The forge and smelting
Turning iron ore and coal into iron bars, and bars into fittings, tools and more.
Iron ore isn't much use as it comes out of the ground. You need to smelt it into bars first, and that's what the forge is for. Once you've got some iron ore and some coal in your pack, the game will remind you it's time to build one.
Building one#
A forge is a stone hearth with a set of bellows on it. It takes 3 logs, 12 stone, 3 clay, 1 hide. The clay is the mortar for the stonework and the hide makes the bellows, so you'll need to have done a bit of digging and a bit of hunting first. It's in the Build menu under Works. It can stand outside on open, dry ground, or inside a building you've put up, so your smithy can have walls and a roof. See Workshops.
Like anything else you build, the stone, clay and logs can come from your pack or from piles close by, so it's easiest to pile it all up where you want the forge and build it right there.
Smelting#
Tap the forge and choose Smelt iron. Each go takes 1 iron ore and 1 lump of coal from your pack and gives you 1 iron bar. You don't need to light anything, the coal is the fire. The ore and coal have to be in your pack though, not on a pile beside you.
Every bar gives you 20 Smithing, and the better you get the quicker it goes:
| Job | Level 1 | Level 10 | Level 20 | Level 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smelt a bar | 10 s | 8.1 s | 6.1 s | 4 s |
| Make anything at the forge | 12 s | 9.8 s | 7.4 s | 5 s |
| Mend a worn tool | 8 s | 6.4 s | 4.7 s | 3 s |
What you make from bars#
Tap the forge and choose Make… to see the list. The first thing anyone can make is iron fittings, and that's where most of your iron goes. The rest open up as your Smithing goes up.
| Makes | Bars | Smithing | XP | What it's for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 iron fittings | 1 | 1 | 15 | The iron in a building: hinges and latches for doors and water gates, a well's bucket hoops, the spikes in a bridge deck, a wagon's tyres and a rowboat's oarlocks and nails. |
| Lantern | 1 | 2 | 30 | Lights your way at night and down the mine. Put one on a lantern post. |
| Shears | 1 | 3 | 30 | Shearing your sheep. They wear with use, and a smith can mend it. See Wear and mending. |
| Iron sword | 2 | 4 | 50 | Fighting up close. It hits for 15, and a tenth more for every Melee level. It wears with use, and a smith can mend it. See Wear and mending. |
| Iron shovel | 1 | 5 | 40 | It does what a stone or wooden one does, only digging, raising ground, grubbing out stumps and bushes, shovelling snow go 25% quicker, and it lasts a good deal longer. Keep it in your pack, you don't need it in your hand. It wears with work, and a smith can mend it. See Tools and Wear and mending. |
| Iron axe | 1 | 6 | 40 | It does what a stone or wooden one does, only felling trees, splitting firewood, chopping holes in the ice go 25% quicker, and it lasts a good deal longer. Keep it in your pack, you don't need it in your hand. It wears with work, and a smith can mend it. See Tools and Wear and mending. |
| Iron pick | 2 | 8 | 60 | It does what a stone or wooden one does, only breaking boulders, mining underground, chipping out fossils, panning go 25% quicker, and it lasts a good deal longer. Keep it in your pack, you don't need it in your hand. It wears with work, and a smith can mend it. See Tools and Wear and mending. |
| Iron axle | 2 | 9 | 70 | Tap a cart of yours and fit it. The cart pulls easier from then on, empty or loaded, and you get the axle back if you break the cart up. See Carrying, piles and carts. |
| Cookstove | 4 | 10 | 120 | Set it up from the Build menu, under Yard, on 3 stone for a footing. It's a fire that cooks 33% quicker and burns half the wood. See Cooking. |
| Iron plough | 3 | 12 | 100 | Keep it in your pack and till with an ox or a horse on the lead, and every go turns 5 rows instead of one. See Farming. It wears with use, and a smith can mend it. See Wear and mending. |
Fittings#
Fittings are the iron in a building: a door's hinges and latch, the hoops and chain on a well bucket, the spikes that hold a bridge deck down, a wagon's tyres, a rowboat's oarlocks and nails. Every piece that needs iron takes it as fittings, and a bar makes 2. Like the rest of what you build with, they can come from your pack or a pile nearby.
| Takes fittings | How many | Full cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge deck | 1 | 9 logs, 1 iron fittings |
| Door | 1 | 10 planks, 1 iron fittings |
| Water gate | 1 | 16 planks, 1 iron fittings |
| Well | 1 | 3 logs, 8 stone, 2 clay, 1 iron fittings |
| Hitching post | 1 | 1 log, 1 iron fittings |
| Barrel | 1 | 8 planks, 1 iron fittings |
| Chest | 1 | 6 planks, 1 iron fittings |
| Cupboard | 1 | 9 planks, 1 iron fittings |
| Wagon | 4 | 36 planks, 4 iron fittings |
| Horse sled | 2 | 15 logs, 2 iron fittings |
| Rowboat | 2 | 48 planks, 2 iron fittings |
| Sailboat | 4 | 80 planks, 4 iron fittings, 4 hide |
A house with a door and a well takes 2 fittings, and a wagon alone takes 4.
Iron tools#
An iron shovel, axe or pick does the same jobs as the stone and wooden ones you make by hand, only quicker, and it lasts a lot longer. Keep it in your pack, you don't have to hold it. Each one takes about 25% off the time for its jobs, and a fine or masterwork one more again. See Fine and masterwork.
Tools wear with work. After a few hours one goes worn and only helps half as much, and if you keep at it, it gives out. Bring a worn one back to the forge with a lump of coal and choose Mend, and it's as good as it was. See Wear and mending.
| Tool | Smithing | Quicker at |
|---|---|---|
| Iron shovel | 5 | digging, raising ground, grubbing out stumps and bushes, shovelling snow |
| Iron axe | 6 | felling trees, splitting firewood, chopping holes in the ice |
| Iron pick | 8 | breaking boulders, mining underground, chipping out fossils, panning |
Refining gold#
Gold ore is no good as money the way it comes out of the ground. A lump weighs 8 kg, and most of that is rock. Tap the forge and choose Refine gold, and it takes 1 gold ore and 1 coal from your pack and gives you 10 gold, which weighs next to nothing. It takes the same time as smelting a bar and gives 25 Smithing. See Gold and trading for what to do with it.
From Smithing 3 you can work gold into jewellery here as well: gold ring, gold locket, gold chain.
Where to get ore and coal#
Iron is mostly up in the hills, and coal boulders are all over the map. Both are also found underground, and a mine is the way to get a lot of either. See iron ore and coal for where to look.
Iron ore is 10 kg and coal 6 kg, so a load for ten bars is 160 kg. Bring a cart, or build the forge near where you're mining.