osrs smithing guide - training 1-99 smithing in old school runescape

Whether you need the fastest P2P way or the fastest F2P way, or you would like to make some money — this complete 1-99 osrs smithing guide is what you’re looking for. Use the navigation below to navigate to your preferred method and current level.

In OSRS, we have the luxury of having three main methods of training smithing:

Each of these methods, and their best strategies, are covered in this Smithing Training Guide.

Smithing EXP Boosters

Here are some items that will help you get more experience while training the Smithing skill (or just make it easier).

Goldsmith gauntlets

goldsmith gauntlets osrs give an extra 2.5 experience per gold bar smelted. The gauntlets are a reward from the family crest quest

Recommended for: Blast Furnace

Goldsmith gauntlets are a reward from the Family Crest Quest. These are highly recommended for smelting gold bars as you they will multiply the experience rates by 2.5. This means that instead of 22.5 experience per bar, you will get 56.2 experience per bar. If you want to use the fastest way to 99 smithing, you need to have these gauntlets. 

Coal Bag

coal bag stores up to 28 coal and can drastically increase exp rates when smithing at the blast furnace

Recommended for: Blast Furnace

The coal bag is a reward from the Motherlode Mine which can be bought for 100 golden nuggets and allows players to store up to 28 pieces of coal while only taking up 1 inventory slot. This drastically increases experience rates when players smelt bars at the blast furnace minigame.

Note: players who plan to smith gold bars at the Blast Furnace all the way to 99 Smithing or players who plan to play the Giants’ Foundry minigame to train their smithing will not need a coal bag.

Ice Gloves

ice gloves replaces the need for a bucket of water at giants foundry and blast furnace

Recommended for: Blast Furnace / Giants Foundry

Ice gloves are extremely helpful as they eliminate the need for a bucket of water during Blast Furnace and Giants Foundry smithing methods.

Ice gloves allow you to:

  • Pick up hot bars at the Blast Furnace without the need for a bucket of water
  • Pick up perform at Giants Foundry without the need for a bucket of water

These gloves can be obtained by defeating the Ice Queen (easily safe-spottable), which is located underneath White Wolf Mountain. The only requirement to get here is 50 Mining and a pickaxe.

The best way to kill her is to use Safespot with Fire Spells.

If you haven’t got Ice Gloves already, check out this 4-minute-long video. Or follow the map below.

how to get ice gloves osrs

Smith’s Uniform

smiths uniform speeds up giants' foundry exp/profit per hour as well as anvil smithing

Recommended for: Giants Foundry / Anvil Smithing

Just like other skills in OSRS, Smithing has its own skilling outfit. The Smith’s Uniform is a reward from Giants Foundry that can be purchased for 15,000 Foundry Reputation (full set).

Benefits:

  • 100% chance of speeding up anvil smithing with 1 game tick (0.6 seconds)
  • 100% chance of increased progress on preforms in Giants Foundry Minigame

At Giants Foundry, the full Smith’s Uniform can give you a 20% Experience boost per hour.

Due to how powerful the Smith’s Outfit is, it’s 100% recommended to get this outfit first if you plan to train smithing using Anvils or Giants Foundry. It doesn’t have any effects on Blast Furnace where graceful is best-in-slot.

TIP: As each piece of the Smith’s Uniform grants a 20% chance of speeding up actions, it’s recommended to buy the gloves and boots first as these only cost 3,500 Giants Foundry Reputation before moving on to the Tunic and Trousers.

Best Anvil locations

best anvil locations in osrs include varrock west bank and prifddinas east bank

For optimal efficiency, it’s important to know exactly where the best anvil location is. The best anvil location is the least tiles removed from a bank, we have two great options for this.

The best (and most) used anvil location for players who haven’t completed Song of the Elves, is Varrock West Bank. This anvil is 11 tiles removed from the bank.

Players who have completed Song of the Elves can use the Anvil location near the Prifddinas East Bank which is only 9 tiles removed from the bank.

fastest way to 99 Smithing

For the fastest possible way to 99 Smithing, we make use of the Blast Furnace.

