Blast Furnace

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Blast Furnace

This article is about the blast furnace used in the minigame of the same name. For another blast furnace used to smelt Elemental ore, see Elemental Workshop (dungeon).

Death during this minigame is not safe. While this activity is not inherently dangerous, should you die by other means you will still lose your items and will need to reclaim them from Death or your grave.

Blast Furnace
Release date	23 August 2005 (Update)
Members	Yes
Location	Keldagrim
Participants	Unknown edit
Skills involved	Agility, Crafting, Strength, Firemaking, Smithing, Magic
Reward currency	N/A
In spotlight rotation	No
Hiscores	No
Tutorial	Unknown edit
Custodians	Unknown edit
Music unlocked	Have a Blast
Developers	Unknown edit
Infobox • Talk page

Full view of the Blast Furnace.

The Blast Furnace is a members-only minigame located in Keldagrim. Players use the furnace to smelt steel, mithril, adamant, and rune bars without using secondary ore (coal or luminite). No other bars can be smelted here.

Although the Blast Furnace does not involve combat, players may take damage while using the pump if the furnace's heat level rises to an extreme level, as indicated by the red zone on the furnace's temperature gauge. The amount of damage dealt depends on the player's Strength level.

The Blast Furnace is more efficient when used by a team as multiple players can assume different roles. However, it is possible for players to operate the Blast Furnace alone.

This minigame is disabled for Ironman Mode players.

Travelling to the furnace

The Blast Furnace factory.

There are many ways to reach the Blast Furnace. It is located in south-east Keldagrim, slightly north of the train and cart stations. There are many ways to reach Keldagrim, including:

• Riding the mine carts for free.
  • Using the trapdoor just north-west of the Grand Exchange (you must have visited Keldagrim before you can use this shortcut).
  • From the passage under White Wolf Mountain (requires Fishing Contest).
• Riding the train from the first level of Dorgesh-Kaan.
• Walking to Keldagrim's entrance from Rellekka or Seers' Village.
  • Fairy ring code DKS. This will transport players to the north-east of the Keldagrim entrance.
• Using the Keldagrim teleport on the Luck of the Dwarves ring. This will teleport players to the west side of Keldagrim, south-east of the bank.

Skills requirements

The following skill levels are required to operate the Blast Furnace. If players are working as a team, however, these level requirements may be met by the entire team, not for each individual.

• 60 for the ability to use the furnace. Players with a Smithing level less than 60 may pay a fee of 2,500 coins in order to use the furnace for 10 minutes. Wearing a Ring of charos (a) halves the payment. Players entering this way can use the furnace multiple times in 10 minutes. If a player logs out, however, their time will expire.
• 30 for fuelling up the stove.
• 30 for pumping the stove.
• 30 for pedalling the conveyor belt.
• 30 for fixing the broken pipes.

What to bring

You don't have to bring all these items because there's a Bank chest nearby.

The following items are suggested in order to effectively use the Blast Furnace.

Ore

Ore is essential in order to train Smithing at the Blast Furnace. Ore may be obtained through multiple ways:

• Using the bank chest near the Blast Furnace Foreman to bring inventories of ore directly to the conveyor belt.
• Bringing all ore in note form to Ordan. He will then unnote ores (up to and including Runite) by using the notes on him, for free.
• Accessing the metal bank through the anvils.

Other

• An ore box
• A Beast of Burden
• Nature runes and Fire runes for the High Level Alchemy spell. A Staff of fire can also be used.

Under 60 smithing

• Coins for the entrance fee
• Ring of charos (a) to lower the entrance fee

Operating the Blast Furnace

The process for operating the Blast Furnace is as follows:

1. Place ore on the Conveyor Belt.
2. Turn the Conveyor Belt by operating the Pedals.
3. Repair cogs or drive belt (if broken).
4. Collect coke and use the spadeful of coke to refuel the Stove.
5. Operate the Pump.
6. Repair pipes (if broken).
7. Cool down smelted bars with a bucket of water from the sink.
8. Collect the bars from the bar dispenser.

Players can add the ore to the furnace when the bars are ready to collect, so the next bars will be smelted by other players while smithing the previous ones.

Conveyor belt

A player puts ore on the belt.

A player pedals to work the conveyor belt.

First of all, players have to put their ore on the conveyor belt. Once the materials are placed on the belt, they cannot be taken by other players. To activate the conveyor belt, a player must pedal the gearbox. Pedalling drains run energy for those with lower Agility levels.

The furnace is limited to a maximum of 28 ore per player, only enough to make 28 bars. There is no way to know how much metal ore is in the furnace until the capacity is reached. A player cannot add ore if there are 28 bars of the same type in the bar dispenser.

The gears driving the drive belt may break while pedalling. While the gears are broken, the temperature of the furnace stays at the minimum and no bars can be smelted. A player must fix them with a hammer (from the tool belt, or respawn on the north-east table) in order to get the belt running again.

Furnace stove

A player loads coke into the stove.

