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.

Consider banking the ore from mining (for mining XP + magic XP if Teleporting), Superheating the ore at a bank (Smithing and Magic XP), then smithing at Varrock West Bank (Smithing XP).

Bashing things with a hammer is by the far the fastest for gaining XP. Note also for any metal you get the same XP per bar, not per item. The items that use the most bars (eg platebody) will give the most amount of XP/sec. 1 minute for 25 iron daggers, VS 15 seconds for 5 platebody. Both give 625 XP.

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. The only problem is that you have a possibility of dying, if you don't know what you're doing.

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 eastern Lumbridge mine (Formerly 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 when using superheat item (which requires 43 Magic). Superheating is not recommended as the cost is very high compared to the products, but this is rather controversial. Some arguments are in the following.

With 15 mining players can mine the iron ores in various mines, which is highly recommended (if you are also seeking to increase Mining XP). Consider however it takes a long time to mine stuff and transport it back to a bank, or maybe even direct to a furnace.

Note You may consider keeping the Iron Bars for Power Levelling Level 33.

I disagree with "Superheating is not recommended as the cost is very high compared to the products" but only in regards to Iron Ore:

Considering there is 50% chance of failure when smelting iron ore, you are going to need on average 2 Ore for every 1 Bar, and thus on average twice as many trips for every 1 Bar. So 28 Ores might = 14 Bars + some walking around....it sure ain't going to be 28 Bars though.

On the other hand....as of 13 March 2010, Iron Ore is about 235-261 and a Nature rune is about the same (223-247). So for about the same price you get a 100% success rate. 27 Ores + 27 Runes definitely = 27 Bars. Nearly same amount of money spent but less walking and more Iron Bars to sell.

Looking it from another way. If you were mining then banking, and then banking and forging/smelting, that're 2 sets of trips. Instead, you could superheat Iron Ore at the mine, and do 1 trip to the bank. Thus would not your money be better spent on runes, instead of wasting time going back and forth to the bank, and/or worse to the mine? I say Superheat, and level your magic XP by 53 per burn as well as your smithing XP.

Also the cost is about equal for Mithril, but way less than Adaminite and Runite. If you can afford these last 2, you can afford a Nature Rune.

Level 20-29
Silver bars can be smelted from silver ores, yielding 14XP. 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. also if you use the unstrung symbols.

Level 30-50
You can smelt steel bars which sell for in the Grand Exchange, yielding 17XP. Steel bars are smelted using one iron ore and two coal per bar. It is recommended you buy the coal but mine the iron ores, by doing this you can make a slightly higher profit, as Coal only costs 272gp and iron ore is about 213gp. Even if you buy all the ores, smith them, and sell them back on the Grand Exchange, you get a profit of approximately 200 coins per bar. It is recommended to buy the coal, because it takes a long time to mine. But you should mine if you can go into the mining guild (60 mining).

Note that you can only carry 28 items in your inventory. As you need 1 iron ore and 2 coal (3 in total), you can only smelt 9 bars per bank run, yielding 153 XP (18*9). Falador is recommended as the furnace is close to 2 banks.

OR you could use Superheat Item and still turn a profit and gain considerable XP/hr.

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. That's also 7,500 experience per hour.( 250x30 = 7,500 exp)

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. At Varrock West Bank it takes 35 seconds to convert 25 bars to 5 Platebodies @ 125XP. Thus 17.86XP/second. In comparison 40 Daggers takes 60 seconds for 625XP also. Recommended to use Varrock west bank (underneath the GE). Lets say another 15 seconds for the bank run, that's 1250XP/min!, or 75000XP per hour.

Since you are power levelling and got money to burn, Superheat the Iron Ore (Smithing Lvl15+) and get Smithing and Magic XP at the same time, then smith into Platebody at Lvl33. Requires Magic Lvl43+ and 1 Nature Rune for 1 Iron Ore.

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 levelling and profit is essential. While smelting steel bars can yield profit of possibly 80k in a few hours, money losing through power levelling 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 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/e where e is the experience gained by smithing a single bar.

Profit/loss for smelting and smithing bars
For a given item, let a be the number of bars required to make that item. If b is the cost of the ores required to make one bar, and c is the price of the item made, then the profit is simply c-ab. 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/(e+f) where e is the experience gained by smithing a single item and f is the experience gained by smelting a single bar.