OSRS Smithing Guide 1–99: Giants’ Foundry vs Blast Furnace

Smithing 1–99 at a Glance

Gold bars at the Blast Furnace, with goldsmith gauntlets on, are the fastest standard Smithing XP at about 380,000 an hour from level 40. Giants’ Foundry is slower but cheap, and some alloys pay you, so the rest of this page is mostly about choosing between the two.

The XP rates and GP per XP below come from the OSRS Wiki’s Smithing training page, checked on 12 October 2026. The XP side rarely moves. The GP side follows ore and bar prices, so check the OSRS Wiki again before you buy 10,000 gold ore.

Giants’ Foundry vs Blast Furnace

Blast Furnace gold bars are faster. Giants’ Foundry is cheaper, and at the lower alloys it pays you. With goldsmith gauntlets, gold bars give about 380,000 Smithing XP an hour from level 40. The wiki’s Foundry rates run from about 98,000 XP an hour with bronze and iron up to about 253,000 with adamant and rune at 85, but they assume all improved moulds, which take up to 81 Smithing, so a level 15 account starts below them. Every sword you hand in pays coins worth double its XP.

The requirements differ as well. Foundry needs Sleeping Giants, which needs 15 Smithing and gives 6,000 XP. Blast Furnace needs The Giant Dwarf started so you can enter Keldagrim, Family Crest for the goldsmith gauntlets (56.2 XP per gold bar instead of 22.5), and 72,000 coins an hour paid into the coffer. Below 60 Smithing the foreman also charges 2,500 coins per 10 minutes.

A sensible split is Foundry first. Buy the improved moulds first (5,400 reputation), then the Smiths’ uniform (15,000), whose four pieces add roughly 5% to Foundry XP. Reputation equals each sword’s final quality, and at 1,264–2,068 reputation an hour that is roughly 10–16 hours of swords. After that, take gold bars if speed matters and keep forging mithril/adamant swords if the bank matters. If the reputation grind is the part you want gone, we also run Giants’ Foundry as its own service.

Smithing 1–99 Level Path

Smithing breaks into five stages. Quests cover the start, and from level 40 the real choice is gold bars or swords.

1. 1

   1–29: The Knight’s Sword gives 12,725 XP and needs 10 Mining.

   That alone takes a fresh account to level 29.

2. 2

   15+: Sleeping Giants gives 6,000 XP and opens Giants’ Foundry.

3. 3

   40–99: Blast Furnace gold bars with goldsmith gauntlets for the fastest standard XP.

4. 4

   50–85: Foundry steel/mithril and mithril/adamant swords for low-cost XP, the improved moulds and the Smiths’ uniform.

5. 5

   70+: Song of the Elves (40,000 XP) and Dragon Slayer II (80,000 XP) both need 70 Smithing and are worth doing before you grind the last levels.

Fastest XP Methods

Gold bars at the Blast Furnace with goldsmith gauntlets are the fastest standard method at about 380,000 XP an hour, or around 390,000 if you 0-tick bank consistently. The Smithing cape pushes plain gold bars to 410,000.

Paying runners raises it again: about 530,000 XP an hour with one runner and 680,000 with three, at roughly 16 and 34 gp per XP. That is a bank decision more than a skill one.

Giants’ Foundry tops out at about 253,000 XP an hour with adamant and rune, which still trails gold bars and costs far more per XP.

Cheapest / Budget Approach

Cannonballs are slow but they pay: about 13,824 XP an hour with the ammo mould, or 27,648 with the double ammo mould. The double mould costs 2,000 Foundry reputation and needs Dwarf Cannon.

Foundry swords with iron/steel or steel/mithril alloys pay back more than the bars cost at wiki prices, which makes them the cheapest real XP in the skill. Those margins follow bar prices, so recompute them after any big GE swing.

AFK & Lower-Intensity Options

Blast Furnace is semi-AFK with a coal bag and ice gloves, not fully AFK.

Foundry is an active loop. You move the sword between the trip hammer, grindstone and polishing wheel while keeping an eye on its heat.

If you need AFK, Smithing is a poor choice for the session compared with Mining or Woodcutting.

Practical Tips That Actually Matter

• Coal bag, ice gloves and weight-reducing gear are part of the listed Blast Furnace rates.
• Ice gloves drop from the Ice Queen under White Wolf Mountain. Reaching her needs 50 Mining, which can be boosted.
• With goldsmith gauntlets on for gold, swap to ice gloves only after the bars finish smelting.
• Do not buy 10,000 gold ore without checking the current GP per XP on the wiki.

Ironman Notes

Smithing on an Ironman is downstream of Mining, and the ore you need depends on which method you pick: some want coal in bulk, some want bars you smelt yourself. Decide the method first, then mine for it, or you will bank the wrong ore in quantity.

Smithing also produces things an iron genuinely needs rather than sells: darts, bolts, armour for early PvM. That makes it one of the few skills where the by-products justify a slower method.

When Paid Training Makes Sense

Gold bars from 40 to 99 take about 34 hours at 380,000 XP an hour, and with goldsmith gauntlets the wiki puts the loss at about 22M gp after you sell the bars. Foundry swords are slower, 133,920 to 198,000 XP an hour from iron/steel to mithril/adamant, but iron/steel and steel/mithril pay you back and mithril/adamant costs about 0.4 gp per XP.

Tell us which route you want, your current level and whether Family Crest is done. Our Smithing page lists what we need from you, and the work is played by hand.

FAQ

Still stuck on a mechanic? Ask the team on our Discord, it is free.

Final Takeaway

Browse Smithing training, more skill guides, or the full blog for related progression help.