Tips for blacksmithing

This is a series of tips for blacksmithing, in order to achieve the best-quality items.

TL;DR:
Striking the metal when it’s at the right temperature and not twice at the same spot is the ONLY thing that matters.

Before you start

Some items can only be crafted once (ex: the Adorned Axe from the Axe from the Lake quest), so make sure you’re ready before trying to forge them.

In particular, have the following two Craftmanship perks:
- level 10: Hardened Steel : "The weapons you forge will have excellent properties and will therefore take damage 20% slower."
- level 16: Martin’s Secret: "Now you will be able to forge weapons of the fourth, i.e. the highest quality. Weapons of this quality cannot be obtained in any other way than by forging them yourself, and their strength and effectiveness is unmatched."

It’s said that wearing an apron and leather gloves can give a bonus to you Craftmanship skill, but I haven’t checked.

Make sure to have all the required material in your inventory.

And, or course, SAVE before smithing! :-)

How does smithing work?

What follows is my theory:
- Each item has an invisible "smithing gauge" that starts at zero, and must reach 100% to be finished.
- Every hammer strike will increase that smithing gauge.
- The final item quality depends on the number of hammer strikes to fill the smithing gauge. The fewer the better.

So how do we get the maximum of smithing per hammer strike?

It’s all about temperature

Forge temperature seems to be the most important criteria when smithing:
Each hammer strike will generate more or less "smithing points" to fill the hidden smithing gauge, depending of the temperature of the metal when struck:
- too cool will give very few smithing points
- but too hot will not give the maximum either

The best temperature seems to be when the metal is yellow-white, but not glowing white. If it’s way too hot, Henry will comment about it and you’ll probably have to start over (not sure, but I haven’t tried it).

My way to reach that temperature is to blow the bellows until the metal becomes glowing white, then immediately take it out the forge onto the anvil.

When forging a sword, start by putting the metal rod fully into the embers, then pull it one third out when the first segment is glowing white, and again when the second segment reaches that temperature.

If the metal is still glowing white by the time you put it on the anvil, wait a bit until it cools down. From my experience, this doesn’t reduce the overall quality of the item. Only striking the metal at the wrong temperature is detrimental.

Start hammering

Hammer by long-pressing the button, then let the hammer drop. The first hit may no produce sparks (probably a bug), but should produce a nicely-ringing "ping" sound. Otherwise, it will produce a "bonk" sound, and much less (if any) sparks.

The second most important thing about blacksmithing is to NEVER hammer the same spot twice in a row.

So move the hammer about one hammerhead width further, and strike again. If the hit produces lots of sparks and ring nicely, you’re on the right track! Keep going…

I find it usually more easy to move the hammer while pressing the button, then stop moving, and releasing the button.

If you manage to repeat the same motion regularly, Henry will start whistling. That an indication you’re being regular, but it’s not imperative to get the best quality.

For axes, I usually hammer a spot, move a bit, hammer the second spot, then move back to the first one, and repeat until done.

For swords, you’ll probably want to hammer from the handle to the tip, then back.

It’s never mandatory to turn the metal piece over. I only do it to pass time when the metal is too hot.

Stop hammering and back into the forge

As soon as the metal cools down from yellow to orange, or worse, from orange to red (your hits will produce less/no spark, and sound "bonk" instead of "ping"), IMMEDIATELY STOP hammering (even if that means not releasing your hammer button) and put the metal back into the forge!

As far as I can tell, you can let the metal cool down then re-heat it as many time as needed (Radovan mentions doing that all day long) without impairing the final quality.

Remember:
What matters is hammering the metal at the right temperature, and not at the same spot as the previous strike.

Everything else doesn’t (seem to) matter at all.

Final quality

If you only struck the metal when it’s at the right temperature, and not twice at the same spot, you should get the maximun quality possible (3, or 4 with Martin’s Secret perk).

Nothing else matters. :-)

Forgeable unique items

Please note that unique items may or may not be forgeable to level 4 (= Martin’s Secret quality).

I’ve successfully managed to forge the following to level 4:
- Adorned Axe
- Rikonaris Saber

I’ve been unable to forge the following to level 4:
- Toledo Steel Sword
- Radzik’s Sword
- Protective Axe
- Guilded Sword (from the fencing guild. Not sure about the name)