Making Blacksmithing Interesting

[QuillAndTorchlight]

A small bit of personal information to start, in real life, I work as a welder creating various constructions and working an albeit basic blacksmith forge in my off time. I am by no means an expert smith but it is a trade I take great interest in. So I was wondering how could you take a trade such as blacksmithing and make it interesting in gaming, where such would normally be covered by the likes of a few dice rolls. One could always argue that the introduction of magic would serve to make blacksmithing more entertaining both for the players and the game master but in counter that that claim, what doesn't become more interesting with magic.
So with that my friends, comrades, and colleagues I challenge you to show your thoughts on how to make blacksmithing and other trades such as carpentry more interesting without resorting to straight up enchanting.

 

[GMMichael]

Brain-barf:

Create a list of needed components, both for the product and the forge

Create a list of tools to use, and varying qualities of the tools

Use milestones to determine what a character can make - e.g. "Your Blacksmithing is only 4, you can't make weapons yet."

Use levels of heat in the forge, and the corresponding dangers of each level.
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Let the players mix and match - and see what happens.