Smithing

Smithing is a production skill through which players may create a wide variety of metal items from ore and metal bars. It is the companion skill of Mining, which generates all of the raw materials used in Smithing. Ores acquired from Mining are smelted into metal bars at furnaces, and then hammered into items at anvils. Many smithable items are useful in combat, quests, and the training of a number of other skills such as Crafting and Fletching.

Members-only items on this page are written in italics.

Smelting
Smelting is the process of extracting a metal bar from a metal ore. Ore 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. 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.

Smelting can be done in one of two ways. The first is to use one of the required ores for a bar on the furnace. Other required ores will automatically be added to the furnace from the player's inventory. The other way is to click on the furnace, right-click on the desired bar to smelt, click on "Smelt X", and then type in the number of bars to smelt. The second method is faster for bulk smelting.

When smelting just a few ores, 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.

Smelting using Magic
With level 43 Magic, players can smelt bars using the Superheat Item spell. Doing so grants the same amount of Smithing experience as smelting using a furnace, 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.

Success rate
All metals have a 100% success rate with the exception of iron ore. The chance of a successful forging of iron is 50% at level 15 Smithing, the minimum level for smelting iron ores, and increases incrementally as Smithing levels rise until it reaches an 80% chance of success at 45 Smithing, its highest. A failed smelting attempt results in the loss of the iron ore. The success rate of smelting iron increases to 100% under the following conditions:
 * 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 minigame.

Smithing
Smithing is the process by which players craft a metal item out of one or more metal bars.

Smithing is always done at an anvil. 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.
 * Note: Once a player has selected a quantity of items to smith, the player's character will only cease smithing once the quantity is filled, the player has run out of bars, or the player is attacked.

For players attempting to raise their Smithing level, it is recommended that players first have a large number of bars in their bank, thus allowing fast experience as only trips between a bank and an anvil are needed.

Different Smithing levels are required to make different items. For the required levels for all items, see Smithing table.

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

If you are wondering about how to find experience, take experience for 1 bar and multiply it by the number of bars you're using. For example, a bronze platebody is 62.5 experience using 5 bars. 1 bar is 12.5 exp, so go 5 * 12.5 = 62.5. Works for all types, from bronze to runite.

Tips

 * The closest furnaces to a bank are the Edgeville furnace and the Port Phasmatys, Neitiznot furnace, and Al Kharid's or Falador's furnace for free players.
 * It is often more efficient to break up the tasks of mining, smelting (unless superheating), and smithing, rather than trying to mine 28 ores, smelt them, and then smith them (although in Al Kharid the furnace is on the way to the bank).
 * The anvils located nearest a bank on the Void Knights' Outpost, Yanille (just south of the bank), and Varrock (just south of the west bank). To reach the Void Knights' Outpost island, talk to the squire south of the Port Sarim dock. There are multiple anvils on this island, located 10 or so seconds (walking) from the bank - this is extremely quick, if smithing bars into weapons, armour, etc.

Making money
If a player's Magic level is 55 and their smithing level is 48, then they can make a great amount of money, but only if they mine the ores themselves.

Using the High Level Alchemy spell (also known as "high alching"), a player can make a great profit. When a player high alchs a steel platebody, they receive 1,200 coins. So if a player has 100 steel platebodies, and they have enough runes to high alch them, then they've just made 120,000 coins. The only con is that high alching can be slow and boring, and the player has to have enough runes to cast the spell.

Players have the option to either cast high alchemy on the items they made with smithing, to sell them to general store/specialty store, or to sell them on the Grand Exchange for a slightly lower profit. High alchemy is probably your best option. But if you don't care about magic experience and if the relative price of nature runes is too high for you (for the items you want to get rid off), you could decide to sell your items. It is not recommended to sell your items to most general stores —since they usually buy at low alchemy value— but there are however a few good stores you can use. The Jiminua's Jungle Store north of Tai Bwo Wannai village on Karamja with the karamja gloves 3/4 is the one that is highly recommended, because they buy for way above even the high alch value. (1.75x the low alch value, to be exact). There are some other general stores that buy at high alch value, such as the general store run by Martin Thwait in the Rogue's den (Martin Thwait's Lost and Found), the West Ardougne General Store, and the Bandit duty free in the Bandit camp in the Wilderness (although this one is NOT recommended due to its dangerous location). Keep in mind that the buy price at general stores decreases rapidly the more items it has in stock, so it's recommended to hop around frequently if you decide to sell your items.

Generally, the best things to use high-alchemy on are either swords or platebodies - these items yield the most coins per bar (the exception is rune). There is a full High Level Alchemy table below.

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

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

The Keldagrim Blast Furnace minigame requires only half the number of coal for steel, mithril, adamantite and runite smelting and iron smelts 100% without the ring of forging.

High Level Alchemy table
The items listed below are the ones most players use in High Level Alchemy.

Temporary boosts

 * A Dwarven stout will raise Mining and Smithing by 1. It 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... quest, and it can be brewed by using the Cooking skill.
 * A spicy stew can (possibly) boost Smithing by 1-5 depending on how many orange doses have been used on the stew.

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 the 26th of July 2001, when banks were updated able to hold items instead of just coins.
 * In early 2001, Smithing had very different requirements. For example, players needed level 96 smithing to make steel platebodies rather than 48.