Levels 1 – 29 The Knight’s Sword

the knights sword is the fastest way to get from levels  1 - 29 smithing. This quest gives an insane experience reward and should always be done to start your smithing as it yields no requirements except for 10 mining.

The Knight’s sword quest is the fastest way to skip the first 29 levels of smithing. It’s a relatively short quest with no requirements other than 10 mining.

If you haven’t finished this quest, follow our Quest Guide for The Knights Sword.

Alternatively, you can also do anvil smithing until level 40 but this is not something we recommend.

Levels 29 – 33 Sleeping Giants

do the sleeping giants quest to skip levels 29-33 smithing

Next, you should complete the Sleeping Giants quest. This quest only takes a couple of minutes and gives a 6,000 experience reward which will bump you up all the way to level 33 smithing!

For a walk-through, follow along with our Sleeping Giants Quest Guide.

The main reason you want to complete this quest however is that it unlocks the new Giants’ Foundry minigame which offers a great new way to train smithing!

Other Smithing Quests

The above-mentioned quests are absolutely the most efficient way to boost-start your early smithing levels. Here are some more quests you can complete in case you like leveling smithing via questing:

  • Elemental Workshop 1: 5,000 Smithing EXP
  • Elemental Workshop 2: 7,500 Smithing EXP
  • The Giant Dwarf: 2,500 Smithing EXP

Completing all these Quests would put you at level 39 Smithing.

However, it is more time-efficient to do the steel bar method below. (But doing Quests is more efficient considering your overall OSRS journey).

Levels 33 – 40 Steel bars at Blast Furnace

smelting steel bars at the blast furnace gives a nice profit of 650K+ per hour but also a good experience rate of 94K per hour

From levels 30-40 smithing you should smith steel bars at the blast furnace. Between levels 33-40, you will need to smith a total of 1,042 steel bars.

Don’t worry though, Blast Furnace is very quick and smelts your entire inventory of bars at once. Thus, it only takes about 20 minutes to get from levels 33-40, and on top of that, you make a nice profit as well!

As Steel bars require a 1:1 ratio of Iron and Coal ore, you’ll need to purchase the following from the Grand Exchange:

  • 1,042 Iron Ore (83 GP/each)
  • 1,042 Coal Ore (251 GP/each)

And you’ll be left with 1,042 steel bars (which you can sell for around 440 GP/each)!

EXP Rate:up to 94K/hr
Total Profit:111k (up to 400k per hour)

Note: for info on the Blast Furnace, check out my complete Blast Furnace Guide.

Levels 40 – 99 Gold bars at Blast Furnace

the fastest way to 99 smithing is by smelting gold bars at the blast furnace. This method is only the fastest once gold smith gauntlets are worn, which are a reward from the family crest quest

As early as level 40 you unlock the fastest way to reach 99 smithing in OSRS: Smithing Gold bars are the Blast Furnace.

EXP Rates:

With Goldsmith Gauntletsup to 400K/hr
Without Goldsmith Gauntletsup to 150K/hr

Below is a video featuring my method to get 400K EXP/hr at the Blast Furnace with gold bars! I show you my efficient pathing and setup.

However, this method loses money and has some item requirements.

First and foremost, you need Goldsmith Gauntlets* which are a reward from the Family Crest Quest. These give you double EXP when smithing gold bars and are the only reason the Gold Bar method offers the best Smithing Experience.

Next, you need Ice Gloves* which are locked behind killing the Ice Queen. These prevent you from requiring a bucket of water to cool down the dispenser before collecting your bars. While not 100% necessary, you will lose some experience per hour if you don’t have them.

Additionally, Graceful outfit pieces (as well as a high Agility level) are helpful in reducing your stamina drain.

Finally, you’ll need Stamina Potions which reduce your energy depletion and prevent you from walking. Players with low Agility levels and who lack graceful will need super energies to keep their run energy up if they want maximum EXP rates.

