OSRS RuneScape Help
RuneScape Community Forums
Skill Guides
Quest Guides
City Guides
Guild Guides
Mini Game Guides
Treasure Trail Help
Miscellaneous Guides
Dungeon Maps
Mining Maps
Items Database
Monsters Database
Shops Database
Tome/Books Database
Skill Calculators
Coordinate Locator
Zchat Clan Chat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Table of Contents
1.0 - Introduction
Smithing is the art of turning metal bars into armour or weapons. It is a free to play skill so that means that everyone that plays RuneScape can do it. As you gain a higher smithing level, you are able to make higher-level armour and weaponry. If you achieve a high smithing level you may never have to buy armour again. You can also make good money from having a high smithing level. You can even make a profit from a relatively low smithing level. This guide will teach you all of the different methods of smithing and what are the best to smith at each level. It will show you what the fastest smithing experience is and what is the cheapest. It will also tell you how to make money from smithing and it will compare all the different available materials and help you decide what the best for you to use is. 2.0 - Basics of Smithing
To start smithing, you will obviously need some metal ore to work with. The best way to obtain these ores is through mining rocks around RuneScape. For more information, visit the Mining skill guide. Another way to get ores is though buying them from other players. Keep in mind though that this can become very expensive. You can also buy ores and bars from the shop in the Dwarven Mines. There are two parts to smithing. The first part is turning the ores into metal bars and the second art being turning the bars into metal creations. 2.1 - Smelting
To get a bar you need to smelt ores together in furnaces, which are marked by the There are many furnaces located all over RuneScape. Below is only a list of the popular furnace locations; however you can discover more on the RuneScape world map.
Below is a table of the all the bars that players can make. Note that Blurite bars and elemental bars are untradable.
2.2 - Smithing
Now to turn your bars into useable armour or weapons you'll need a hammer which can be bought from all general stores. When you have your metal bars and a hammer, find an anvil, which is indicated by the 
Below is a list of the popular anvil locations around RuneScape. Varrock is by far the best location.
3.0 - Smithing Tables
3.1 - Regular Items
Below is a table of the regular items that can be made and the types of metals they can be made in. Please note that dart tips, arrow heads, throwing knives, and claws are for members only. You will also need to complete the Death Plateau quest to smith Claws and the The Tourist Trap quest to make dart tips.
3.2 - Barbarian Items
Speak to Otto about the barbarian spears. He will ask you to grab a metal bar and log type of the same level, (for instance steel bar for willow logs, bronze bar for normal logs), and use them with the special anvil outside his house. Remember to take a hammer with you. You will make a spear by doing this, speak to Otto again and then ask about the one-handed spears or, Hastas. Otto will only educate you on how to manufacture hastas if you have completed Tai Bwo Wannai Trio quest. To make a hasta gather the same resources you used to make a spear, then when you use the bar with the barbarian anvil and select the hasta.
3.3 - Miscellaneous Items
Below is a list of all the items that can only be made out of certain metals. All of these items happen to be for members only.
*Add a glass lens to make into a regular bullseye lantern, or use a cut Sapphire on it to make a Sapphire lantern. 4.0 - Training Tips
Introduction: Smithing is one of the proudest skills in the game as it was one of the first surefire ways to become rich in Runescape Classic. A high levelled smither is a valuable resource to tap. Skilled smithers are desired by clans to equip their members for wars. A skilled smither who could make high end runite armour was guaranteed a never-ending supply of buyers. Nowadays the title of Smither has been replaced with Fletcher, Ranger and Runecrafter. There are many other skills in the game which can supply a player with faster means of gaining money. But to say that you are a high level Smither is something which will label you with respect. The purpose of these strategies is to educate the reader on the most effective methods of gaining levels in Smithing quickly and painlessly. You will have to do a lot of work to get high levels in Smithing, but this guide will provide you the means to train Smithing and still have plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the game. This guide will also provide you with the means to profit as much as possible while training this skill. It is pointless to train Smithing unless you are willing to spend a large amount of money to purchase your ores and bars. 4.1 - Preparing yourself
Smithing and Mining go hand in hand much like Fishing and Cooking and Woodcutting and Fletching (or Firemaking). Usually, a player will have their Mining and Smithing skills very close to each other. If you wish to become a high levelled smith, you should possess the ability to at least mine coal. For maximum profit, you should train your Mining up to 85 so you can mine runite ore. There are other skills that you should consider training to make yourself as proficient as possible. They are: Attack: 40 - Being able to wield a rune pickaxe will allow you to mine one additional ore per load. While one space lost may not amount to much, it will become useful once you are able to mine high-tier ores. Magic: 55 - High Alchemy is possibly the most important spell to possess for a smith, especially for free players. The cost of a nature rune is a small price to pay for the opportunity to make money quickly from smithed items. Superheat is also a great spell for smiths because it can be used while mining to train that skill and smelt your ores into bars at the same time. Mining: 60 - As explained in Magic, being able to smelt your ores into bars while mining is a valuable trait to possess. Therefore, access to the Mining Guild is essential for smiths who are still managing their finances. This is not a critical skill to possess but it is generally helpful when funds are tight. A miner can just buy mithril ores and mine the needed coal through superheat mining. Runecrafting: 44 (Members only) - Since nature runes are needed for both Superheat and High Alchemy, being able to craft your own