smithing do so by smithing steel platebodies or cannonballs. As such there is a large demand for this type of bar. The best places to sell steel items is in Falador due to the large population of specialty shops. (i.e. chainbody shop, shield shop, and battleaxe shop in Port Sarim.) Most types of completed steel items are in huge oversupply on the grand exchange, so selling Steel Armour will have a poor yield, however steel bars themselves will sell for a much higher price, considerably faster. Players can also try the official forum. For current prices see the Grand Exchange Market Watch/Mining.

Ores
The costs for of buying raw ores for basic furnace smelting are as follows:
 * Copper and tin ores are and  coins, respectively, which adds to a total cost of  coins per bronze bar smelted.
 * Iron ore: coins for a cost of  coins per iron bar smelted. 1 iron and 2 coal will cost  coins per steel bar smelted.
 * Silver ore: coins per silver bar smelted.
 * Coal: coins is the current price per coal.
 * Gold ore: coins cost per gold bar smelted.
 * Mithril ore: coins, with 4 coal, for a total cost of  coins per mithril bar smelted.
 * Adamantite ore: coins, with 6 coal, for a total cost of 0 coins per adamantite bar smelted.
 * Runite ore: coins, with 8 coal, for a total of  coins per runite bar smelted.

Yield
If one wanted to get an approximate yield from a load of metal bars (excluding iron), one could use this formula based on the amount of wealth invested.

Y = ⌊X/M⌋*B

Y = Yield

X = Invested Wealth

M = Cost of materials for 1 bar

B = Cost of 1 bar of the type you're making

Bars
All prices are based on current Grand Exchange prices contained at the Grand Exchange Market Watch/Mining page. All profit per bar figures are based on buying coal at current market price.

Training
Smithing can be trained a variety of ways for both free players and members as well as in conjunction with training other skills, such as mining, crafting, magic, or even fletching. Note that the experience per ore varies.

Free-to-play training
For a Free to Play training ,see Free-to-play Smithing training.

Free players can train Smithing with a variety of ores, bars, and smithed metal items. The options are limited to basic smelting and anvil smithing. keep in mind that the following methods are tailored to free players. Members may have other options. Following are some methods to train:

By level
Here are recommended methods that a free player can use to raise their Smithing level.


 * Level 1 to 29 - Players obtain 2 iron bars and then do The Knight's Sword quest. The quest reward includes 12,750 Smithing experience, which can take player with level 1 smithing directly to level 29. Note that level 10 Mining is required (or level 9 with dwarven stout stat boost.)
 * Level 1 - Players can smelt bronze bars.
 * Level 15 - Players can smelt iron bars.
 * Level 20 - Players can smelt and sell or craft silver bars.
 * Level 30 - Players can buy iron ore and coal from the Grand Exchange, smelt them into Steel, and resell them.
 * Level 33 - Players can begin to smith iron platebodies. Making iron platebodies out of iron bars is the most fiscally efficient way to power-level Smithing until level 88, considering losing money in a ratio of 8 coins to 1 experience currently.
 * Level 40 - Players can smelt and sell or craft gold bars.
 * Level 48 - Players can smith Steel platebodies and then cast high level alchemy on them. Or use an explorer's ring 2 or 3 and low alchemy them for no profit loss.
 * Level 50 - Players can smelt and smith mithril. To level up more quickly, some players buy the ore, coal, and nature runes to superheat this ore and sell the bars while standing at the Grand Exchange. Currently the net return per bar from doing this is coins. Another way to level Mining quickly while training Smithing is mining the coal and buying the mithril ore and nature runes to superheat. Currently the net return per bar from doing this is  coins. Mining half the coal and buying the other half, the mithril ore, and the nature runes results in a net return of  coins per bar.
 * Level 70 - Players can smelt or superheat adamantite bars and come close to breaking even (depending on the current Grand Exchange prices). Currently the net return per bar from doing this is coins.
 * Level 71 - Players can smith and sell adamant hatchets for coins each.
 * Level 74 - Players can smith adamant swords and then high alch them for 1248 coins. A player with enough mining and magic level can buy adamant ore and then mine coal and superheat them and then sell only 20% of the bars and smith the remaining into adamant swords then high alch them. this will guarantee no loss or profit and highest experience possible for that. The 20 % tends to fluctuate over time, so recalculate it.
 * Level 85 - Players can smelt runite bars and sell them for coins each. To level up more quickly, some players buy the ore, coal, and runes to superheat this ore and sell the bars while standing at the Grand Exchange. Currently the net return per bar from doing this is  coins.
 * Level 86 - Players can smith and sell rune hatchets for coins each.
 * Level 88 - Players can smith and sell adamant platebody for coins each. They are an efficient way to power-level Smithing, considering that they give about 175k exp an hour and cost roughly 17 coins per 1 experience. Adamant plates also have a relatively low cost per alch as well, so they can either be alched or sold on the Grand exchange relatively quickly.
 * Level 90 - Players can smith and sell rune scimitar for coins each.