Info about how to collect these items can be found earlier in this Guide under ‘EXP Boosters‘.

* When using Goldsmith Gauntlets AND Ice Gloves simultaneously, you have to ensure that you wear Goldsmith Gauntlets while depositing ores on the conveyor belt (this gives you EXP) and equip Ice Gloves when collecting the bars. Forgetting to switch between them will cause EXP loss.

Here’s the full cost of Smithing Gold Bars at Blast Furnace:

  • 72K GP per hour to operate the Blast Furnace
  • 570K GP per hour (6000 gold bars per hour * 95GP loss per gold bar)
  • 80K GP per hour on Stamina Potions

Thus in total, it costs around 725K GP per hour to Smith Gold Bars at the Blast furnace. As it takes around 37 hours to get 99 Smithing this way, the total cost is around 27M.

If you don’t want to lose money with Smithing or don’t like the requirements for Blast Furnace, don’t worry we have plenty of alternative methods below!

Profitable ways to train smithing

Fastest doesn’t mean best. The alternative ways to train Smithing are good moneymakers and provide decent EXP/hr.

Here are some ways to make money on your way to 99 Smithing.

Smithing bars at Blast Furnace

the blast furnace is the best smithing moneymaker

The Blast Furnace may be paid, but there are still ways to make money here as well. In fact, the Blast Furnace offers the best ways to make money with Smithing.

To make money with smithing at the Blast Furnace, you should smith iron, steel, mithril, or adamant bars depending on your current smithing levels.

Starting with a smithing as low as level 15, you can make up to 400K/hr profit at the Blast Furnace!

levelbarsprofitexp/hr
15iron barsup to 326K/hr75K/hr
30steel barsup to 540K/hr94K/hr
50mithril barsup to 560K/hr108K/hr
70adamant barsup to 660k/hr101K/hr
85rune barsup to 715k/hr107K/hr

Profit Calculations provided are provided by OSRS Wiki.

Not using a coal bag will decrease your profit and experience rates by about 50%.

Again, we have a Guide on The Blast Furnace if you need it.

Smithing Dart Tips

make money smithing dart tips

An alternative to the Blast Furnace is smithing Dart Tips which is also quite profitable but offers much worse experience rates. It’s a good alternative to players who don’t want to obtain Graceful or a Coal bag but still make money with Smithing.

There is only one requirement to this method: The Tourist Trap quest which requires 10 Fletching & 20 Smithing. This quest isn’t long and offers a nice 9.3K Experience reward in a skill of your choice. You can spend this on Smithing, but I recommend you spend it on Agility if your agility level is low. This will boost you to 26 Agility (from 1) and make the Blast Furnace more bearable in the future. But the choice is yours of course.

levelMethodprofitexp/hr
4Bronze Dart Tipsup to 200K/hr11K/hr
19Iron Dart Tipsup to 130K/hr23K/hr
54Mithril Dart Tipsup to 150K/hr47K/hr

Smithing Cannonballs

make money smithing cannonballs

Smithing Cannonballs is a good moneymaker that players unlock at level 35 Smithing provided they have completed the Dwarf Cannon Quest.

It’s recommended to grind out the 2,000 Foundry Reputation at Giants’ Foundry first to obtain the Double Cannonball Mould which doubles the profit and exp per hour of this method.

levelRequirementprofitexp/hr
35Regular Cannonball Mouldup to 140K/hr13K/hr
35Double Cannonball Mouldup to 280K/hr27k/hr

Smithing Cannonballs can also be relatively AFK (especially when using the regular cannonball mould).

Making Giant Swords at Giants’ Foundry

make money at giants foundry by mixing alloys

Finally, Giants’ Foundry offers the most engaging way to make money while Smithing, but also requires the most thinking.

For this method, you’ll be mixing alloys to make giant swords. For example, mix 14 iron and 14 bronze bars.

The thinking part is that you have to do the math yourself to figure out which combination makes the most money for your Smithing level.

