Smelt Iron into steel or not?Follow

I just recently got the ability to make steel out of iron, and having saved all my iron from minning, I was overjoyed!

Untill I went to the AH and saw no listings for Steel, and thus no clue to the value of steel, over that of iron. Then I noticed that smelting steel, which you can get after 165 minning skill, gives no skill-ups.

Iron curently sells at 5g+ a stack, and coal cost me 3s each, so is steel worth smelting?

If steel is worth anything over the value of coal+iron, than I think I can rationalize smelting it, but if not, since Steel smelting gains no skill points, why bother untill I am a BS?

I know that only a very few mobs, and methods produce steel, so what does all the BS/ENG players do for steel? Or does nobody take BS or ENG without minning? I thought that some people take two production jobs at once....

Ay advice or insite is welcome, and I thank you in advance.

I think your right, thanks for confirming it Locke! Thats probably the reason.

Mod, you may delete this thread, thank you.

There was a very short time when my fighting level and blacksmithing level were such that making steel armor was actually useful. None of the steel pieces I made sold for what the iron and gems required would sell for on the AH though, and the suit I made for myself was replaced not too long afterwards with mithril. There were also still iron items I could make to level up my blacksmithing, so even if I wasn't a miner and couldn't smelt steel, it wouldn't have slowed down my leveling if that was all I was doing. I think making the steel and trying to sell it would be a waste of the money you use to buy coal, and the stacks would probably sell for less than the iron anyway.