Blast Furnace

The Blast Furnace is a member's only activity located in Keldagrim. Players may use this furnace to smelt ore into bars, but must keep it in working order to be successful. The Blast Furnace requires half the amount of coal required for a normal furnace or Superheat Item spell. This makes it a faster and low cost way to train Smithing. The official world for Blast Furnace is World 58.

While the Blast Furnace is a safe activity, although players may become injured while using the heat pump. The amount of damage dealt depends on the player's Hitpoints level.

The Blast Furnace is more efficient when used by a team, however, single players can complete it by using a bit of strategy.

Reaching the furnace
There are many ways to reach Keldagrim :
 * Using the train from Dorgesh-Kaan.
 * Using the mine cart from the Dwarven Mine. Can not have a familiar out.
 * Using the mine cart from the passage under the White Wolf Mountain.Can not have a familiar out.
 * Walk from Relleka or Seers' village
 * Fairy ring code D-K-S (north east of Keldagrim entrance)

The Blast Furnace is in the southeast of Keldagrim, near the train station, in the building cave.

Skills requirements

 * Smithing level 60 or pay a fee of 2500 coins to use the furnace for 10 minutes (1250 coins when wearing an activated Ring of charos). Level 60 Smithing is also required to enter anvils at the north of the room.
 * Firemaking level 30, for fueling up the stove,
 * Strength level 30, for pumping the stove,
 * Agility level 30, for pedaling the conveyor belt,
 * Crafting level 30, for fixing the broken pipes,

If in a team, all of the preceding level requirements must be met for the team overall, not for each individual.

The 10 minute time limit allows re-entry of the furnace. However, a player will run out of time if s/he logs out.

Ore
Suggested ways to obtain ore:
 * Bring all the ore in note form (up to Mithril, as that is the highest the shop stocks) and ask Ordan to un-note them for a small price by using the noted ore(s) on Ordan.
 * Buy all the ore from Ordan the shop keeper, and change worlds if there is no ore left.
 * Mine all of the desired ore elsewhere, and make bank trips.

Suggested equipment

 * Coins to buy Ordan's ores and/or to pay fee.
 * Charos ring to pay a lower fee if player's smithing level lower than 60 (2500 or 1250 coins).
 * Nature Rune and Staff of fire or Fire rune if player wishes to utilize high alchemy.
 * Varrock armour for the occasional speed boost when mining.
 * Gold helmet if mining ore from the Arzinian Mine from Between a Rock... quest.

Operating The Blast Furnace
General process:
 * 1) Put ore on Conveyor Belt
 * 2) Activate Conveyor Belt (Pedaller)
 * 3) Collect coke and refuel Furnace Stoke (Refueller)
 * 4) Activate heat Pump (Pumper)
 * 5) Repair any broken parts (Repairer)
 * 6) Cool down smelted bars with water
 * 7) Collect the bars

Conveyor Belt
First of all, players have to put their ore and coal on the conveyor belt. Once the ore is placed on the belt, it cannot be taken by other players. To activate the conveyor belt, the player must pedal the gearbox. Pedalling slowly drains run energy, but it gives about 2 Agility experience per second. The furnace is limited to a maximum of 226 coal and 28 ore (254 slots). If a player puts in ore first, the coal capacity will decrease by the number of ore put in. For example, putting in 5 mithril ore will decrease the coal maximum capacity to 244 (254 - 10) since mithril ore requires 2 coal per bar. Players can see the amount of coal in the furnace by checking the dispenser. However, there is no way to know how much metal ore is in the furnace until the capacity is reached.

The drive belt may break while running. When this happens, a player must fix it with a hammer (respawn on the northeast table) in order to get the belt running again.

Furnace Stoke
After putting in the ore, the next step is to load coke into the stove with a spade (respawn by the coke pile). To load coke, click the pile of coke and then the stove. 5 Firemaking experience is gained per load.

The colour of the grate indicates the temperature of the furnace.

Heat Pump
When the stove temperature is hot, it's time to pump air into the furnace. Click on the pump to start pumping. About 4 Strength experience is gained per second when pumping.

Players must continue to pump until either the bars are smelted, or a pipe breaks.

Caution: Be careful not to pump when the temperature gets into the red zone as indicated on the temperature gauge. If a player continues to pump, s/he will be damaged for up to 160 Hitpoints, depending on his/her Hitpoints level. The player cannot precisely see the temperature while s/he is pumping, however as long as the grate colour stays orange, there is no need to check the temperature gauge.

Temperature Gauge
There is no need to check the temperature gauge as the grate colour is a good indicator. If a player still wanted to check it,the temperature should be kept in the green zone for the best results. The monitor should be able to tell the pumper to stop pumping when the needle is about to hit the red zone. The gauge will also indicate when the stove needs more coke or if a part has broken.

Bar Dispenser
Once the bars are melted, the bar dispenser turns a golden colour. Players can cool the bars down with a bucket of water (respawn near the dispenser) before obtaining the bars, or wait for the bars to cool down as they operate the furnace. A player can smelt up to 28 bars at once, and must remove bars in order to add more ore.

Broken Parts
While in use, the pipes and drive belt will break. These can be fixed with a hammer (respawn on the northeast table). Each fix will yield 50 Crafting experience.

