Blast Furnace
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Death during this minigame is not safe. |
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| 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 | |
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.
Contents
Travelling to the furnace[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
- 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[edit | edit source]
- Coins for the entrance fee
- Ring of charos (a) to lower the entrance fee
Operating the Blast Furnace[edit | edit source]
The process for operating the Blast Furnace is as follows:
- Place ore on the Conveyor Belt.
- Turn the Conveyor Belt by operating the Pedals.
- Repair cogs or drive belt (if broken).
- Collect coke and use the spadeful of coke to refuel the Stove.
- Operate the Pump.
- Repair pipes (if broken).
- Cool down smelted bars with a bucket of water from the sink.
- 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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
 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[edit | edit source]
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."
Broken parts[edit | edit source]
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.
Experience[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
Single player method[edit | edit source]
A single player is able to manage the furnace by themselves if they use this strategy:
- Collect the ores using whatever method.
- Place them on the conveyor belt for up to 28 bars.
- Pedal the conveyor belt so that the ore goes into the furnace. Repair conveyor belt if it jams.
- 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.
- 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.
- Check that there are no broken pipes. If there are click on them and you will repair them with your hammer.
- 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.
- Repair any pipes that break while pumping. Sometimes, many will break and it will take a while; other times, none will break.
- 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.
- Collect the bucket from the spawn point near the sink and fill it with water; then use the bucket on the bar dispenser.
- 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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
Producing bars[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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 (386 Nature rune) |
Net Gain/Loss per XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steel platebody
|
1,628 | 1,790 | -1,676 | -4.47 |
 Mithril platebody
|
7,535 | 870 | -506 | -0.67 |
 Adamant platebody
|
7,914 | 1,465 | -851 | -1 |
 Rune platebody
|
10,652 | 5,660 | -3,546 | -2.95 |
Arrowtip profit/loss[edit | edit source]
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
|
37 | 358 | 2,417 | |
 Mithril arrowheads
|
36 | 174 | 2,526 | |
 Adamant arrowheads
|
113 | 293 | 8,182 | |
 Rune arrowheads
|
143 | 1,132 | 9,593 |
Crossbow bolt cost[edit | edit source]
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)
|
49 | 358 | 2,092 | |
 Mithril bolts (unf)
|
95 | 174 | 4,576 | |
 Adamant bolts (unf)
|
180 | 293 | 8,707 | |
 Rune bolts (unf)
|
214 | 1,132 | 9,568 |
Update history[edit | edit source]
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Prior to the Mining and Smithing rework:
- Before the 25 April 2016 update, there was no bank chest in the Blast Furnace area. Players had to run to and from the bank, relying upon Ordan to unnote their ores for a fee. Now some players might not find the cost of unnoting ores worth saving the minor annoyance of running between the bank and the conveyor belt a few times per load.
- On the 9 November 2009 update, the gate leading to the anvils was removed, and appropriate changes were made to the anvils so that only players with 60+ Smithing can use them.
- After 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 once again sold them at the normal market price. Ever since this update, Ordan's ore prices have been the same whatever the number of ores in stock. Since the update of 2 September 2009 the prices sank, and they are not fixed anymore, depending on stock amount.
- With the reintroduction of personalized shops, Ordan sells the ores at a lower price. So if you trade your ore to him and buyback, the cost involved is almost same as having him unnote them. Ex. Mithril unnotes at 81 and if you sell it to him noted, he pays you 82 gold for each. Then you buy it back again from him, he sells it at 162. So you again lost only 80, since he paid 82 for it already. This will save a huge amount of time avoiding the 'unnote' option (Note: You must make sure his stock is initially over 100 and keep it over 100 while there). This is no longer necessary due to the speeding up of the Unnote-X option and the removal of its dialogue.
- 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.
- World 58 used to be the official world for Blast Furnace. The label of that server was changed to "Community Smithing Training" on 10 December 2018, and then again changed to be a second Artisan's Workshop world with the Mining and Smithing rework.
Smithing locations | |
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| Anvils | |
| Forges | |
| Furnaces | |