nature runes is vital. Again, this is not a critical skill. A wise player will use nature runes intelligently to high alch the right items to maintain a profit. But it is good to possess the skill should nature runes be needed at a moment's notice. Decent combat level: At least 60 in all combat skills - A wise smith will use all advantages the game has to offer to increase one's Smithing level. Quests are the keys to unlock many of the doors in the game. If you lack the combat skill to defeat an enemy in a quest, these doors will remain latched until it is trained up. Sufficient levels in at least one good moneymaking skill - Profiting on Smithing at low levels is nearly impossible if you are a free player. Bronze and iron equipment is nearly worthless. Trying to sell an iron warhammer in Varrock will simply make you the target of ridicule. In fact, you will not see significant profit until you are able to smith adamantite items or don't mind smelting large numbers of steel bars. If you want to train Smithing, you should be able to supplement your income with proficiency with another skill. For free players, mining would be the best skill to train. Iron ores can be mined quickly at lower levels with a rune pickaxe and they sell quite well in bulk. These are the quests you should complete as soon as possible to help your Smithing: The Knight's Sword: This quest is absolutely vital for all smiths as it gives the largest Smithing experience award in the game. At low levels, the 12,725 experience points will skyrocket a player's Smithing skill. It should be completed as quickly as possible, preferably at a very low Smithing level. Doric's Quest: Although this quest doesn't give you Smithing experience as a reward, it's still helpful for free players since it allows the player access to a nearby anvil from Falador. Ghosts Ahoy (Members): Port Phasmatys is well known in smith circles as it is the closest furnace to a bank in the game. The closing doors are only a mild inconvenience. Please be aware that completion of the Priest in Peril quest is required. Completion of the The Restless Ghost quest is not required but wearing a Ghostspeak amulet is needed to complete this quest. It is also needed while smelting to save a little time each time you use the bank. Other quests in the game which provides you with Smithing experience are Between a Rock..., Elemental Workshop, The Giant Dwarf, and Recipe for Disaster. Finally, you must understand that Smithing is not an easily levelled skill. It takes dedication, devotion and patience to become a high levelled smith. The most important thing to remember with Smithing is to not allow it to become your overwhelming desire. This will only lead to frustration as you run out of coal and stop your Smithing training to mine more up. Train a little each day and then stop. Don't allow Smithing to remove your social life or to cause you to ignore opportunities to enjoy yourself. Runescape is a game and it is meant to entertain you. If you think of Smithing as a chore, it will become one. Relax, take your time and don't rush it. The reason why so many people do not actively train this skill is because they get burnt out quickly. 4.2 - Bronze Smithing
As a level one smith, your only option to gain levels without completing quests is through smelting and smithing bronze bars. Fortunately, you can easily train yourself to level 20 in a rather short period of time. You only require 2,411 experience to get to level 15 and this is equal to 126 bronze bars smelted and smithed. Gaining money from bronze is nearly impossible as this metal is commonly dismissed as worthless. Primary purpose of bronze: Getting to the point where you are not smelting or smithing bronze.
Free player strategy
Your best option to train this skill is to mine your own copper and tin ores from the mine south-east of Varrock. Be certain you use a pickaxe that you can actually wield as you will be mining fourteen copper ores and fourteen tin ores per run. Once you have a full load, simply return to Varrock and bank your ores in the eastern bank. You will need to continue doing this until you have 126 of both copper and tin ores. Every so often, you may always walk over to the General Store in the middle of Varrock to see if there are any copper or tin ores in stock. If so, purchase them. Most players will be glad that you are buying these ores so you can make for them to sell something more valuable to the shop. If you have the money, feel free to purchase iron, coal or higher quality ores if they are available. Buying ores from the General store will ALWAYS be cheaper than purchasing from another player. If there is a large number of these ores, do not hesitate to run back and forth to the bank to purchase another load. Once you have reached 126 number of copper and tin ores, you will need to travel to Al-Kharid. There are three furnaces available in the game for free players: Lumbridge, Falador and Al-Kharid. The furnace in Lumbridge should NEVER be used unless you happen to have ores in your inventory while walking by it. The furnace in Falador is popular because it is close to the Mining Guild and a popular merchanting hub for purchasing coal and ores. However, Al-Kharid will be your best location for smelting as it is the closest furnace to a bank for free players. Once you arrive, withdraw fourteen copper and fourteen tin ores from the bank and head to the furnace. Once there, smelt your ores into bars and return to the bank for another load. Continue doing this until all of your ores are smelted into bars. At this point you have a choice. If you want to gain smithing levels quickly but lose an opportunity to make some money, you can begin smithing your bronze bars into items in Varrock. Do not expect anyone to purchase your bronze armour and weapons. Your best bet is to smith the highest quality item you can make at your current Smithing level. Bank all the items you make. When you gain a Smithing level, stop making the item you were making and begin smithing the new item you earned with your advancement. Once all of your bars are smithed, withdraw all the items you made in notes and sell these items to your nearest General store. If you don't mind the walk, you can always sell the items to the "specialty" store for that specific type of armour or weapon. If you are more interested in making money, your best option is to continue mining or collecting copper and tin ore and continue smelting bronze bars. You will still gain levels quickly if you have a low Smithing level. Once you have a large quantity