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Dragan's Smithing Guide

ATT: OUTDATED MATERIAL!

Smithing is a trade skill about making various stuff out of ore, metal bits and sheets of metal. The most notable thing a blacksmith can do is banded armor, the standard armor for most level 10 to 20 characters. While bronze plate mail is getting more common nowadays there are some classes (RNG, SHM, ROG) that can not wear normal plate based armor. As of today no player made plate armor or weapons are possible. However, Vernat keeps teasing us with promises about that.

This guide will tell you what you need to do to create banded armor (and all that other stuff). All prices mentioned here are for a half-elf with altered CHA (from 75 to 112 with some makeup). Price notation is in copper pieces. Retail value is the amount you get when you sell the item to a merchant.

General hints

Smithing is no longer a cash cow.

Smithing used to be a huge money maker. Banded armor was sold everywhere and everyone needed it. Now there are too many master smiths around and bronze plate is becoming abundant (especially the small bronze - medium and large are much harder to optain). When the first master smiths made banded tunics they went for 50pp a pop and more. Soon more smiths came and the price settled at 20-25pp for a while. Then the next wave of smiths broke in and brought the price down to below pp=AC value (tunics went for 10pp and less!). At this point it was clear that the EQ market is inflationary since no items disappear but new ones flood the market easily.
However today most master smiths do not smith any more. They rather enjoy themselves fighting MOBs than spending hours at the forge making a small marginal profit. Hence you can make a profit from smithing again as there is less competition around as there used to be.

Everything you do needs a Flask of Water added!

That's almost right. All recipies for smithing, apart from sharpening weapons, requires a Flask of Water on top of the listed components. Note that all Flask of Waters mentioned here are storebought! Summoned or foraged water does not work!

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Raising your skill

Described is the easiest and cheapest way to attain high skill levels in smithing. Many guides tell you to pump 20 skill points into the skill right away. I disagree however (unless you simply don't know anything to spend them on). It is much cheaper (and point saving) to start by putting just 1 or 2 points into smithing and then sharpening weapons. Since a recent patch you don't lose the weapon anymore if you fail to sharpen it (the sharpening stone however is lost) so you can keep trying on the same rusty broadsword until you succeed.

Never stack anything. All components must be seperate. And you cannot make two things in one go so don't try using double the stuff hoping to get two things in return - it simply does not work that way.
Instead of doing Large Sewing Kits you can just stick to non-trivial banded armor pieces, but the Sewing Kit is a bit cheaper to try (harder to sell though).
Sharpening a weapon will result in a -2 delay rate. Was a nice way to help out newbies by sharpening their stuff (the new weapon is then called tarnished). Make sure you check with the Weapons Guide to see if a tarnished version of the weapon exists. If not the try may net you nothign at all (but a wasted sharpening stone).

Skill Level What to do? Components Cost Return
00 - 21 Sharpen rusty weapons Rusty Weapon, Sharpening Stone 14 -
22 - 41 Scalers Metal Bits, Scaler Mold ? ?
42 - 68 Large Lanterns Metal Bits, Lantern Casing Mold, Bottle ? ?
69 - 115 Skewers Metal Bits, Skewer Mold ? ?
116 - 135 Small Sewing Kits Metal Bits, Needle Mold, Thimble Mold ? ?

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Making Banded Armor

Attempts at making banded armor should not start prior to a skill level of 50. At level 50 you can try the first banded piece (gorget) and will have about 20-30% success. Nowadays this is not enough return on investment anymore so you may want to wait until you reach the 70s before you start making stuff.
A sheet of metal costs me 1050, a Flask of Water 10. This is very cheap (CHA 112) so expect to pay more if you have less faction and lower CHA.

Skill Level Piece or Armor AC WT* Components Cost
50 Gorget 6 2.0 Mold, Sheet of Metal 1091
55 Bracers 6 2.0 Mold, Sheet of Metal 1375
55 Boots 6 5.0 Mold, Sheet of Metal 2740
60 Mask 4 1.0 Mold, 2 Sheets of Metal 2110+?
65 Sleeves 7 3.5 Mold, 2 Sheets of Metal 2110+?
70 Helm 8 4.5 Mold, 2 Sheets of Metal 2110+?
80 Mantle 6 3.5 Mold, 2 Sheets of Metal 2110+?
85 Belt 6 2.5 Mold, 2 Sheets of Metal 2110+?
100? Gloves 7 ? Mold, 2 Sheets of Metal 2110+?
100 Leggings 8 5.5 Mold, 3 Sheets of Metal 3160+?
100 Tunic (Mail) 15 5.5 Mold, 3 Sheets of Metal 3160+?
145 Cloak 7 4.0 Mold, 3 Sheets of Metal 3160+?
* The weight is for medium sized pieces. Large weights more, small less.

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Recipes

Here now a listing of most of the things that can be done with smithing. Note that most of them are completely useless and just to support the hobbies of other trades (bakers). You will also probably need some expertise in pottery for the ceramic lining that is required on some of the pieces.

Item Components Trivial Cost Return
- - - - -
Metal Bits 2 Small Pieces of Ore 21 - -
Large Brick of Ore 3 Small Bricks of Ore ?? - -
Block of Ore 3 Large Bricks of Ore ?? - -
File Metal Bits, File Mold 21 - -
Small Container Metal Bits, Sm Hinge Mold,
Sm Base Mold, Sm Lid Mold		 <41 - -
Medium Container Metal Bits, Med Hinge Mold,
Med Base Mold, Med Lid Mold		 <41 - -
Scaler Metal Bits, Scaler Mold 41 - -
Large Container Metal Bits, Lg Hinge Mold,
Lg Base Mold, Lg Lid Mold		 <68 - -
Studs 3 Metal Bits, File <68 - -
Cookie Cutters Metal Bits, Respective Mold <68 - -
Sheet Metal 2 Small Bricks of Ore <68 - -
Lantern Metal Bits, Lantern Casing Mold,
Bottle		 68 - -
Steel Boning Small Brick of Ore, File <88 - -
Pot Metal Bits, Pot Mold,
Standing Legs Mold		 >101 - -
Smoker Metal Bits, Skewers,
Base Mold, Support Mold		 >101 - -
Cake Round Metal Bits, Cake Round Mold
Ceramic Lining		 >101 - -
Pie Tin Metal Bits, Pie Tin Mold,
Ceramic Lining		 >101 - -
Muffin Tin Metal Bits, Muffin Tin Mold,
Ceramic Lining		 >101 - -
Bread Tin Metal Bits, Bread Tin Mold,
Ceramic Lining		 >101 - -
Skewers Metal Bits, Skewer Mold 115 - -
Small Sewing Kit Metal Bits, Needle Mold,
Thimble Mold		 135 - -
Note that some items are either broken or unavailable. Lockpicks (Metal Bits, Lockpick Mold) can't be made since no Lockpick Mold are existent, Folded Metal Sheet (Block of Ore) and Tool Box (Metal Bits) either have wrong recipes or are broken. Also note that Scaler Molds produce Large Container Lid Molds instead of Scalers.

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Achnowledgements

Many thanks go to the following people and their respective fletching guides:

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