OSRS Blast Furnace Guide

The Blast Furnace in OSRS is a Smithing-based activity capable of providing incredible experience rates, given the proper materials and payments are used. Using the Blast Furnace, players can smelt metal bars in bulk. 

Of course, the bulk smelting of these bars requires a ton of raw resources, including various ores and coal. However, the catch with the Blast Furnace is that higher level bars such as mithril, adamant, and rune require half as much coal to smelt. 

In addition to these raw resources, the Blast Furnace also requires a certain amount of GP to use. Players under 60 Smithing will need to pay 2,500 coins every ten minutes they spend in the Blast Furnace. 

Since the Blast Furnace is so resource and money intensive, players lose GP when using the Furnace. That being said, the insane Smithing experience rates from bulk smelting are seen as a worthwhile tradeoff. To harness these great experience rates, follow this OSRS Blast Furnace Guide. 

Unlocking the Blast Furnace

As with most minigames and activities in Old School RuneScape, the Blast Furnace must first be unlocked by completing a quest. The Furnace is located in the Dwarven city of Keldagrim, which requires starting (completion not required) the quest ‘The Giant Dwarf.’

‘The Giant Dwarf’ quest requires 12 Crafting, 16 Firemaking, 33 Magic, and 14 Thieving. You can start this quest by speaking to the dwarven ferryman inside the dungeon east of Rellekka, south of Olaf. It’s very close to Fairy Ring DKS. 

Blast Furnace Recommendations

Before getting started with the OSRS Blast Furnace, there are a few more recommendations you should be aware of. These are not hard requirements, since you can work the Furnace just fine without them, but they will improve your quality of life significantly. 

The first of these recommendations is the ice gloves. The freshly-smelted bars will be too hot for your character to pick up, so they must be cooled with a bucket of water. Equipping the ice gloves allows them to cool automatically and saves you an inventory slot. 

The second of these recommendations is to use the Furnace on one of the official Blast Furnace worlds. These include Worlds 352, 355, 356, 357, 358, 386, 387, 395, 424, 466, 494, 495, 496, 515, and 516. 

The Blast Furnace normally requires a party of five to six players to operate it properly, but on the aforementioned worlds, a party of NPC dwarves will take care of this, allowing you to focus solely on bulk smelting your ores. 

However, you must pay 72,000 gp per hour to use the Furnace on these worlds, in addition to the under 60 Smithing fee. Again, this is a very worthwhile tradeoff, since finding other players to operate it manually will be quite difficult. 

A third recommendation, which is not anywhere near as important as the other two, is the coal bag from the Motherlode Mine. It allows you to store extra coal, shortening your trips significantly. 

Operating the Blast Furnace

Now, on to the actual operation of the Blast Furnace in Old School RuneScape. Since the ores and bars are very heavy, you want to wear weight-reducing equipment, such as the Graceful Outfit, as well as the ice gloves. 

First, pay the Furnace Foreman, who is located just south of the bank chest, your 72,000 gp for one hour. If you’re under 60 Smithing, you will need to pay him a little more. Then, withdraw your ores from the bank chest. 

The process from here on out depends on the bars you are smelting. Universally, you will be putting ores on the conveyor belt, then grabbing smelted bars from the bar dispenser in the middle. Take the bars back to the bank, rinse, and repeat. 

That being said, the actual process of smelting will differ based on the amount of coal required to smelt the bars of your choosing. Remember, you need half as much coal at the Blast Furnace as you would normally. 

If smelting bronze bars, simply fill your inventory with 14 copper ore and 14 tin ore. Place them on the conveyor belt, then grab your 14 bars from the dispenser. Take them back to the bank, and repeat the process over again. 

To smelt iron bars, fill your inventory with 28 iron ores. Place them on the conveyor belt, then grab your 28 iron bars from the dispenser. Bring them back to the bank, and start over. This process is the same for silver ores/bars. 

Steel is the first bar requiring coal, and therefore, is a little more complicated. First, place 54 coal on the conveyor. Your inventory has 28 spaces, so this is two trips of just coal. Then, make a third trip of just coal. There should be 81 coal in the furnace before you bring iron ores. 