Single player strategy
A single player is able to manage the furnace by himself if s/he uses this strategy:


 * 1) Collect the materials however you like.
 * 2) Place them on the conveyor belt (left click on the belt to put them all on at once) with the correct ratio of ores (1:1 iron to coal, 1:2 mithril to coal, 1:3 adamantite to coal, and/or 1:4 runite to coal) for up to 28 bars. Player may place more coal then needed.
 * 3) Pedal the conveyor belt so that the ore goes into the furnace. Repair conveyor belt if it jams.
 * 4) Collect the hammer and spade from their respawn places in the room. The hammer spawn point is on a table near the northeast corner and the spade spawn point is on the floor next to the refuel area.
 * 5) Now fuel up the machine. There is no point only putting in a little fuel as it will run out when it's needed, so it is important to put enough in. Repeatedly click on "collect coke" and then "Refuel Stove" until the colour of the three lines on top of the stove is red. If done quickly it is also possible to use as few as eight repetitions and the pipes do not break too much.
 * 6) Move on to pumping the machine. First check that there are no broken pipes. If there are click on them and you will repair them with your hammer.
 * 7) Start pumping. There is no need to check the gauge while pumping. Position your view so that you can see the bar dispenser, the pipes, and the stove top, as shown on the upper image.
 * 8) Repair any pipes that break while pumping. Sometimes many will break and it will take a while; sometimes none will break.
 * 9) When the bar dispenser turns a golden colour (and if the sound effects are on one will hear a kind of popping noise), stop pumping as the bars are done, otherwise you will be hurt by a blast of hot air.
 * 10) Collect the bucket from the spawn point near the sink and fill it with water from the sink, then use the bucket on the bar dispenser.
 * 11) Collect the bars. Repeat as desired.

Team playing
Team playing at the Blast Furnace is much easier than attempting it yourself, as people can assume different jobs. This option also allows for the faster gathering of experience.

Unnoting
When deciding strategies for the blast furnace, it is important to understand the true cost of unnoting the ores and manufacturing the bars.

High Alchemy Profit/Loss
When alching items, it is important to know how much you will gain/loss.

Arrowtip profit/loss
Each bar will produce 15 arrowtips, and the price reflects each group of 15 arrowtips made from one bar. As these are stackable, there is no need for Nature runes, and these can be sold on the Grand Exchange or used with Fletching skill to create arrows.

Crossbow Bolt Cost
Just as it may be profitable to make arrow tips, crossbow bolts are another very popular fletching item that is in demand.

High level ores
One effective way is to bring 200 noted coal and 25 un-noted runite ore, roughly 30,000 coins, 5 nature runes and a fire staff. Put all of the runite ores on the conveyor; Then, by using the method of un-noting in the shop, put all the coal on the conveyor too. It is important to realise that there is a coal maximum of 216 in the furnace. A player can't put more than this on the conveyor belt and/or furnace.

After making the bars, a player can smith them and use High Level Alchemy on the smithed items. This means the player can run for longer when going back to the bank and the furnace is now ready for its next load.

If you have summoning level 13 or better, you can use a Thorny snail to hold noted coal and gold when making trips to the furnace, allowing you to have as much as 29 ores in your inventory (with one "open" slot in the storage area of the snail to go over the normal 28). You have 16 minutes before the snail pouch expires, but that should be sufficient time to travel from the bank, smelt the ore, and even return to the bank with the bars. Thorny snail pouches can be purchased for 292 coins (the price floor for that pouch type) on the Grand Exchange. Other beasts of burden can be used even more dramatically to help enhance the productivity of higher level smithing. However, when you are making steel bars with a beast of burden, remember these steps:


 * Add iron ore to the furnace (provided coal is already inside it)
 * Take iron ore from familiar, but DON'T ADD IT TO THE FURNACE YET!!!
 * Collect the steel bars from the bar dispenser once they're done
 * Store some of the steel bars with the familiar
 * Add the iron ore to the furnace and make into bars

If these steps aren't followed, the iron ore from the familiar will be made into iron bars instead of steel.

Mithril processing
The dwarf Ordan sells all types of ore up to mithril. This allows a player to train smithing without mining ores. Buy mithril and coal from Ordan in the ratio two coal for each mithril. Make two trips of 25 coal and another for 25 mithril. Operate the Blast Furnace to obtain 25 mithril bars. Smith them into 5 mithril platebodies. After high alching the smithed items, a small profit remains (excluding the cost of the nature runes). Bringing a few hundred nature runes allows a player to repeat this until the shop runs out of ores. Generally the coal supply runs out first. Hence, players need to switch to another world or bring their own noted coals. Note that processing of 25 ores/bars requires a bit of inventory management. Use the spade and hammer respawns for this.

Trivia

 * Since the Grand Exchange update, Ordan was first selling ore at the maximum market price, which was much more expensive than previously. After complaints from players over this, he is now selling them at the normal market price. Ever since this update, Ordan's ore prices are the same whatever the number of ores in stock.


 * Every 15 seconds Ordan's shop is restocked by a dwarf that enters the room and gives a large number (around 30) of one random type of ore to Ordan. Once there is 100 ore of one kind in stock, the surplus is sent to an unknown storage area.


 * The conveyor belt that moves the ores into the furnace has 3 separate sections turning independently. However, only the outer two are connected to the pedal mechanism; the inner one turns by itself.