Method Description, Instructions and Tips for Success

General Description

Smelting iron ore into iron bars is an excellent way of making money for low-level players, and also provides slow but steady Smithing XP as well. Unlike skills such as Mining, you smelt at "full speed" as soon as you reach the level you need, so this is a viable option even at level 15 Smithing.

Normally each iron bar has only a 50% chance of being successfully smelted, but with rings of forging that becomes 100% -- they should always be used.

You should complete at least the easy tasks of the Varrock Achievement Diary to get Varrock armour (any level), which gives you access to the furnace in Edgeville, which is the best in the game now that Jagex removed its annoying door. It is right next to the bank, and when wearing the armour you have about a 10% chance of smelting two bars at once, speeding up your Smithing by a decent amount.

Note that there is no advantage at all here to higher levels, so all the sub-methods are the same. Also, a beast of burden is rather pointless here, so at mid levels and above I recommend a foraging familiar such as a magpie, which will provide you a nice bonus in foraged items while you work.

Specific Method Details

Go to Edgeville and put on your Varrock armour and a ring of forging. Summon a magpie, then take out 28 iron ore. Close your bank and click in the furnace room. Then click the furnace, right click the iron bar and choose "Make X". Then enter any number over 28 (something like "33" is fast) and wait for the bars to be made. Bank and repeat.

On average, you'll get the message saying you smelted two bars at once about three times per load. Each ring of forging lasts 140 bars, and this is tied to the player, not the ring, so swapping rings doesn't accomplish anything. Note that when you smelt a double bar, the extra does not count against the ring of forging's total, so with this method you actually get about 155 bars per ring.

You have to keep track of when the current ring is going to disappear; you can do this by "operating" the ring to check its charges. Whenever it has 28 or less, bring an extra ring with you to the furnace in case it is needed.