Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is a profession and is the art of forging items out of metals, ores, and other trade goods. Blacksmiths utilize bars of metal unearthed and smelted by the mining profession along with various trade and magical goods to produce their wares.

A blacksmith can create melee weapons, Mail and Plate armor, trade items used as ingredients by other professions (such as rods for enchanters), as well as and keys used to unlock a variety of items in the world. Additionally, blacksmiths can craft consumable items that when applied to weapons can provide temporary (and in some cases, permanent) buffs to items.

While they can create a variety of items, they cannot repair these items themselves when damaged, and must still use the services of a repair vendor.

In general, blacksmithing mainly benefits mail and plate-wearing classes for the unique armors that can be created; however, beyond a certain point, blacksmiths no longer learn new Mail armor plans. This effectively means only the plate-wearing classes (Death Knights, Paladins and Warriors) will derive the maximum benefit from the crafted armor of blacksmithing. However, most classes can use a large amount of the weapons produced by blacksmiths. Ideally, blacksmithing is paired with mining as a second primary profession. It should be noted however, that Mining is not a prerequisite for the blacksmithing profession, it just makes leveling the profession cheaper.

As of patch 3.0.2, Blacksmiths can now permanently place a socket on their own bracers and gloves at skill level 400 (see Socketing below). This previously required Saronite Bars, with the advent of Cataclysm, this was changed to 4 x Strong Flux.

Apparently, blacksmiths can develop a condition known as ash lung.

Many blacksmiths know that furies, the elementals of Draenor, can be harvested for the best flux.

Official overview
''Blacksmiths utilize their expertise with hammer and anvil to craft deadly weapons, heavy suits of mail and plate armor, and other, more specialized items. Talented Blacksmiths can also modify their own equipment by adding sockets for magical gems. The gear that they make allows Blacksmiths (particularly those that equip heavy armor) to outfit themselves, equip party members or guildmates, and sell their craftsmanship via the auction house.

''The majority of blacksmithing work must be done with a hammer and anvil. Smithing anvils (and forges to smelt minerals) can be found in most towns and cities.

Blacksmithing is often paired with the gathering profession Mining, since minerals recovered from mineral veins are a key component of most weapons and armor.

Training as a Blacksmith
Blacksmithing is taught by various blacksmithing trainers located throughout the world. Prospective blacksmiths must be at least level 5. Initial training costs, granting the Apprentice level with a potential skill of 75 and access to apprentice blacksmithing plans taught by trainers, or found throughout the world. Most recipes require the use of a blacksmith hammer and anvil. However, some products (such as Rough Sharpening Stone, for example) do not.

The following are the required levels and potential skill of each stage of the profession:

Advancing as a Blacksmith
Crafting items is the only way to progress through the stages. Plans will appear as one of four colors in the profession window, with a certain chance for a skill up (gaining a point): As blacksmithing skill increases, plans will eventually change from orange to yellow, yellow to green and green to grey. Only by finding higher skill plans can one continue to progress through the profession. Approximately every 5-10 points, new plans will become available to learn from the trainers. Alternatively, plans can be looted from corpses, given as quest rewards, or can be purchased either from vendors, or from the auction house. All plans have a requisite blacksmithing skill to be able to be learned and manufactured. Additionally, some plans cannot be learned until you have a certain reputation standing with a given faction.

Blacksmithing Specialization
As of WoW Patch 4.0.1 the blacksmithing specializations of Armorsmith and Weaponsmith have been removed from the game. However, there is an article to preserve the information relevant to the now-deprecated Blacksmithing Specialization.

Socketing
Blacksmiths can also create belt buckles, which can be traded to non-blacksmiths. Belt buckles add a permanent extra gem socket to level-appropriate waist-slot items:
 * Eternal Belt Buckle, learned at 420, usable on level 60 or higher belts, up to a maximum item level of 299.
 * Ebonsteel Belt Buckle, learned at 525, usable on belts that are item level 300 - 374.
 * Living Steel Belt Buckle, learned at 600, usable on belts that are item level 375 or higher.

Blacksmiths could add sockets to their own bracers and gloves, available at 400 Blacksmithing.
 * Socket Bracer
 * Socket Gloves

A player had to maintain at least 400 Blacksmithing or the socket became inactive.