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. The current minimum to be ranked on the hiscores in smithing is 49 smithing and experience. Smithing has two distinct parts. 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 or items, usually 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 appropriate bar. Some metals require different kinds of ore, and smelting some metals requires coal to be added to the furnace to raise the furnace's temperature.

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. The current minimum to be ranked on the hiscores in Smithing is 49 smithing and experience.

Success rate
All metals have a 100% success rate of being smelted with the exception of iron. As a balance to iron bars only requiring one ore, the smelting of iron ore using a furnace will fail approximately 50% of the time. This success rate is raised to 100% under any of 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 Main article: Smithing tables

Smithing is the process by which a player makes 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 dialogue 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.

All smithing done on an anvil requires a hammer.

Experience 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 platebody requires 5 bars and gives 62.5 experience, $$5 * 12.5 = 62.5$$ (each bronze bar smithed yields 12.5 experience). This works for all types of the standard smithable bars.

Ore and bar prices
If a player just wants to sell their bars or ores he/she gets 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, on the official forum, or at the Grand Exchange. For current prices see Grand Exchange Market Watch/Mining.

Ores
The costs of buying ores for normal furnace smelting are as follows:
 * Copper and tin ores: and  coins, respectively, for a total cost of  coins per bronze bar smelted.
 * Iron ore: coins for a cost of approximately  coins per iron bar smelted and  coins per steel bar smelted.
 * Silver ore: coins per silver bar smelted.
 * Coal: coins is the current cost per coal.
 * Gold ore: coins cost per gold bar smelted.
 * Mithril ore: coins for a total cost of  coins per mithril bar smelted.
 * Adamantite ore: coins for a total cost of 0 coins per adamant bar smelted.
 * Runite ore: coins for a total of 0 coins per runite bar smelted.

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.

Steel and the Grand Exchange
This section is a more in-depth guide for making money with a little mining and initial monetary investment by smithing steel bars with mined iron and coal bought from the Grand Exchange. Note that the amounts can be scaled smaller or larger depending on the resources available.

Requirements
The requirements for this are as follows:
 * at least 30 smithing for steel bars,
 * at least 15 mining, preferably 41 mining or higher in order to use a rune pickaxe,
 * a pickaxe, rune preferably since rune pickaxes usually mine iron ore in one strike,
 * about ,000 coins (or the amount needed to buy 200 coal at market price on the Grand Exchange), and
 * a combat level above 12 or the ability to evade a level 6 mugger while mining.

Making money
Starting with the gold coins head to the Grand Exchange near Varrock and buy 200 coal. The coins should be enough to purchase the coal at current market prices, though if not, ,000 coins should be enough to cover the cost at the current maximum exchange price. A good option is to wait until having mined the iron before offering an amount above current market price if needed.

After making an offer, store all items from inventory in the bank, equip a rune pickaxe and head to the West Varrock Mine and mine 100 iron. Ensure there is nothing in inventory so it can be filled with iron ores. This task can usually be completed within a few minutes by using Varrock's west bank for storage. Keep any surplus iron (12 if 4 full inventories were mined) for when repeating the cycle.

After mining the iron, go to Al Kharid and smelt 100 steel bars at the furnace. Once done, head back to the Grand Exchange and offer the bars up for sale. Often the bars sell immediately when offering them at market price, or they can be offered at maximum price for more profit (though there is no guarantee when they will be bought). This could leave a player with about ,000 coins (at current prices).

With this gold, buy another load of 200 coal and repeat the process. While this method won't make millions in a short time, it should be able to rack up a few hundred thousand gold and give substantial mining and smithing experience in the process. Furthermore, the whole process conveniently takes place within the Varrock/Al Kharid area, reducing the need for costly teleports. Players can make good time by banking all their items and running between cities.

Tips

 * Keep any uncut gems received from mining or random events. Uncut emeralds, rubies and diamonds are worth more than a steel bar, and take up less inventory space overall. These gems will almost always be bought immediately when offered at market price on the Grand Exchange. Selling them along with steel bars can supplement the amount of gold a player earns.
 * The West Varrock Mine is often empty on worlds with low populations.
 * When mining iron in the West Varrock Mine it is recommended that players be positioned between the two iron rocks on the west side of the mine. This allows the player to mine and fill their inventory faster.

Training
Training smithing can be done a variety of ways for both free to play players and members as well as in conjunction with training other skills. Note that the experience per ore varies.

Free to play training
Free to play players can train smithing with a variety of ores, bars, and smithed metal items.