From there, simply bring 27 iron ores, collect your 27 steel bars, and start the process over. Remember, you need a one to one ratio of iron ore to coal in the furnace, or you will get iron bars instead. 

Gold is seen by most players as the best bar to smelt for experience at the Blast Furnace, since it does not require coal, and you can use the Goldsmith Gauntlets. These are special gauntlets that grant more experience when smelting gold. They can be obtained from the quest ‘Family Crest,’ or its continuation, ‘Family Pest.’

Additionally, you can save your gold bars for Crafting experience in the future. For example, you can make rings, bracelets, and necklaces with them at appropriate Crafting levels.

To smelt gold, you simply need to put 27 gold ores on the conveyor belt, then collect your 27 bars. One inventory space will be occupied by your ice gloves, which you should put on when collecting the bars, then switch back to the Goldsmith Gauntlets. Then, repeat the process.

Mithril smelting will require a bit of coal, however. To smelt it, start by placing 81 coal (3 trips) in the furnace, then take 27 mithril ores. Collect your 27 bars, then bring another 27 coal, followed by another 27 mithril ore. Collect your bars a second time, then loop back to the initial 81 coal. 

Next, you can smelt adamant bars at the Blast Furnace by loading your three trips of coal totalling 81, then adding 27 adamantite ore. From there, simply collect your 27 adamantite bars, and repeat the process with another 81 coal. 

Finally, runite bars can be smelted with 85 Smithing and tons of coal. Start by making six trips of 27 coal each, for a total of 162. Then, add 27 more coal, totalling 189. Add 27 runite ores, and collect your bars. From there, add another 27 coal, then another 27 ores. Collect your bars, then loop back to the initial 162 coal. 

Hybrid Method

Furthermore, you can maximize time and cost-efficiency at the OSRS Blast Furnace using a hybrid method of smelting gold, mithril, adamant, or rune bars. Using this method turns the coal bag, goldsmith gauntlets, and ice gloves from soft recommendations to hard requirements. 

Start with the coal bag, and either the ice gloves or goldsmith gauntlets in your inventory. The pair of gloves not in your inventory should be equipped. The coal bag should be filled with coal, and your other 26 inventory slots should be full of gold ore. 

Every time you deposit 26 gold ores into the furnace, you will also deposit 26 coal via the coal bag. Every few trips, once there is enough coal for the appropriate metal, you will deposit that metal instead of gold. This will happen every two trips for mithril ore, three trips for adamant ore, and four trips for rune ore. 

For example, when using the hybrid method on gold and mithril bars, you deposit 26 coal from the coal bag, then 26 gold from the same inventory, then collect the 26 gold bars. On the next trip, you deposit 26 more coal from the bag, and 26 mithril ore, then collect your mithril bars.

On adamantite bars, you will deposit 26 gold, 26 coal, then collect your gold bars. Then, you deposit 26 gold and 26 coal, collect a second time. Every third trip, you deposit adamanitite ore instead of gold, along with the 26 coal, then collect your adamantite bars. 

For runite bars, you simply repeat the process of depositing 26 gold and coal, then collecting the gold bars three times, then deposit 26 runite ores and 26 coal on every fourth trip. 

The rule is to deposit 26 coal from the coal bag on every trip to deposit gold or mithril/adamant/rune ores. This increases your experience rates when smelting metal bars, while reducing the monetary losses of smelting only gold. 

Final Thoughts

The Blast Furnace in OSRS, while rather resource and click-intensive, provides incredible Smithing experience rates, depending on the method used. Traditional methods involve depositing several inventories of coal, then a trip of metal ore, on the conveyor belt, then collecting the bars from the dispenser, and starting over again. 

However, monetary losses can be mitigated at minimal experience loss using a hybrid method of smelting gold and higher tier metals at the same time. Using the coal bag, you can deposit 26 coal and 26 gold on every trip, and switch the gold out for metal ore every few trips.