of bronze bars, you can sell them for an average of 50gp each. If you make a very large amount of bronze bars (in the thousands), you can ask for up to 100gp each. Yes, this is a more time-consuming way to train Smithing. But smelting is steady and consistent experience. You will discover this once you begin smelting steel. Use the money you gain from selling the bronze bars wisely. If you are using another skill to also, bring in money, use the money to bolster that skill (runite axe for woodcutting, better armour and weapons for combat, etc). Otherwise, spend the majority of this money to purchase iron ore from other players and few rubies (cut or uncut). Optimal Smithing Item: None. As stated previously, bronze items are complete rubbish. They have nearly no value in the open market. Even bronze plate mail is not expensive enough to use High Alchemy on. It would be a waste of a nature rune. Simply sell your bronze items to a store to make a little income from your work. Member strategy
Members will always have it easier than free players, as there are multitudes of different ways to make money quickly. One of the fastest ways to make money is to kill normal men and women. Along with the herbs that they occasionally drop, they will also drop level one clue scrolls. They are typically easy to complete requiring only a few teleport runes and sometimes a spade to complete. Just one piece of trimmed wizard robes or ranger leathers will give you enough money to purchase all the bronze bars you will need. You will not even have to touch a pickaxe in order to get yourself to level 15 Smithing. All you will need to do is travel to Shantay Pass or Shilo Village and purchase the ten bronze bars in stock in Shantay's shop and the General Store, respectively. While the bank chest is closer at Shantay Pass, Shilo Village is recommended as other people tend to purchase bronze bars at the Pass. Once you purchase all ten bronze bars in stock, bank the bars and server-hop to the next world and repeat. It will take roughly a minute to log in, purchase, bank, run back and log out to change servers. It will take roughly 10-20 minutes to collect the 126 bronze bars needed to reach level 15. Once you have the required number of bronze bars, simply smith your bars until you are able to smith arrowheads. Continue making arrowheads exclusively; do not smith two, three or five bronze bars items. Also, do not smith bronze knives. They are not as profitable as iron knives. Finally, try to complete The Knight's Sword, Priest in Peril and Ghosts Ahoy as quickly as possible. Optimal Smithing Item: Bronze arrowheads - even with the variety of extra items available for member smiths, bronze is mostly an unimportant item in the open market. The only item which is remotely marketable is bronze arrows. Please note that you will lose money or break even if you purchase headless arrows to make bronze arrows. If you collect your own feathers and chop your own wood, the money you will gain from selling bronze arrows will not be worth your time. You should just work on getting out of bronze as quickly as possible. 4.3 - Iron Smithing
If one plays their cards right and works on gathering buyers and sellers, this is where you will begin making a nice amount of money. It still requires a lot of work to train up your Smithing. But the money you will gain from these levels will form the foundation upon which all your future levels are financed. Primary purpose of iron: Power training smithing experience towards steel, making money.
Free player strategy
The first and most important thing you must realize is that you should never, under any circumstances, attempt to smelt a single iron ore. Iron ore is money and when you fail a smelting attempt to make an iron ore, you are throwing away money. In order to get to the point where you can smelt steel bars you will need to smelt yourself 877 iron bars. You should use this time to train your Mining and collect yourself several thousand iron ores as well. In the process of mining, you should sometimes receive rubies. Never sell these gemstones. You should always store them in your bank also. They are essential for free players as they are needed to get your iron bars. Once you have a sizable number of iron ore and a few rubies (with some gold ore and cosmic runes thrown in to be on the safe side), search through the official forums or Runescape Community and locate a kind member who will trade you iron bars in exchange for the ore and materials to make Ruby rings of Forging. Remember, these items will allow a member to smelt up to 140 iron bars per ring. If you find a member who is willing to do this for you, treat them like gold. Do not pester these iron smelters. Use the iron bars you receive and sell them for 150-200gp each in the market and use the money to purchase more iron ore and rubies. It would be wise to collect a few member smelters so you are constantly exchanging ores and rubies for bars. Once you have reached a healthy amount of iron ore and money, do one final trade and use the iron bars to reach the point where you can begin smelting steel bars. Alternatively, you may forego finding a member iron smelter and simply sell the iron ore for 100gp each. Always try to sell them in bulk and then use the money to purchase the 438 iron bars needed to reach steel smelting. If you have any extra iron bars left over, you may always sell them for some money. Use whatever money you gained to purchase at least 2,000 coal. Optimal Smithing Item: Iron plates - As with bronze, there is very little interest for iron weapons and armour in the open market. Your best bet is to simply toss iron items into your nearest General Store or "specialty" shop. If you have the ability to cast High Alchemy, you can cast this spell on iron plates for a small profit. The majority of your income will come from mining iron ore, not through smithed items. Member Strategy
Members will only require a small number of iron ore compared to free players to reach the point where they can smelt steel. Generally, 1,000 iron ore should be sufficient. You should try to collect at least 1,400 iron ore though as Rings of Forging work in multiples of 140. Collecting rubies will require a little more work but you have additional options that free players do not:
Once you have 1,400 iron ore and 10 Rings of Forging, go to either Al-Kharid or Port Phasmatys (the latter preferably) and begin smelting all of your iron ore into bars. This will give you exactly 17,500 experience points and it will take a little less than two hours to complete. Continue to smelt iron bars until you reach the point where you can smelt steel bars. You may always continue to smelt iron bars if you wish and this is recommended. Optimal Smithing Item: Iron Knives - Iron bars can be smithed into iron knives and if you sell iron knives in bulk, you can make up to 40gp per knife. This is 100gp per iron ore in profit if you bought the iron ore for 100gp each. Smelting iron ore and smithing the bars into knives will train your Smithing level very steadily at lower levels and bring in a nice bit of change. 4.4 - Steel Smithing
Steel is the metal which will bolster the amount of money you have in your bank. It is also useful for leveling your Smithing levels quickly and efficiently. But it will train your levels through smelting, not smithing. You will find that mithril and adamantite bars are much better smithing experience than steel bars. The only purpose of steel bars is to sell them on the open market. You should not be making any steel plates if you are a member. It requires a large amount of work and patience when it comes to smelting the coal and iron ores. It is highly recommended that once you reach this point you have at least 2,000 iron ores and 4,000 coal in your bank. Primary purpose of steel: Power training Smithing experience towards mithril, making money.
Free Player Strategy
Your best option for gaining Smithing levels is to smelt steel bars exclusively. As with bronze and all future smelting work, you should smelt your bars at the furnace in Al-Kharid . When you arrive in the bank, simply withdraw 18 coal and 9 iron ore and walk to the furnace. After you are completed with the smelting, run back to the bank (because the weight of the bars is less than all the ores). In order to smelt 1,000 steel bars, you will need to complete 112 round trips from the bank to the furnace and back. The entire process should take roughly one minute per load or between 90 to 120 minutes to complete. You will gain 17,500 experience points for every 1,000 steel bars you make. Member Strategy
If you are a member, you should smelt all the bars in Port Phasmatys (completion of Ghosts Ahoy highly recommended) with 'run' turned on all the time, then smelt them into Cannon balls, which can be highly profitable, selling at 200gp each (that's 800gp per bar basically). 1,000 steel bars should take you slightly over one hour to complete. At lower levels, this experience you earn will be sufficient to gain a Smithing level once a day or every other day. This is also a good way for a lower level player to gain money. 1,000 steel bars can be sold for 600gp each or a total of 600K. The money you gain from the trade will allow you to purchase your coal and iron ore back so you can repeat the process. If you intend to purchase your coal and ore, it is suggested that you make a few connections with players who are willing to sell you coal on a regular basis. Iron ore is not a problem. You should be able to purchase 1,000 iron ore at 100gp each for 100K in total without much hassle. Finding a good coal seller who will sell you large quantities of coal at a set price is harder than one may expect. Please remember that in Runescape, the price of a certain item will increase if the seller is selling larger quantities of it. While coal averages at 150gp each, you may have to purchase coal at 180-200 each if you are looking to purchase coal in the thousands. As long as your steel bar buyer is willing to purchase them at 550-600gp each, you will make a significant profit. Another thing to watch out for are players who will trade you coal and iron ore for pre-made steel bars. Experience wise, these players are invaluable. They will always have coal and iron ore ready for you. You trade them the bars, they give you the materials back and you have a never ending supply of experience. What you should do is request that these players pay you a small fee per steel bar. You are doing the bulk of the merchant's work by smelting the steel bars; you should receive some compensation in return. If you find a trader who is willing to pay you 50gp per steel bar (or more), you should cater your smelting around these players. Use the money you receive from the traders to purchase more iron ore and coal. What you will do is increase the volume of steel bars you can make per trade. If you have more steel bars available, you will make more money in return. Let us assume that you, the player, just reached level 30 Smithing (the level required to smelt steel bars). You purchase yourself iron ore at 100gp each and coal at 150gp each. You spend 400K to obtain 1,000 iron ore and 2,000 coal. The first example is you selling the steel bars you make for 600gp each and purchasing the materials back. The second example is you trading the completed steel bars to a merchant in exchange for the materials and a kickback of 50gp per bar. You use the money you earn to purchase more iron ore and coal for the next trade. Example 1
Benefits
Disadvantages
Example 2
Benefits
Disadvantages
Optimal Smithing Item (Free): Steel plates - If you do decide to give up steel bar merchanting (which is not advisable) and smith your steel bars, steel plates will give you the fastest experience. It will also allow you to recover as much of the lost profits as possible through High Alchemy. Steel plates can also be sold for an average of 1,000gp each for other players who are trying to train their Magic skill. Optimal Smithing Item (Members): Cannonballs - these can be smelted at a furnace with a cannonball mould upon completion of the Dwarf Cannon quest. These can be very good money, as one steel bar makes four cannonballs. Each cannonball sells for 200gp each, so that's around 200gp profit per steel bar. However, if you're interested in training Slayer, then make cannonballs and buy a cannon, as this is the fastest way to train. 4.5 - Mithril Smithing Introduction
Sadly, mithril smelting and smithing is only good for gaining experience in the skill. Mithril is not a profitable material to sell to other players with the debatable exception of mithril arrowheads. Mithril is simply not an armour or weapon type which is desired greatly in free worlds. If one sells mithril items to another player, it will usually be full sets of mithril armour and nothing more. Members are able to sell mithril arrows on free worlds with greater ease as it is the second best arrow type available to free players and is a decent arrow to use for free world range training. Primary purpose of mithril: Power training your smithing level to adamantite smithing.