Other strategies

 * Buy all coal and iron - Players can then travel to Al Kharid which has a furnace located close to the bank and from there they can carry 9 iron and 18 coal to make steel bars. With this method, players can make roughly 500k per hour once they are good at it. This requires an easily obtainable level 30 smithing skill. For free-to-play members this can be one of the most profitable options next to cutting yews.


 * Mining ores and buying coal - Players can mine mithril or adamant ore, buy the required coal, smelt into bars, smith into platebodies and high-alch them. High levels are necessary for this in Mining, Magic, and Smithing. Making Mithril and Adamant platebodies can make a profit from this method, for example: Mithril platebody profit: coins.


 * 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.


 * Many players offer free smithing experience to other players on the forums. They will usually trade 1000 iron and 2000 coal for 1000 steel bars as they do not have the time to do it themselves. Some people on the forums give prizes to players that help them in this way. However, this actually causes the players to lose money because the bars are worth more than the ores, therefore, this tactic is rendered obsolete, but can still be used for those who aren't planning on training Smithing and wish to be generous.


 * A cheap but effective way to get both Smithing and Magic experience requires at least level 43 magic and 50 smithing. Buy/mine 1 mithril/adamantite/runite ore, 4/6/8 coal and 1 nature rune for each bar that you plan to make, and then bank them. Equip a fire staff and withdraw 6 mithril ore/9 adamantite ore/11 runite ore, then withdraw the remaining coal. Position one of the ores so that it lies underneath of where the superheat ore button would be. Cast the superheat spell to make the bars. Whenever you run out of coal/ores to superheat, always withdraw coal first before depositing your bars. Sell the bars to the Grand Exchange. This method usually has a small return profit for every thousand or so bars that you make, but this is still beneficial, as you are receiving much XP in many unique skills!

Training for members
For a Pay to Play training ,see Pay-to-play Smithing training.

Training With Other Skills
Many players opt to train additional skills in conjunction with smithing training including skills such as crafting, fletching, magic, and mining.

Crafting
For non-members, incorporating smithing into crafting will lengthen the process of training smithing, but may make crafting much cheaper. Silver or gold are the only metals related to crafting. Money driven players will not be interested in this method, as selling the gold and silver bars will usually be more profitable. This method will generate cheap crafting experience, but very little smithing experience. As such, it is not recommended that players should train smithing this way without goldsmithing gauntlets. For tips on what you should use your silver bars on, please refer to the Crafting skill page.

For members, since smelting gold ores can be done with goldsmithing gauntlets which increases the experience gained per ore, its use is much more effective, and creation of Jewellery can be a great way to counterbalance the lost opportunity costs from Mining their ores, or the costs that a player may have paid in exchange for their ores. Making sapphire and emerald bracelets can yield good experience, at 40 for each sapphire bracelet, and 60 for each emerald bracelet, and further be used in High Level Alchemy to increase the amount of experience gain even further. Though depending on if players buy, or mine their own gems, it may be more cost effective to create basic bracelets or other jewellery.

Additionally, with the introduction of the Rogue Jewellery trader, players can craft sapphire, emerald or ruby necklaces instead, and increase profit by as much as 150 coins over making bracelets. This method requires completion of Spirit of Summer and Summer's End. The prices may also vary, as the Rogue Jeweller will pay the Grand Exchange minimum price of the piece of jewellery being offered.