I couldn’t provide a table for this, because with GE prices fluctuating as much as they do, the results would become outdated within a week.

If you don’t want to do any thinking, you can check out OSRS Wiki: Forging Giant Swords for a good combination based on current prices. But usually, there are better methods you can find if you do the math yourself.

Furthermore, unlocking extra moulds as well as the Smiths’ Uniform makes the profit and EXP/hr go up as you play more Giants Foundry. Honestly, totally worth checking out if you enjoy more engaging skilling activities and making up your own methods of making money.

Alternative: Giant’s Foundry Minigame

train smithing with the giants foundry minigame

With the arrival of Giants’ Foundry, we have a new way of training smithing. One that is much more fun than the Blast Furnace in my opinion.

At the Giant’s Foundry, you can forge giant swords from bars and items after completing the Sleeping Giants’ introductory quest.

If you wish to get a full walk-through on how to play Giant’s Foundry, please read our Giants’ Foundry Guide.

How it Works

Giants’ Foundry is a smithing minigame in which you make swords for Giants, commissioned by Kovac. You have to provide the Alloy (e.g. iron bars or iron items), create the mould, and smith the sword using the Trip Hammer, Grindstone, and Polishing wheel, before getting paid for your labor.

Giants foundry layout

Your payment depends on the quality of the sword you make, and it can take a couple of tries to get the hang of it.

But once you have the hang of it, Giants’ Foundry provides a more fun way of training smithing as opposed to just running the Blast Furnace or clicking on an anvil.

How to Get There

The easiest way to access Giants Foundry is to use the minigame teleport in your Grouping menu. Alternatively, you can walk here from Al Kharid.

how to get to giants foundry osrs

Optimal Strategy

You should add 14/14 of 2 different alloys to the crucible which is a far superior strategy than adding 28 bars of one alloy. You can also consider doing 9/19 which will gain you fewer reward points but make more profit.

For example, on my Group Ironman account, I used 9 Steel and 19 Mithril which worked great.

Here are the alloys you should be mixing for each level.

levelbarsprofit with barsEXP/hr
30bronze/iron100k//hr95k/hr
50iron/steel120k/hr130k/hr
50-99steel/mithril90k/hr160k/hr

I wouldn’t recommend using Adamant or Runite bars as you will start losing money with those.

Making 90k profit/hr at level 50 Smithing while gaining 160K experience per hour is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

P.s. You can make even more profit by using items instead of bars but you will have to make your own calculations for those as prices constantly fluctuate. Furthermore, you will be limited by Grand Exchange buy limits.


Choosing a Smithing training Method

I’ve left you with quite a few options to train Smithing:

MethodAdvantageDisadvantage
Gold bars at Blast FurnaceFastest EXP (up to 350K/hr)Money drain, item requirements
Metal bars at Blast FurnaceMoney maker & Decent EXP (up to 108K/hr)item requirements
Giants FoundryMoneymaker & Decent EXP (up to 160k/hr)Intensity is not for everyone
Smithing Dart TipsMoneymaker & no requirementsSlow EXP (up to 47k/hr)
Smithing CannonballsMoneymaker & AFKSlow EXP (up to 27K/hr)

If I’ve left you with choice paralysis, here’s what I’d do if I had to start over:

Start with Quests

I would always start Smithing training with Quests as it’s fast and efficient.

  • Complete the Knights’ Sword Quest for the quick 1-29 Smithing levels
  • Complete Sleeping Giants to get 33 Smithing & unlock Giants’ Foundry

You can continue Questing but this is the point I would stop at.

Alternatively, you can smith Dart Tips until level 40 Smithing.

Next: Giants’ Foundry

After that, I would play Giants’ Foundry until I at least have enough Foundry Reputation to buy everything I need for further training.

Spending time at Giants’ Foundry allows us to get acquainted with the Minigame and gauge whether we want to continue training here or not. Giants’ Foundry is very engaging, requiring constant attention. Some players will prefer this, while others prefer a more ‘old school’ training method such as the Blast Furnace.