Free Player Strategy
The best option at this point is to continue smelting and merchanting steel bars in lieu of actively smelting and smithing mithril bars. Your only option for true profit is to smelt mithril bars and sell them for 1,000gp each. This is not truly profitable unless you are able to purchase the coal and mithril for less than 150gp and 400gp each, respectively. However, the work required to smelt mithril bars at the furnace is time consuming. It would be better to continue smelting nine steel bars per smelting run instead of five mithril bars and one steel bar per run. The fact is that steel bars move much faster in the Marketplace than mithril bars. If you wish to build up the number mithril bars in your bank, your best option is to superheat mine. This is when you wield a fire staff and have a stack of nature runes and your pickaxe in your inventory when you mine. When you mine a mithril ore and the four coal required, you simply cast the spell and smelt the ore into a bar. You may either mine the mithril and the coal as you go (if you are mining on an empty server) or bring mithril ores along from the bank and mine coal exclusively (superheating as you go). If you purchase all of your mithril ore and coal from the open market, superheating the ores is not recommended. The 300-350gp cost of a nature rune will negate any and all profit you might gain from the trade. Only superheat mithril ores while mining. Member Strategy
The best all-around strategy for members is to continue smelting steel bars for trade and making iron ore into iron knives. If you wish to include mithril into your training and trading regimen, you should begin using the Blast Furnace at level 60 Smithing and go there with a stack of noted mithril ore and coal (along with some money). The Blast Furnace may look intimidating at first, but a single player can operate the machine and smelt mithril bars in about a minute's time. Once you have collected your mithril bars, go to the anvils in the north-west corner of the room and smith either mithril arrowheads or knives (arrowheads strongly recommended). If you have the smithing levels and the armour merchant dwarf has no mithril armour in stock, you can smith armour pieces and sell them to the dwarf for a little profit. However, the odds are slim that you will find a world in which the armour merchant's stock is not flooded. Therefore, your best strategy is to smith items which are stackable. Knives are preferable since you can always wield your product and free up an inventory spot. But iron knives are far more marketable than mithril knives and mithril arrowheads will level your Fletching skill also. When you use the Blast Furnace, you have two strategies. You can either bring your own coal in noted form and sell them to the ore merchant and buy back (like Nature runecrafting with the General Store). Or, you can purchase the existing coal in stock and hope that the store is restocked with coal on a regular basis. The second option is much cheaper overall on the money that you will spend. But it will alienate you if there are other people at the Blast Furnace at the same time. Furthermore, you will be wasting time jumping from one world to another trying to find the ore store at full stock. Your best choice is to simply bring noted coal to sell and buy back from the merchant. Should you find another player doing this also, you gain the advantage of gaining smelting experience off of his ores also. Just make certain you are either pedalling the conveyor belt, shovelling coke into the oven or pumping the pump as the bars are smelted. If you cause others to log off of your world, you lose the potential to gain extra experience. However, if someone is already there and they have bought from the available coal, log off and find another world. The Blast Furnace is a great way to train up your Smithing levels. But the most serious disadvantage it has is the distance to the nearest bank. If you are trying to bolster the number of mithril bars in your bank, you should superheat mine and not use the Blast Furnace. You are only spending a nature rune and you are collecting the coal and/or mithril ore by yourself. While the half coal benefit of the Blast Furnace is appealing, banking mithril bars in Keldagrim West is an expenditure of both your time and your character's energy. If you are using the Blast Furnace to smelt and smith iron bars, you can bring along noted coal and purchase the mithril ore from Ordan on occasion to make an run of mithril. Allow the mithril ore to regenerate before purchasing more. The more mithril ore you buy, the more expensive it becomes. If you do occasionally buy mithril ore to smelt and smith, smith them into arrowheads so you have room to continue with making iron knives. Optimal Smithing Item (Free): Full mithril armour sets - Don't expect to sell these too often. If you do, try to sell the sets for around 13,000 - 15,000gp per set. As long as you are averaging more than 1,000gp per bar, you'll be ahead of the game. If you do find yourself in a position where you will be making lots of mithril items for profit, find yourself a person who will sell mithril bars at 1,000gp each as soon as possible. The odds of this happening are very slim but you never know what will happen each time you log in. Optimal Smithing Item (Members): Mithril arrowheads - Mithril knives are not profitable because no one will buy them at 200gp each. Mithril arrows do sell fairly well and you can make yourself some profit if you collect your own logs and feathers or you have a rather cheap seller of these items. Mithril arrows will also train your Fletching level quite well If you find yourself a buyer of mithril arrows at a good price, use the profits at first to increase the number of feathers and normal logs in your bank to make more headless arrows. After you have a large quantity of them, then focus your profits on increasing the number of mithril ores and coal you bring in. You want to train your Smithing so that you can immediately replenish the arrows that you sell to other players. 4.6 - Adamant Smithing Introduction
This is where you will begin bringing in more and more money into your bank. Adamantite items may not be as popular as runite but they are valued among other players. The differences between the two metals are slight and the price difference is substantial. You will find, especially on free worlds, that there is a large interest in adamantite armour. As long as you snag opportunities to sell adamantite items as they appear, you should see a steady increase in your money. This is the point where other players will notice your smithing levels and you will begin to receive more and more compliments. This is also the point where others may begin asking you to make certain items for them in exchange for the bars or the ores and coal. Primary purpose of adamantite: To reach the point where you can make high-end adamantite armour. As long as you have consistent adamantite and coal sellers and consistent item buyers, you will be at the point where you can start making consistent profit. Also, this is the point where you should begin advertising your skills to other players and take advantage of opportunities where you can make items for other players.