Fletching
Fletching is a skill that (only) members can use to make arrows, bolts, crossbows, or darts for Fletching experience. Note that there is a high level of market competition for all of these commodities, other than crossbows.

Arrows
Players can smith arrowtips and use them to make arrows. Due to high competition, it is more profitable to sell such arrows as iron or steel. However, they provide fewer experience points per bar, feather, and log. Players can also smith nails and use them to make brutal arrows.

Bolts
Members can also smith unfinished bolts which combined with feathers can be made into finished, usable bolts, which can have gem-tips added.

Crossbows
Players can smith crossbow limbs, which can be made into crossbows; however, due to the extra time involved making these, it is a slow method for training Fletching.

Darts
After completing The Tourist Trap quest, members can smith unfinished darts which combined with feathers can be made into finished darts.

Construction
Metal bar and nails are used in Construction for various objects. Nail are only used in furniture that use normal planks. The better the metal of the nail the less of a chance of it not bending and needing another nail.

Magic
Players can train Magic using the Superheat Item and High Level Alchemy spells.
 * Superheat item

Using the Superheat Item spell is a very effective way to simultaneously train Mining, Magic, and Smithing at the same time. To begin, bring a large amount of nature runes and a pickaxe in your inventory while wielding a variant of the fire staff. Mining iron ore and then superheating it into an iron bar now returns a profit! For higher metals, mine enough of the ore that you only have enough space left in your inventory for the right amount of coal. For example, if you were to superheat mithril, you would mine 22 mithril ore, which leaves just enough room for 4 coal, then you can then proceed to superheat into a mithril bar. After superheating, you can now mine another 4 coal and repeat the process until all 22 mithril ores are smelted. This is an effective way to mine longer without the need for banking, however, if the player gets a gem, the entire process will be thrown off, so they may want to keep 1 or 2 extra inventory slots open. The Superheat Item spell requires a Magic level of 43.

Superheating can also be done at a bank if the player wishes not to train the Mining skill. It is recommended that members wear goldsmithing gauntlets any time they are smelting gold ore for the additional Smithing experience gain.


 * High level alchemy



See also: Alchemy Guide

Many items made from smithing are more than worth casting high alchemy on them. Since this turns them directly into coins, the player will literally -make- money. Casting high alchemy requires a Magic level of 55.

Some items recommended for high alchemy include:


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


 * Players are recommended not to use the weaker Low Level Alchemy spell, as this spell gives a much smaller amount of experience and coins compared to High Level Alchemy.

Additionally, some items in the crafting section above can be high alched for profit.

Mining

 * See the section on superheat item in the magic section above.

Experience per ore
This compares how much experience is earned for the number of ores used. Gold using the members-only goldsmithing gauntlets is first with 56.2 experience per ore; iron is second with 37.5 experience per ore (using either the blast furnace or a ring of forging. The Keldagrim blast furnace minigame requires only half the amount of coal for steel, mithril, adamant and rune smelting. Additionally smelting iron ore at the blast furnace gives a 100% smelting success rate without requiring a ring of forging.

For non-members the best experience per ore is gold with 22.5 experience followed by iron with approximately 18.8 experience and steel with 18.3 experience per ore.

Note: *Members can smith gold bars into two quest items at 30 xp per bar, however this in not an effective way to train as the items may fail and only one is allowed which requires the player to continually drop the items after smithing each item singly.

An additional factor which is often overlooked is the time taken to gain experience. In this regard both iron ore and gold ore excel.