Here are the rewards we want to go for:

  • Double Ammo Mould: 2000 Foundry Reputation
  • Smiths’ Uniform: 16,000 Foundry Reputation
  • All Moulds: 5400 Foundry Reputation

If you find yourself enjoying Giants’ Foundry, you should go for the outfit pieces and moulds as this will boost your EXP/profit per hour.

Feel free to do Giants’ Foundry all the way to 99. At 160K exp/hr, it’s the best alternative to Gold Bars at the Blast Furnace.

Finally: Blast Furnace

The final push to 99 Smithing I would do at the Blast Furnace.

At level 60 Smithing, we no longer have to pay the foreman 2,500 gp every 10 minutes. We still however have to pay 72K per hour.

If for some reason I just want to get 99 Smithing as fast as possible, I’d obviously make Gold Bars all the way to 99.

If I don’t want to lose any money, I’d just make regular metal bars until 99 Smithing.

To avoid getting bored of smithing, you can switch between Blast Furnace and Giants’ Foundry.

ironman guideIronman players can buy ores from the ore seller, smith them at the Blast Furnace, and then use the bars at Giant’s Foundry for maximum efficiency.


OSRS F2P Smithing Guide – Fastest way to 99

f2P osrs smithing guide

The fastest way to level 99 in F2P smithing is by making platebodies at the Varrock west bank anvil location. This method, while fast will result in a loss of money on your way to 99 smithing.

LevelsMethodAmountEXP/hrTotal Cost
1-29The Knight’s Sword questN/AN/A (15 minute quest)N/A
29 – 48Best iron items.70050K/hr500K
48 – 68Steel platebodies2,785160K/hr3.5M
68 – 88Mithril platebodies15,123150K/hr16M
88 – 99 Adamant platebodies27,676260K/hr10M profit

Total cost: 10M GP.

Pro tip: From level 99 you can make 200Kgp per hour by making rune platelegs/plateskirt to make up for your money lost.

Quests that grant smithing experience

Recommended Quests are highlighted.

QuestExperience rewardSmithing level requiredOther level requirements
The Forsaken Tower500//
Pirate Pete subquest1,000/31 cooking
Heroes’ Quest2,257/55QP, 25 herblore, 50 mining, 53 fishing, 53 cooking
The Giant Dwarf2,500/12 crafting, 14 thieving, 16 firemaking, 33 magic
Between a Rock…5,00050 smithing30 defence, 40 mining
Elemental Workshop I5,00020 smithing20 mining & crafting
Sleeping Giants6,00015 smithing/
Devious Minds6,50065 smithing50 runecrafting & fletching
Cabin Fever7,00050 smithing40 ranged, 42 agility, 45 crafting
Elemental Workshop II7,50030 smithing20 magic
The Knight’s Sword12,725/10 mining
Song of the Elves20,00070 smithing70 agility, construction, farming, hunter, herbivore, mining and woodcutting
Dragon Slayer II25,00070 smithing200QP, 50 hitpoints, 50 construction, 60 thieving, 60 agility, 62 crafting, 68 mining and 75 magic

Summary: OSRS Smithing Guide

Hopefully, this OSRS Smithing Guide was helpful and will aid you in getting 1-99 Smithing as fast as possible.

I’ve laid out every method to train Smithing in OSRS, including the fastest way & some profitable methods. It’s ultimately up to you to find that which best fits your account & personal preferences.

Some players love Giants’ Foundry, while others find it requiring too much brain power. I suggest you try it out, before judging. Getting up to 160K EXP/hr while making money isn’t bad at all! Furthermore, the rewards are amazing.

But yeah, Blast Furnace is where it’s at if you prefer a less intensive training method.

All-in-all Smithing is a very chill skill in Old School Runescape, that has many different methods, is quick to level, and a decent moneymaker!

Let me know if something is missing in this smithing training guide. You can use the smithing calculator to make your own calculations.

More osrs skilling guides