Perhaps what would be really useful would be something along the lines of forge fires. You could start a bonfire with high-level logs like magic or yew, then keep adding maple and willow, till you get like a little precent bar above the fire, then at 75% you can smelt bronze or iron in it. Then at 85% you could smelt steel, 90% mithril, 100% adamantine, and then use a massive dump of magic or yew would unlock rune smithing levels. At that point it'd be hot enough to scrap the coal on steel. It would have to be kept up of course with other logs. Forge fires could be available with the onset of willow logs, but would take forever to get up to forge levels. I'd totally do it just for that.