Free Player Strategy
If you have continued to rotate your coal and iron ore into steel bars and back again, you should have a sizable amount of money in your bank. This is the point where you should rely on buying your adamantite ores and coal from other players and smelt or superheat them into bars yourself. Your ability to profit is only limited by your ability to merchant. If you have the ability to sell items to other players well at good prices, you will be able to train your Smithing consistently from the money you will receive in return. If your ability to merchant is lacking, you are best off sticking to steel bar smelting for training and profit. The facts are that to maximize your profit with adamantite, you need to spread your web as far and wide as possible. One adamantite ore normally costs 900-1000gp each. With coal at 150gp each, you'll be spending 900gp on coal. Plus 300gp average for your nature rune, you will be spending 2,200gp per adamantite bar. While this is not a profit if you intend to sell the bar on the open market, it is a profit if you smith the bar into a sellable item and know people who will buy these items in bulk. A free player will have a hard time finding serious adamantite buyers. But they are out there. A helpful suggestion is to visit clan sites and see if any of them are looking for a clan smith. More reputable clans will buy coal and ores in large quantities and trade them to smiths for pre-made items and weapons. It is less money on their end than buying the completed items on the open market. And it is free experience for you. Be certain to advertise around Runescape websites on the Internet and post your services in many places. You will not receive business unless you make your services known. If you are looking to bolster the number of adamantite bars in your bank, you should continue to superheat mine. It will be much easier to purchase the adamantite ore on the open market and simply mine coal and superheat the ores on the fly. This will make adamantite bar selling profitable as you are not paying for the coal; just the ore and the nature rune. Superheating the adamantite ore is only advisable if you find yourself in the position described in the previous paragraph. Trying to smelt the ores at the Al-Kharid furnace is a very time consuming chore. Member Strategy
The strategy for an member adamantite smith is two-fold: focus on making adamantite arrowheads and steadily increase the number of bars you have in your bank. If you do not possess the level to smith adamantite arrowheads, focus on smelting steel bars in Port Phasmatys or mithril arrowhead smithing until you can. The main reason why one should focus on making adamantite arrows is because it is a profitable item to make and it is excellent Smithing experience when you smith adamantite bars. It requires a fair amount of patience because it is only profitable if you use the Blast Furnace to smelt your adamantite ore. Let us assume you wish to make and sell 15,000 adamantite arrows. 1,000 adamantite ore will cost roughly 1Mil to purchase (1,000gp per ore). Normally, you will need 6,000 coal to smelt the ore into bars, but since the Blast Furnace requires half the normal coal, you will only need 3,000 coal ore at a cost of 600,000gp. You will also need to purchase normal logs and feathers to make the arrows. To maximize your profit, you should not purchase shafts at five gp each or headless arrows at fifteen gp each. Try to purchase normal logs from free players at 50gp each or go out and chop your own normal logs. If you carry a knife and fletch the logs into shafts as you go, you can easily collect several thousand in a rather short period of time. But if you purchase normal logs at 75gp each and feathers at 10gp each, you will need to spend an addition 225,000gp. The grand total of the purchase will be 1,825,000gp or roughly 122gp per arrow (125gp per arrow if you include the cost to repurchase the coal from the ore seller in the Blast Furnace). You will be able to sell the adamantite arrows for roughly 150gp each, granting you a profit of roughly 425,000gp. The other half of training Smithing and making a profit is by selling weapons and armour to free players once you gain the appropriate levels. If you walk in Varrock and find someone buying an adamantite kite shield for 8,000gp, you are making roughly 2,000gp profit from the trade. This is when having the bars available in your bank is important. If you have the Smithing experience and you have the money, you may always purchase adamantite bars in bulk and make stacks of sellable armour and weapons to sell on free worlds. As with the strategy for free players, it helps to have regular customers who are in need of your services. Optimal Smithing Item (Free): Any high tier armour (kite shield, not square shield for example) and most weapons - This is the same basic concept as mithril items. Since adamantite bars sell for 2,000gp each in the market, you want to sell your items for more than that cost. Charging 2,500 to 3,500gp per bar will be your target range for selling items to other players. This will allow you to repurchase the adamantite bars from a good seller and make profit and experience at the same time. Just don't become reliant on this. You will be more popular but you will be overshadowed by the runite sellers. Optimal Smithing Item (Members): Arrowheads - Hands down the best consistent Smithing experience in the game next to gold ore smelting with Crafting Gauntlets. But adamantite arrows will sell faster and more consistently than enchanted jewellery. So for experience and profit, this is the best non runite item to smith. The Fletching experience is exceptional and you will level from 60 to 80+ Fletching very quickly by making the arrows. 4.7 - Runite Smithing Introduction
