How tf do I make a smelting fire

[Monkeyman10039]

so, I'm a little confused with how you make the fire to heat up a crucible if anyone could help me that'd be great

[Dekoser]

create a normal fire with firewood and place the crucible in there like a cookingpot
add the nuggets (not chunks)(not iron/nickel) into the cruicible; here you also mix the metals for alloying
replace the firewood with a fuelsource thats hot enough to melt the nuggets: mainly charcoal/coal
ignite and wait, the crucible will be hot and need tongs to work with
pour the metal in the cooked clayform of your desire ~

[Diff]

Normal wood doesn't burn hot enough, but if you burn firewood and starve it of oxygen in a charcoal pit, you can get charcoal that will burn hot enough to smelt with in an ordinary firepit with a crucible like Dekoser mentioned. If you press H, there are guides for smelting and for making proper charcoal pits in the handbook. If you hover over a fuel, you can see the temperature it burns at, and if hover over a metal nugget you can see the temperature it smelts at.