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[Quartz_Mace]

Okay, So I'm starting a new fortress in which I plan to set up a military as quickly as possible. After much rebalancing with embark points, I've embarked 41 cassisiterite, 41 malachite, about 35 bituminous coal, and maybe 15 bismuthunite. How much will this smelt to? I can't find the amount of bars per ore on the wiki.

[Epthelyn]

From wiki (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Smelting):

Smelting an ore gives 4 bars of metal, and refining coal gives 9 bars (from bituminous coal) or 5 bars (from lignite) of coke.

So I'm assuming 164 bars of tin, 164 bars of copper and 60 bars of bismuth - I've never actually used bismuth, or even encountered any in fort mode

In other words, more than enough for starting a military.

[Quartz_Mace]

From wiki (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Smelting):

Smelting an ore gives 4 bars of metal, and refining coal gives 9 bars (from bituminous coal) or 5 bars (from lignite) of coke.

So I'm assuming 164 bars of tin, 164 bars of copper and 60 bars of bismuth - I've never actually used bismuth, or even encountered any in fort mode

In other words, more than enough for starting a military.

Ooh, I'm going to have !FUN! With this! It's pretty necessary since there are giant animals and animal men everywhere.

[SixOfSpades]

In general, stones & ores produce 4 blocks/bars each.

Bismuth bronze is superior to regular bronze in that it uses only half as much tin (4 bars of bismuth bronze per 1 bar of tin, vs. only 2 bars of regular bronze per bar of tin).
But regular bronze is superior in that it can be smelted directly from ores, cutting the time / fuel cost of smelting by 66%. Since you're embarking, I would go with plain bronze, so you can get weapons & armor ASAP.

[Quartz_Mace]

Yeah, I'll start with bronze and use bismuth bronze later on. I can always import a lot of ore from the caravans, but hopefully I can find some on iron on my own. I already have flux.

[Aslandus]

If you decide you need even more metal and you have tons of fuel, you could smelt the metal into giant axe blades or enormous corkscrews then melt it back down for a 50% profit, turning 100 bars of bronze into 150 bars and getting training for your weaponsmiths and furnace operators... Of course, this is considered an exploit by many, but is useful and there's no real reason not to do it besides that some hardcore people might not approve

[BoredVirulence]

If you decide you need even more metal and you have tons of fuel, you could smelt the metal into giant axe blades or enormous corkscrews then melt it back down for a 50% profit, turning 100 bars of bronze into 150 bars and getting training for your weaponsmiths and furnace operators... Of course, this is considered an exploit by many, but is useful and there's no real reason not to do it besides that some hardcore people might not approve

Copper is common, tin is not. I use bronze religiously, and the distinct lack of tin makes exploits like this useful for tin. Using this for steel or bronze is cheap, using it for tin, or iron, or other crappy metals that are only useful in alloys isn't quite so cheap. But everyone makes their own rules.

[Aslandus]

If you decide you need even more metal and you have tons of fuel, you could smelt the metal into giant axe blades or enormous corkscrews then melt it back down for a 50% profit, turning 100 bars of bronze into 150 bars and getting training for your weaponsmiths and furnace operators... Of course, this is considered an exploit by many, but is useful and there's no real reason not to do it besides that some hardcore people might not approve

Copper is common, tin is not. I use bronze religiously, and the distinct lack of tin makes exploits like this useful for tin. Using this for steel or bronze is cheap, using it for tin, or iron, or other crappy metals that are only useful in alloys isn't quite so cheap. But everyone makes their own rules.

Can't really make trap components out of tin, but the idea is the same... I actually had one fortress where I found tin but no copper, so I couldn't actually make bronze weapons... I also had flux stone but no iron, so it was basically a huge troll island in terms of military...

[Agent_Irons]

Coins work for everything, IIRC.

[Blue_Dwarf]

You can mine out almost every bit of iron ore on your map before your coin melting starts paying off.

Maybe not every, but enough to make a fully equipped military.

[Aslandus]

Coins are good for smelting, but a lot of work if you want a big payoff, 50x the metal bars, but you have to separate the coins into individual coins rather than stacks using the merchants to break the stack...

[PDF urist master]

Coins are good for smelting, but a lot of work if you want a big payoff, 50x the metal bars, but you have to separate the coins into individual coins rather than stacks using the merchants to break the stack...

i think it's moreso a waste of fuel than anything else. even with the new trees i'm hesitant to perform tree genocide as I might screw myself out of the fuel industry until the trees grow back.

[Tevish Szat]

Yeah, the coin trick is really fuel-wasteful, but if you run it on magma you don't have to worry about that.  Of course, that doesn't help when starting out...  It's a good idea though if you manage to trade for that ONE bar worth goods made of of aluminum that your countess likes and keeps mandating stuff be made out of.

[Chevaleresse]

Giant axe blades are better and they train up your metalsmiths, plus you can use the masterworks once they start popping out.

[Quartz_Mace]

Giant axe blades are better and they train up your metalsmiths, plus you can use the masterworks once they start popping out.

Honestly, I prefer serrated discs to giant axe blades because they hit 3 times with the power to chop off limbs, as opposed to hitting once with the power to bisect a Goblin. Seriously, you don't need to chop an enemy in half to kill them, but for metal making purposes, they're the same.
EDIT: Double checked the wiki. It turns out giant axe blades are better for melting at 150% efficiency as opposed to discs 120%