This is the pinnacle of Smithing, the ability to smelt and smith runite ore. At this point, you are a master smith, even if you can only make rune axes with the help of a Dwarven stout. Once you reach this level, it is imperative that you have many connections in the Marketplace to constantly recycle your supplies in the bank and buyers to sell your goods to. If you have this, you will be at the point where you are steadily gaining money each and every day. At least, this is what rune smiths want you to believe. The truth is that it requires a great amount of work to become a respectable rune smith. With more and more players reaching level 85 Smithing, the cost of runite items are steadily decreasing. The cost of a rune scimitar on free worlds was once locked at 35,000gp. Nowadays, it averages about 25,000gp on busy servers. The key to being a successful rune smith is to constantly purchase runite ore and coal or runite bars and immediately be able to move your items out to buyers. Primary purpose of runite: To increase your wealth. Runite ore will not bolster your experience; that is what mithril and adamantite bars are for.
Free Player Strategy
The first and most important aspect of being a rune smith is to constantly have a surplus of runite ore or runite bars in your bank. How you obtain the ores are completely up to you. For maximum profit, you should always attempt to mine runite ore yourself. This is a particularly dangerous profession in free worlds as both of the runite rocks are located deep in the wilderness. If you wish to mine runite ore on free worlds, it is recommended that you are part of a clan so that you have protection from PKers while collecting the ore. Otherwise, you should use low levelled scouts to log into the world and determine if it is safe to enter and mine the rocks. While mining, high Prayer and Magic levels are strongly suggested so you may either bind your opponents or use prayer to resist their attacks as you mine or make a getaway. Do not, under any conditions, attempt to drop trade runite ores from your main miner to your scout. Several high level miners have been suspended or banned for this illegal activity. If you lack the Mining level, affiliation with a clan is still helpful. Runite miners who are not quick enough usually are quick kills for a skilled PKer. If any of your clan members have a nice supply of looted runite ores, they can be your suppliers. If you have significantly high Smithing levels, your clan will usually supply you with runite ores and coal in exchange for runite armour. This is excellent Smithing experience if you have the opportunity to do this. Just remember: your rich customer you are trading with is only going to use the items to profit and train their own skills. Providing services for others works wonders for your experience. It does nothing towards making a profit. Once you have access to a supply of runite ore, simply purchase coal and nature runes and use the superheat spell to smelt them into bars. Don't bother going to a furnace to make runite bars; you will only be able to smelt three bars per trip. When you smith runite items, only make items which will definitely sell on the open market. Ignore daggers, smith axes. Ignore warhammers and maces, make scimitars and battle axes. By this time, you should know the areas where certain items sell better than other items. Rune axes, easily sold in Draynor Village, are one of the best runite items that can be smithed for profit. An axe only requires one bar to make and it normally sells for 15,000-20,000gp. For all other rune items, try to aim towards making 1,000gp of profit per runite bar. If you can buy runite bars for 12,000gp each, sell your items for 13,000gp per bar needed to make the it. If you can mine your runite ore and you are able to bring in a steady stock all by yourself, you may want to consider selling your items for a just a little less than normal. Advertising a lower price will lead to interest from more and more players. When you are a runite seller in a sea of others like you, you have to stand out somehow. The easiest way to get attention and customers is to offer a lower price than others. More inventive players will think of other methods to increase interest and also maximize profits. However, while runite items are the highest experience items you can make in the game, the experience you gain is still quite small. Relying only on runite items to train smithing will just lead to frustration. To train smithing adequately, you need to use the profits you make to purchase ores and coal and continue smelting steel, mithril and adamantite bars and train with them. Avoid buying bars from the open market as they are a waste of profit. By this point, you should truly realize that smelting is the only true and consistent Smithing experience you will get. Member Strategy
If you possess the ability to mine runite, you have more options available to you. There are four additional runite rocks in member worlds: the two underneath the Heroes' Guild, the lone runite rock underneath the Mourner's headquarters in West Ardougne near the Dark Beasts, and the ores located in the Fremennik Isles Rune Mine. The Heroes' Guild is the most populated runite miner area in the game. It takes patience to world hop over and over again to find a world with a lit rock. Fortunately, the wilderness is a viable option on member worlds is it is far less populated by PKers than on free worlds. As always, care should always be taken while entering the wilderness. The location near the dark beasts requires a relatively skilled player with the ability to complete a gauntlet of quests. It also requires a decent supply of prayer potions to ward off the attacks of Dark Beasts (level 182) with protection against melee. The Fremennik Isles mine is fairly new, however it is within multi-combat