After putting in the ore, the next step is to load coke into the stove with a spade (respawn by the coal pile; the spade on the tool belt cannot be used in this instance). To load coke, click the pile of coke (changing the spade to Spadeful of coke) and then click the stove.

The colour of the grate indicates the temperature of the stove:

• - Cold
• - Warm
• - Hot

Heat pump

A player pumps hot air.

When the stove temperature is hot, it is time to pump air into the furnace. Click on the pump to start pumping. Players must continue to pump until either the bars are smelted, or a pipe or the drive belt 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, they will take damage equal to about 20% of their current life points (for example, a player with 700 life points would take 140 damage). Therefore, the player should either have another player warn them when the gauge approaches the red region, or listen for the production of bars, as discussed below.

Temperature gauge

Reading the temperature gauge.

A pipe has broken.

The Blast Furnace will only produce bars while the needle of the temperature gauge is in the green area of the dial. A player watching the gauge may tell the pumper to start pumping when the needle is in the white and stop pumping when it approaches red (to prevent the pumper from taking damage). This is not really necessary, however, since the bars are produced as soon as the needle reaches green; upon seeing and hearing this, the pumper can stop pumping.

The gauge will also indicate when the stove needs more coke or if a part has broken.

Bar dispenser

Once the bars are melted, they pour into the bar dispenser and the mould in the centre turns an orange colour. Players have to cool the bars down with a bucket of water (respawn near the sink) before obtaining the bars. A player can smelt up to 28 bars of one type at once and must remove bars in order to add more ore, or else they will receive the message, "You should check and see if the other bars have smelted before adding more."

Bar dispenser

Broken parts

While the Blast Furnace is in use, the drive belt and one of two sections of pipe will occasionally break. These can be fixed with a hammer, which can be used from the tool belt; otherwise, one respawns on the north-east table. 50 Crafting experience is awarded for each fix, and this does work with bonus experience.

A pipe in need of repair

Experience

Full Smithing experience is gained from smelting the bars. There is an anvil nearby to smith any items you wish for additional experience. Magic XP can be gained should one choose to alchemise their produced items.

Additionally, maintaining the Blast Furnace also offers experience in other skills. However, this gives trivial experience:

Skill	Action	Experience
Agility	Pedal the conveyor belt	2 xp/second
Crafting	Repair the pipes or drive belt	50 xp
Strength	Pumping	4 xp/second
Firemaking	Shovel coke into the stove	5 xp/ load
Smithing	Help use the Blast Furnace	1 xp/bar loaded (by any other person)
Magic	High Alchemy (optional)	65 xp

Operation strategy

Single player method

What to check when solo smelting

A single player is able to manage the furnace by themselves if they use this strategy:

1. Collect the ores using whatever method.
2. Place them on the conveyor belt for up to 28 bars.
3. Pedal the conveyor belt so that the ore goes into the furnace. Repair conveyor belt if it jams.
4. Collect the hammer (if not on tool belt) and spade from their respawn places in the room. The hammer spawn point is on a table near the north-east 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 is 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 as long as the pipes do not break too much.
6. 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. This is easily done in full-screen HD.
8. Repair any pipes that break while pumping. Sometimes, many will break and it will take a while; other times, none will break.
9. When the centre of the bar dispenser turns an orange colour (and if the sound effects are on, one will hear a popping noise), stop pumping; 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; then use the bucket on the bar dispenser.
11. Collect the bars.

• It should be noted if a player heats up the stove to the red colour plus one spadeful of coke, a player can often pump and repair the Blast Furnace without having to check the pressure gauge or refill the stove until done with his or her load of ore.

The player will receive all of miscellaneous non-Smithing XP in addition to the usual full Smithing XP for smelting the bars. This is the only advantage of using this method. Unfortunately, even the official Blast Furnace world (world 58) tends to be devoid of players here during much of the day, leaving many players with no choice but to work the furnace alone.

Under 60 strategy

This method is not as good as the normal Blast Furnace, but still works great. It helps to be on world 58 in case other players are there.
Items needed: Coins for paying to use the furnace and ores (mithril, for this example) for making bars.

• Pay the foreman 2500gp to use the furnace (1250gp with ring of charos(a)).
• Put 28 mithril on the conveyor belt
• Work the Blast Furnace.
• Bank bars at the nearby chest when finished.
• Repeat.

If you want to smith the bars as you make them:
Additional item needed: Varrock teleports

• When the bars are done, collect them and use a Varrock teleport.
• Run to the anvils west of the teleport, in the structure south of the bank.
• Smith the item you want.
• Run to the Grand Exchange and quick use the trap door near the north-west corner to ride a mine cart back to Keldagrim near the Blast Furnace.
• Repeat.

Cost analysis

Producing bars

Players will generally profit by turning ores into bars. This calculator gives details on the profit obtained from making each type of bar.

High Alchemy profit/loss

This next table evaluates the profitability for casting the high alchemy magic spell on platebodies of the various ore types.

