Blacksmithing is Build 42's forge skill: charcoal furnaces, anvils, blooms and crucibles that turn ore and scrap into tool heads, blades and plate armour as good as anything you can loot. The official wiki calls raising it a project of weeks or months in-game — but the starter chain is cheaper than most players expect, and the first stations need no magazine at all in the current build.
Quick answer
Build 41's Metalworking is gone as a single skill: it split into Welding (torches, structures, cars) and Blacksmithing (forges and metal goods).
Starter chain: Charcoal Pit → Primitive Furnace (6 Clay, 4 Stone, 1 bucket of clay cement) → Primitive Forge (10 Stone, 1 bucket, 1 Stone Anvil).
The Stone Anvil needs Masonry 2 and is consumed by the forge build. The cast Blacksmith Anvil needs 32 units of molten iron in ceramic crucibles — why Pottery comes first.
Building stations, smelting and casting give 0 XP. Forging levels the skill — about 10 XP for basic recipes, 45 XP for a Steel Sheet at level 4.
Nails unlock at level 1, not 3 — any guide quoting the old gates predates the current build.
At a glance
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| Topic | Build 42 facts |
|---|---|
Skill | Blacksmithing (B41 Metalworking → Welding + Blacksmithing) |
Fuel | Charcoal — every furnace and forge recipe consumes it |
Prerequisites | Masonry 2 (Stone Anvil), Carpentry 1–2 (Bellows, anvil mold), Pottery 1 (crucibles) |
First stations | Primitive Furnace, Primitive Forge — no magazine required to build |
Bottleneck | Cast Blacksmith Anvil: 32 units molten iron + 10 Charcoal |
Books | Elementary Forge Practice → The Complete Encyclopedia of Metallurgy (I–V) |
Endgame | Shortsword blade L7, sword blade L9, steel and plate armour |
Step 1: Charcoal and the Primitive Furnace
Everything at a forge burns charcoal, so your smithy starts with a hole in the ground. Dig a Charcoal Pit with a shovel-class tool, or build a Charcoal Burner from a metal drum or barrel plus 4 Stone for a cleaner long-term supply. Underestimate charcoal and every later step stalls.
Next, the Primitive Furnace: 6 Clay + 4 Stone + 1 bucket of clay cement or concrete. This is where ore and scrap become metal:
Extract Iron Bloom — 8 Charcoal + 1 Iron Ore → 1 Iron Bloom (0 XP).
Smelt scrap — metal items go back in as Iron Chunks: a large iron item yields 4 chunks for 6 charcoal, a small one 1 chunk for 1 charcoal.
Smelting pays no Blacksmithing XP — logistics, not levelling. That distinction shapes your whole grind, below.
Step 2: The Stone Anvil and Primitive Forge
The Stone Anvil is the first real gate: Masonry 2, made from 1 Large Stone. If your Masonry is not there yet, level it first.
Build the Primitive Forge from 10 Stone + 1 bucket of clay cement + the Stone Anvil — note the trap: the Stone Anvil is consumed by the build.
At the Primitive Forge the chain becomes metal:
Extract Iron from Bloom — 4 Charcoal + 1 Iron Bloom, hammer and tongs kept → 12 Iron Chunks, and your first real forging XP (10 XP).
Forge Nails — level 1, from the Everyday Smithing – June 1993 magazine.
Forge Tongs — level 1 (or auto-learned at level 3). Do this early: the Simple Wooden Tongs you start with break on smithing work.
Step 3: The cast anvil bottleneck
The Simple Forge needs a real Blacksmith Anvil, and you cannot loot one — you cast it, through the pottery chain:
1. Wooden Blacksmith Anvil Mold — Carpentry 2: 4 Planks + 1 Nail.
2. Press 8 Clay into it on the Hand Press → unfired clay mold.
3. Fire the mold in a kiln → Ceramic Blacksmith Anvil Mold.
4. Cast Blacksmith Anvil at a furnace: 10 Charcoal and 32 units of molten iron in crucibles — two Large Crucibles (20 units each) or four small ones.
Step 4: Climbing the station ladder
With the anvil cast, the yard grows up:
Smelting Furnace — 40 Stone Blocks + 1 bucket, Mason's Trowel kept. Higher-tier smelting and casting.
Simple Forge — 30 Stone Blocks + 1 bucket + your Blacksmith Anvil + 1 large bucket + 1 Log, trowel kept. Unlocks the mid-game catalogue: Steel Sheet at level 4 (45 XP), kitchen knife blades, spear heads.
Advanced Forge — the Simple Forge plus a Large Bellows (Carpentry 1: 2 Planks, 2 Nails, 2 Medium Handles, tanned leather). The top-end forge for swords and armour work.
Dome Kiln — 40 Stone Blocks + 1 bucket; turns 8 Charcoal into 4 Coke. Coke is not optional at the top: steel is cast from iron with coke and Limestone flux (a steel ingot takes 12 units of iron with 18 coke and 18 limestone), and the best products demand steel, not iron.
Better stations keep every recipe their lesser versions had, so upgrading never strands production.
Levelling Blacksmithing without wasting charcoal
0 XP: building any station, smelting ore or scrap, casting (anvils, bars, ingots).
~10 XP: the bread-and-butter forge recipes — cutting and forging bars, chunks and pieces.
25 XP: Forge Coins at level 1. 45 XP: Forge Steel Sheet at level 4 — the best-documented mid-game earner.
Read the matching skill book before a forging session: the five volumes run Elementary Forge Practice, General Purpose Blacksmithing, Old West Smiths and Their Secrets, Really Hard Steel Co. Workers Handbook and The Complete Encyclopedia of Metallurgy, each covering two levels, with community data putting their XP multipliers on a ×3 to ×16 ladder. Books multiply XP only — they teach no recipes.
Weapon gates to aim at: Spiked Club at 5, Shortsword Blade and Mace Head at 7, Sword Blade at 9 — from the Medieval Armory magazines. Build 42 tracks handle, head and sharpness separately, which is why smithing crafts heads and blades apart from handles.
Starting as a Blacksmith
The Blacksmith occupation starts with +4 Blacksmithing and +1 Maintenance, plus the Blacksmith Knowledge trait — on its own (−6 points) worth +2 Blacksmithing, +1 Maintenance and anvil use. It skips the painful first levels, not the station chain: Masonry 2, Carpentry and Pottery are still on you. See our character builds guide.
FAQ
Is Metalworking gone in Build 42?
As a single skill, yes: Welding took the torch, structures and vehicle work; Blacksmithing is the new forge half.
Can I build the first furnace and forge without any magazine?
Yes, in the current build — the blacksmithing magazines list the station recipes but do not gate construction. Magazines still gate many tool, weapon and armour recipes.
Why am I getting no XP from smelting and casting?
By design, on the published recipe data: smelting, casting and station construction all pay 0 XP. Shaping metal at a forge is the levelling activity.
How much iron do I need stockpiled before casting the anvil?
At least 32 units of molten iron for the cast, plus the charcoal behind it (8 per bloom, 4 per extraction, 10 for the cast). Smelt a crate of scrap first — anvil day is not ore-hunting day.
Blacksmithing or Welding first?
Welding, for most runs: it repairs cars, builds defences and generates the scrap economy from day one. Blacksmithing is the long project — start its prerequisite skills early so the chain is ready when you are.
Related guides
Pottery: crucibles and molds come first
Masonry: the Stone Anvil gate
Workstations: how Build 42 crafting stations fit together
Character builds: the Blacksmith occupation