Fabrication and repair of metal objects by hot and cold forging on an anvil or with a power hammer or by welding and other means. Blacksmiths traditionally worked with iron (anciently known as "black metal"), making agricultural and other tools, fashioning hardware (e.g., hooks, hinges, handles) for the farm, the home, and industry, and shoeing horses. The term smithing is also applied to work with precious metals (gold, silver) as well as other metals (e.g., tin, including tinplate, and steel).
Smithing is an artisan skill through which players may create a wide variety of metal items from ore and metal bars. It is the companion skill of Mining, which generates all of the raw materials used in Smithing. Ores acquired from Mining are smelted into metal bars at furnaces, and then hammered into items at anvils. Many smithable items are useful in combat, quests, and the training of a number of other skills such as Crafting and Fletching.
Overview
Smithing is divided into two distinct processes:
Smelting ores into bars, and
Working the bars into various items. Both processes give Smithing experience.
Smithing Tools
1) Hammer
2) Chisel
3) Sets
4) Hardy
5) Tong
6) Punches for hot work
7) Drifts
8) Fuller
9) Swage
10) Flatters and Set Hammers
11) Hand Mandrel
12) Bloster Plates
Fuel and Tools
1) Fire Hints
2) Heating Metal
▪ Black heat (about 550-630°C). No red colour visible except faintly in the dark.
▪ Dull red (about 680-740°C). Used for easy well-radiused bends in mild steel and for forging high-carbon steels.
▪ Bright red (about 850-900°C). Used for simple forging operations, such as bending metal over the anvil, light punching and hot chiselling.
▪ Bright yellow or near-welding heat (about 1 100-1200°C). The principal forging operations are carried out at this temperature, including drawing-down, upsetting, preparing scarfs for welding and punching heavy sections. High-speed steel is forged at this temperature but high-carbon steel must be kept lower.
▪ Full-welding heat (about 1 300-1 500°C). If the blast is correct, the fire clean and compact, a few white bursting sparks will begin to appear. This indicates the correct temperature for welding most grades of mild steel. The surface of the metal appears to "sweat" in the fire.
▪ Brilliant white heat (about 1 500°C). Used for welding wrought iron only and is much too high a temperature for other steels.
Note: A temperature of about 740-850°C is the range for hardening most carbon-tool steels before tempering.
Process
1) DRAWING-DOWN
This is the process of making metal longer and thinner and is usually carried out at near-welding heat. On heavy work this is more easily carried out either between top and bottom fullers or by using the top fuller only with the job on the anvil face.
2) UPSETTING OR JUMPING UP
This process makes metal shorter and thicker and is usually carried out at near-welding temperature. Metal can be either thickened at the ends of bars or swollen in the centre. The job should be carried out in stages keeping control of the heat by cooling with water in the appropriate places.
3) BENDING
This can sometimes be carried out cold but is preferably done at a bright red heat. Bending can be carried out over the edge of the anvil, over the beak, by using a swage block or forked tools that can be hand-operated, held in a vice or placed in the tool hole of the anvil. During bending, the metal on the outside of the bend is subjected to a stretching action while that on the inside of the bend is subjected to compression or upsetting.
4) PUNCHING AND DRIFTING
Punching is best carried out at near-welding heat. If the hole is deep, the metal contracts around the punch and it then must be withdrawn and cooled after every two or three blows. The punch itself becomes hot during punching operations. If it is allowed to grow too hot and soften the end of the punch will enlarge, and it will become difficult if not impossible to remove from the work. When deep holes are to be punched, a little coal dust sprinkled into the hole from time to time generates gases that assist in the removal of the punch.
5) FIRE-WELDING
This is the procedure where two or more pieces of metal while in a plastic state are joined together by hammering. Much practice is needed before even the simplest weld can be carried out with success. Iron and most grades of mild steel can be welded without the use of a fluxing agent.
6) Hardening and Tempering
7) Annealing
8) Normalizing
9) Tempering
Uses of Smithing
1) Smithing is used to repairequipment at an armour stand in a player-owned house. The cost of repairing the equipment is lowered by a percentage determined by Smithing level divided by 2.
2) Smithing is one of the skills used in the ancient effigies Distraction and Diversion.
3) Smithing has become more useful as a skill due to its implementations into minigames such as Stealing Creation and skills such as Dungeoneering.
Safety Measures
Safety is a case of common sense, but a few pointers may be in order.
▪ All hammer and tool heads must be securely fastened and checked at regular intervals.
▪ All tools struck with hammers must have correctly shaped heads. Tool heads must not be allowed to "mushroom" and create the danger of sharp chips of metal flying off, perhaps with disastrous results.
▪ The anvil face must be kept clean and free of water.
▪ Sturdy footwear must be worn and trousers should cover the tops of boots or shoes.
▪ Goggles should be worn when grinding tools and may be used for forging.
▪ Don't touch metal without being sure it is cool. Hot pieces of metal should be put in a safe place and a warning sign placed nearby.
▪ The workshop floor should be kept clean and clear of odd pieces of metal.
▪ A first-aid kit should be available to deal with minor cuts and burns and restocked as needed.
▪ The fire should be put out after the day's work.
▪ A leather apron will prevent burns to clothing from sparks.
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