Platebody	Grand Exchange Price	GE Ore Costs	High Alch Profit/Loss (374 Nature rune)	Net Gain/Loss per XP
Steel platebody	4,551	2,110	-1,984	-5.29
Mithril platebody	6,844	1,065	-689	-0.92
Adamant platebody	19,981	1,175	-549	-0.65
Rune platebody	18,451	8,385	-6,259	-5.22

Arrowtip profit/loss

Each bar will produce 75 arrowtips, and the price below reflects each group of 75 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. The prices and the profit is on a per-bar basis and not per arrowtip.

Arrowtips	Grand Exchange Price	Ore Costs	Smithing profit/loss	Net Gain/Loss per XP
Steel arrowheads	18	422	928
Mithril arrowheads	32	213	2,187
Adamant arrowheads	93	235	6,740
Rune arrowheads	142	1,677	8,973

Crossbow bolt cost

Crossbow bolts are another very popular fletching item, as they are commonly used while ranging. The prices and the profit is on a per-bar basis and not per bolt, as 50 bolts can be smithed per bar.

Unfinished bolts	Grand Exchange Price	Ore Costs	Smithing profit/loss	Net Gain/Loss per XP
Steel bolts (unf)	37	422	1,428
Mithril bolts (unf)	67	213	3,137
Adamant bolts (unf)	131	235	6,315
Rune bolts (unf)	212	1,677	8,923

Update history

The update history project is a work-in-progress – not all updates to this topic may be covered below. See here for how to help out!

• patch 28 January 2019 (Update):
  • Fixed an issue where ores could only be added one at a time to the Blast Furnace.

• patch 7 January 2019 (Update):
  • The Blast Furnace only works up to rune bars.
    • Prior to this, Bronze, iron, silver, and gold bars could be smelted at the Blast Furnace, and the anvils required level 60 Smithing to use.
  • Ordan no longer sells ore, but no longer charges to unnote ore.
    • Prior to this, Ordan only unnoted ores up to and including Mithril, and it wasn't free. In addition, he also sold ores.
  • As a related change, World 58 is now another Artisan's Workshop instead of a Community Smithing Training world.

• patch 10 December 2018 (Update):
  • The "Blast Furnace" world 58 has become the "Community Smithing Training" along with a number of other worlds changed with the removal of Mobilising Armies.

• ninja 25 April 2016 (Update):
  • Added a new bank chest.
    • Prior to this, players had to run to and from the bank, relying upon Ordan to unnote their ores for a fee.

• patch 17 October 2012 (Update):
  • The anvils at the Blast Furnace no longer bypass the 60 Smithing level requirement by using the "Smith" option.

• patch 13 June 2012 (Update):
  • The dialogue when trying to speak to Ordan in the Blast Furnace has been reduced.

• patch 10 May 2012 (Update):
  • It is no longer possible to teleport whilst using the pump or pedals in Blast Furnace.

• patch 24 April 2012 (Update):.
  • Un-noting ores at the Blast Furnace using Ordan now correctly costs money.

• patch 4 January 2012 (Update):
  • Un-noting ore at the Blast Furnace now uses the updated chat interface.

• patch 24 November 2010 (Update):
  • The Blast Furnace is now more forgiving to players with certain ores left in the furnace.

• patch 17 September 2009 (Update):
  • Improved the look of the Blast Furnace conveyor belt in lower-detail modes.

• patch 9 November 2009 (Update):
  • Removed a bottleneck at the Blast Furnace by removing the door and making appropriate changes to the anvil.
    • This update added the requirement of 60+ smithing to use the anvils to compensate for removing the gate leading to them.

• update 2 September 2009 (Update):
  • With the global changes to shops, Ordan's shop is now unique to each player.
    • This had the effect of making selling and buying ore almost the same as unnoting ores.
    • This side-effect was effectively removed with the changes to the unnote ability is later updates.

• patch 2 September 2009 (Update):
  • Fixed a graphical issue when adding ore to the furnace.

• patch 16 June 2009 (Update):
  • Rebalanced the Blast Furnace pedals due to the recent run energy changes.

• patch 21 April 2009 (Update):
  • Ensured that the Blast Furnace correctly depletes your run energy while training Agility.

• patch 25 February 2009 (Update):
  • Pumping the Blast Furnace while wearing Bandos tassets will no longer cause graphical glitching.
  • You should now be able to put more coal on the conveyor belt after you have used some up in the Blast Furnace.

• patch 10 February 2009 (Update):
  • The Blast Furnace code checks have been changed to prevent too much coal being added.

• update 26 November 2007 (Update):
  • Prices for ores sold by Ordan are now based on the Grand Exchange maximum market price.
    • This price was much more expensive than before, and was changed to the normal market price in a later update.

Trivia

• Contrary to popular belief, the temperature of the stove does not affect the chance of a pipe becoming broken.
• 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.
• In the Q&A on 11 February 2010, Paul Gower stated that the Blast Furnace was created during an attempt to make a Smithing Guild.
• If you use the orb of oculus in the Java version and look north-west, you see the Gravedigger random event. Looking north-east, you see the old Candlelight random event. Looking directly east or west, you can see segments of Eagles' Peak from during the quest.