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


 * Level 1 to 29 - Players can obtain 2 iron bars and then do The Knight's Sword quest. It gives 12,750 smithing experience, which can take a level 1 smither to level 29. Note that level 10 mining is required (or level 9 with dwarven stout).
 * Level 1 - Players can smelt bronze.
 * Level 20 - Players can smelt and sell or craft silver bars.
 * Level 30 - Players can buy Iron and Coal from the Grand Exchange, smelt them into Steel, and resell them for ~120 coins profit per bar. The experience is slow, but the money is good.
 * Level 40 - Players can smelt and sell or craft gold bars.
 * Level 48 - Players can smelt and smith steel. Players can smith steel plates and then cast high level alchemy on them.
 * Level 68 - Players can smelt and smith mithril.
 * Level 71 - Players can smith and sell adamant axes for 2,000 coins each (costs roughly 1,600 to make the bars from buying the materials).
 * Level 86 - Players can smith and sell rune axes for 7,000 coins each.

Other strategies

 * Mining ores and buying coal - Players can mine mithril or adamant ore and buy 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.

Many players offer free smithing experience to other players on the forums. They will 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.

Another strategy would be to buy the 1000 iron and 2000 coal and smelt the 1000 steel bars. Then, this can be sold for some profit and on top, players get the smithing xp.

Members' only training
Members can train smithing using different methods than non-members. However, free to play training suggestions can also be used.


 * Gold ore is very fast experience while wearing goldsmithing gauntlets from the Family Crest quest. Smelting it while wearing the goldsmithing 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 Grand Exchange. However the price of gold ore can be rather high in large quantities, because of the speed of the experience, and there is little demand for gold bars in large quantities.

Gold ore costs about 400-500 coins on the Grand Exchange. Finished gold necklaces can sell for about 300 coins at Grum's in Port Sarim. With these prices each smithing xp costs ~3 coins.


 * 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 coins / 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.


 * See the Cannonball smithing calculator for latest profit calculations using Grand Exchange Market Watch prices.


 * Selling bars on the forums - Because it does not require filling the inventory with coal, melting iron ore into iron bars and then smithing the iron bars into other iron items provides better smithing experience than other metal ores. Players can make iron bars and sell them on the forums. Because more smithing experience is gained from smithing bars into items than from smelting ore into bars, selling bars is slower at gaining experience than smithing the bars into items. Furthermore, there is a 50% chance that each iron ore will fail to be smelted if a Ring of Forging is not worn.


 * 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 almost break even by starting from bars.

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

[[Image:Crafting.gif|right]] Crafting
Players can train crafting by making gold bracelets for casting High Alchemy on, gold necklaces for profitability by selling to Grum's Gold Exchange, or gold amulets for maximizing crafting experience. It is recommended that members wear goldsmithing gauntlets while smelting gold 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 (exchange price coins) may be a poor value unless a player is able to runecraft natures (level 44 Runecrafting and members-only).

Gold bracelets
Members with a smithing level of 40 and crafting level of 7 can make gold bracelets using a bracelet mould. These can be made at the same furnace in which gold ores are smelted into bars. A gold bracelet can have High Level Alchemy cast on it for 330 gold, making it the best value for high alchemy of plain gold jewellery.

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 jewellery, 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.

[[Image:Fletching.gif|right]] Fletching
Fletching is a member's only skill in which players can 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 the cheaper arrows, such as iron or steel. However, they are lower experience per bar, feather, and log.

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

Crossbows
Players could smith crossbow limbs and through a more involved process make crossbows, however due to the extra time involved making these it is a slow method for training fletching.

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

[[Image:Magic.gif|right]] 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 all at the same time. To use this spell first mine the right combination of ore to coal (e.g., 1 mithril ore to 4 coal) then cast the spell on the ore to smelt it into a bar. Repeat as desired. This is an effective way to mine longer without the need for banking. 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 if superheating gold ore for the additional smithing experience gain.

High level alchemy


Many items made from smithing are more than worth casting high alchemy on them. This turns them into coins. Casting high alchemy requires a magic level of 55.

Some of the 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.

[[Image:Mining.gif|frame|right]] 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.

Other Uses of Smithing

 * 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 square shield.


 * 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 90 smithing, players can combine a Draconic Visage with an anti-dragon shield to get a dragonfire shield and 2000 smithing experience.

Tips
For every steel bar four cannonballs are made and a potential gain of about 100 to 200 gold each and 25.5 smithing experience points can be realised.
 * 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.
 * A potentially profitable way to train smithing is making cannonballs, provided the player has done the Dwarf Cannon quest. It is recommended to have 545,000 gold to purchase 1,000 steel bars to make the cannonballs.

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. There is also a re-spawn under White Wolf Mountain.

A Mature dwarven stout will raise mining and smithing by 2. 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 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 levelling 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.