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[pikachu17]

why should I make alloys other than pig iron and steel?
what can they be used for?
my current fort only has zinc can it be used for anything?

[Wheeljack]

Zinc is an uncommon, low-value metal primarily useful in the creation of alloys. It is smelted from sphalerite. Note that, unlike sphalerite itself, refined zinc is not magma-safe, or even fire-safe, and will melt in a grass fire.
Zinc may be combined with other metals at a smelter to form the following alloys:
Brass = Zinc + Copper
Nickel silver = Zinc + Copper + 2x Nickel

Quoted straight from the wiki. I can be useful as a training material for metal crafters if nothing else. And you could sell the subpar products to buy iron.

I don't typically mess with alloys myself unless I'm making a favorite dwarfs quarters as extravagant as possible and they like a certain alloy.

[hun]

There are 3 alloys with nice uncommon colors which are good for decorating purposes: rose gold, black bronze and lay pewter.

If you don't have iron ores, but have a plenty of tin ores, then bronze is the best choice for your military (apart from steel stuff you can trade or obtain in other ways).

Some other alloys like brass also good way to increase value of ingredients (especially if you have magma smelters so you don't need to waste charcoal). Good for making crafts and sell them.

[fluffymormegil]

why should I make alloys other than pig iron and steel?
what can they be used for?
my current fort only has zinc can it be used for anything?

Zinc+copper in equal ratio gives you the non-weapon metal brass, which is worth 3½ times as much as copper or zinc, and unlike zinc, brass is fire-safe. It's also a much cheaper material for yellow objects than gold is.

Tin+copper in equal ratio gives you the weapon metal bronze, which is worth 2½ times as much as copper or tin (and is a better weapon metal than copper).

Tin+copper in 3:1 ratio gives you the non-weapon metal fine pewter, which (like bronze) is worth 2½ times as much as copper or tin. 2:1 tin/copper gives trifle pewter (worth twice as much as copper or tin), and 2:1:1 tin/copper/lead gives lay pewter (worth 1½ times as much as copper, tin, or lead).

Copper+tin+bismuth in 2:1:1 ratio gives the weapon metal bismuth bronze, which is worth 3 times as much as copper, tin, or bismuth (and, like bronze, is a better weapon metal than copper).

Nickel+copper+zinc in 2:1:1 ratio gives the non-weapon metal nickel silver, which is worth 1½ times as much as copper, nickel, or zinc. However, this is a waste of both nickel and zinc; nickel is more useful in pure form (it's magma safe, unlike nickel silver) and zinc is more useful as an ingredient in the much more valuable brass.

[Blue_Dwarf]

You can decorate an item with every possible metal or alloy, so if you want to squeeze as much value as you can into an item that's one use. We did some math a few years ago:

So a full set of studding for a steel item would have a value of 27720 bucks, or 63720 with candy.

A similar set for a candy item would be 31320 bucks.

[khearn]

Brass is also handy if you are short on wood and haven't set up magma smelters. By making it from ore, you turn 1 sphalerite + 1 copper ore + 1 charcoal into 8 bars of brass, instead of requiring 2 charcoal to make 8 bars of metal. Useful for cranking out crafts or toys for sale.