Experience per bar
For those that plan on gaining experience by making a lot of money to then buy lots of ores or bars, this shows the most cost effective way either to smelt the ore and smith the bar, or just smith the bar

Other uses of Smithing

 * At levels 20, 40, 60 and 80 Smithing, players can make certain items in Stealing Creation.
 * At level 60 Smithing, players can combine a shield left half (a rare drop from many monsters) and a shield right half (obtained from the shop at the Legends' Guild) to get a Dragon sq shield.
 * At level 70 Smithing, players can use one of the beacons in the All Fired Up minigame.
 * At level 80 Smithing, players can combine the 3 godsword shards (obtained from the god wars dungeon) into the Godsword blade, and then add one of the four hilts to make a godsword.
 * At level 85 Smithing, players can combine any type of sigil with a blessed spirit shield if they also have level 90 Prayer.
 * At level 90 Smithing, players can combine a Draconic Visage with an anti-dragon shield to get a dragonfire shield and 2,000 Smithing experience.
 * At level 92 Smithing, players can combine a Ruined dragon armour lump with an Ruined dragon armour shard and a Ruined dragon armour slice to get a Dragon platebody, using a Blast fusion hammer.

Tips



 * Selling to general stores will almost always result in a much greater loss of coins than selling in the GE.
 * Players should always use a furnace that is close to a bank. Free players should use either the furnace in Al-Kharid or the furnace in Falador. Members 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 recognised 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, there are five anvils, the Blast Furnace, a bank, armour shops, several mines, a pickaxe shop, and the Mine cart network.
 * A potentially profitable way to train smithing is making cannonballs, provided the player has done the Dwarf Cannon quest. For every steel bar four cannonballs (0 each) are made and a potential gain of about 0 coins per bar and 25.5 smithing experience points can be realised.
 * A quick way to mine the ores and make steel bars is to wield a fire staff and carry 24 nature runes and pickaxe (rune or the Inferno Adze is suggested). Go to the Varrock mine and mine 24 iron. Head to the Barbarian Village and mine 2 coal (filling up your inventory) cast superheat and continue mining and casting superheat then selling the bars and buy more runes. If you keep the bars only sell 9 bars to buy the nature runes and gain 200 coins of change.

Temporary boosts

 * A Dwarven stout will raise Mining and Smithing by 1 level. It can be bought in Falador; it is a common drop from dwarves; and it can be bought in several places in members-only areas, as well as brewed using the Cooking skill. There is also a respawn under White Wolf Mountain.


 * A Mature dwarven stout will raise Mining and Smithing by 2 levels. Two are received as a reward for completing the Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf quest, and it can sometimes be brewed using the Cooking skill. Using "the stuff" increases the chance of brewing a mature ale.


 * An orange Spicy stew can temporarily raise Smithing 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 from each other as an attempt to prevent people from levelling Smithing too quickly. However, this practice has often been considered obsolete ever since banks were able to hold items. Also, this can be done in Falador if you smelt it in the furnace and then take it to Doric's house to forge it into a weapon. To do this a player needs to have completed Doric's Quest.
 * In early 2001, Smithing had very different requirements. For example, players needed level 96 Smithing to make steel platebodies rather than level 48.
 * After the release of RuneScape 2 through around 2006, if you opened up the Smithing guide from your skill tab it would display a "Black" section where it appeared that you could make Black items, though it was never possible.
 * On 5 November 2007, the Smith-X option was released. This allowed more than 10 items to be forged on an anvil at a time.
 * By using the QuickChat feature, it is possible to say such nonsensical and outlandish things as "I am smithing: gold cannonballs" or "I am smithing: blurite bullseye lantern frames."
 * In one Q&A session, it was said that Dragon ore may be released. It is unknown if this will be able to have any use, considering Rune platebodies require 99 Smithing, the maximum level for Smithing, which leaves dragon items to only one level requirement: level 99 Smithing. It is entirely possible that, like the dungeoneering skill, the cap will be raised to level 120.
 * Smithing is one of only 5 skills where getting 99 means you can do more than buy the skillcape. (The other four being Construction, Runecrafting, Dungeoneering and Summoning.)
 * There are only 3 people who have 200,000,000xp in Smithing with one player roughly 10,000,000xp away.



Update
Mod Mark has stated that there will be future updates in Smithing.

Note: The mining update Mod Mark was talking about may be the Dragon pickaxe. It could also have been the Living Rock Caverns. It could also be the addition of the Dungeoneering skill where both Mining and Smithing can play a very big role.


 * There is a glitch that if you click on a bar while smithing and it is used up that when you refill your bag the exact same bar will still be highlighted and you can highlight another bar making 2 highlighted bars.