zone with aggressive Ice Trolls guarding it. Much of the same strategies for free players apply to members. You must be able to collect ores quickly and be able to sell your wares in a timely fashion. When selling rune items, you will find that rune axes will become your best friend. This is the only runite item that you will be able to sell with any consistency on member worlds (due to the popularity of woodcutting and fletching in general). Runite knives and arrowheads are completely out of the question. No one is going to buy a rune knife for 3,000gp when iron knives can be bought en masse at 30-40gp each. Rune arrows, especially poisoned ones, may be popular with rangers. But it is far easier to purchase the arrowheads from the shop in Catherby or the arrow shop in Lletya. All other types of armour and weapons will mark you as a 'noob' on member worlds. A dragon longsword is far more marketable than a rune scimitar on members. When smelting, the Blast Furnace will be your best option to save money while making runite bars. You are saving 20,000gp with every run of 25 runite bars you make at the furnace. If you have a large quantity of runite ores, the money saved will add up. Otherwise, superheating the runite ores into bars is your next best alternative. If you can craft nature runes, you are paying 100-120gp per nature rune in the end instead of 300-350gp. Do not bother smelting runite ore at a furnace unless you have a very small amount of runite ores and you are smelting them at Port Phasmatys. 4.8 - Gold smithing Introduction
At lower and higher levels, smelting gold ore with the use of the Goldsmith Gauntlets (must have completed the Family Crest quest) will train your Smithing experience at blistering speeds. It allows you to make near 1,000 Smithing experience a minute or nearly 60,000 Smithing experience per hour. It gives you a total of 56.5 experience per smelted gold ore at a standard furnace, which is slightly more than the king of all ores: runite. Primary purpose of gold ore: Experience, plain and simple.
There are two items you can make of gold, besides jewelery. First is a gold bowl, required to be smithed in Legends Quest provides two gold bars and gives 30 experience. There is a chance you can fail to smith it. The second item is a golden helmet, made during Between a Rock... quest. It requires one gold bar and when worn, it will provide you with access to Arzinian Gold Mine. Member Strategy
By this point you should understand that you should only deal with items that you know will sell quickly and reliably. Gold ore in bulk is very expensive with people paying up to 500gp per ore. In order to make a profit from the gold bars you will end up with, you need to have a collection of gem sellers who will be provide with many emeralds, rubies, diamonds and Dragonstones (if you have the required Crafting levels). Avoid dealing with sapphires as much as possible as the cost of the gem, the gold ore and the cosmic rune will negate much of the profit. You should focus yourself on making Rings of Dueling which can sell from 2,000 - 3,000gp for a ring with eight charges, Rings of Forging which can sell for roughly 3,000 - 4,000gp each and Amulets of Power that average for 8,000 - 10,000gp each on free servers. Avoid crafting Dragonstones at all until you have 80 crafting and you can make Amulets of Glory. Selling Amulets of Glory is not recommended. Save them for personal use, especially when crafting nature runes via the Abyss. In order for this strategy to work, you need to have several gemstone suppliers who will come through when you give them a large order and an active eye on the Market boards throughout the Internet so you can sell these as quickly as possible. Use your initial profits from your first few sells to bolster the number of cosmic runes in your bank so you are in no danger of running out. After that, and everything is cycling on a regular basis, the profits can be used for more gold ores for Smithing experience alone or to purchase items needed to train another good money making skill. 5.0 - Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why Smith plates?
A: There are a few reasons why plates are usually the best items to smith. Their High Alchemy value is superior to any other item meaning you get more of your money back. They're a 5 bar item so you only need one nature rune per 5 bars as appose to other items where you would need more then this, this saves you money. Using 5 bars at a time gives you far quicker exp then you would get if you were to smith any other item. Q: How Can I Make a Profit?
A: If you mine all your own ores and get nature runes as a drop or by Runecrafting them yourself, you can make a bundle of money selling or Alchemizing the items you smith later. If you buy both nature runes and the ores, you will lose money; try only buying one or the other. 6.0 - Quests giving Experience
Quests with a choice Experience
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Author: Solar and Hemlock | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
icon on the minimap. Simply use one of the ores in you inventory on the furnace and a metal bar will be produced. If you are making a large number of bars, there is a much easier method. Right click on the furnace and select the 'Smelt' option which will bring up a number of bar options. Then by right clicking on the options you can select how many of each bar you would like to make. Remember that you still need to have all the right ores in your inventory.
icon on the minimap. Use one of your metal bars on it. This will bring up a menu of the items you can make. By right-clicking on the options you can select how many you would like to make. Upon selection you will begin making your chosen weapon, armour, or item.
Stuck on something? Want some more tips? Ask on our forums.
