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[Jake]

The more I think about it, the more melting it down seems like a bit of a waste of fuel and effort if you're on an iron ore-bearing map; the same amount of coke takes the same amount of time to produce three times as much metal from one lump of any sort of ironstone, which seems to be rather a feast-or-famine affair in DF.
So, what do you folks suggest? Sell it to the merchants, try and tweak the raws so I can chuck it straight in the crucible to make pig iron, or just pile it up in great menacing heaps on either side of the main gate as a warning to those who might assail my fortress?

[Tormy]

I ususally sell these items to the merchants...

[Timst]

I'll sell them to the merchants if I haven't already other stuff much more valuable (and light). So I melt them, even if like you, I've got plenty of magnetite on my map.

[Jake]

The trouble with those options is that goblin armour always seems to end up getting mixed in with the stuff my dwarves can put to use, which makes carting it to the depot a pain in the rear, and I seemingly never manage to get hold of as much fuel as I need; I make it a policy to steer clear of magma, which I consider to pose an unacceptable health and safety hazard.

[Fleeb]

Oh come on. What proper dwarf would be afraid of a little molten rock?

[Jake]

A little molten rock I can handle. But several tens of thousand tons of it, full of fire imps and magma men and Armok knows what else? Nope, you can keep that; I'll take my chances with those whining pointy-eared hippies, thank you very much.

[Narmio]

The trouble with those options is that goblin armour always seems to end up getting mixed in with the stuff my dwarves can put to use, which makes carting it to the depot a pain in the rear, and I seemingly never manage to get hold of as much fuel as I need; I make it a policy to steer clear of magma, which I consider to pose an unacceptable health and safety hazard.

You can configure armour stockpiles to only hold usable or unusable items.  I typically create a stockpile just for unusable clothing and sell that stuff off (sometimes after decorating it).  I do the same with the armour whenever I don't have magma available.  If I do, well, fuel isn't a problem.

[Archaeologist]

A little molten rock I can handle. But several tens of thousand tons of it, full of fire imps and magma men and Armok knows what else? Nope, you can keep that; I'll take my chances with those whining pointy-eared hippies, thank you very much.

My fort is awesome then.  All the Magma is directly in the heart of a giant ground level Volcano, with sheer cliffs on all sides, so none of the magma beasts can attack my dwarves.

ALl magma forges have a special path that flows through fortifications and steel grates.  Except for one magma forge I forgot to make correctly.

First sign of trouble and that thing is getting boarded up.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

It's possible to make perfectly safe magma forges even without the use of fortifications or grates.  Personally I like to use steel grates for a double-redundant backup, but it's only for stylistic reasons.

See, what you do is as soon as you discover the magma, you dig out a set of channels that will power all your magma workshops.  Then you connect the channels to the magma pipe/pool and let them fill.  If a magma man or fire imp gets into the channels at this point, you kill them.  Otherwise, you seal the magma channels off from the magma source.  You can either cover all the magma channels with stone or glass floors except the one point that you want to seal and then flood the entire area, or just arrange for water to only flow onto one or two squares.  Once the channel is sealed off from the main magma source, you then remove the floors above it wherever you want to build a workshop.

For additional safety, when you're using magma workshops, place the impassible squares in the workshop directly over the magma squares.

Presto, 100%-safe magma workshops!

[forsaken1111]

For additional safety, when you're using magma workshops, place the impassible squares in the workshop directly over the magma squares.

THIS

[Captain Xenon]

bost solution is to have two armor stockpiles- one usable, one non-usable. mass-mark the non-usable for melting every so often. easier to find the stuff to trade that way as well.

[Jude]

You don't even need to seal the channels. Just dig ONE channel from the floor where the forge is going to be, and then build one of the impassable sections of the forge over the resulting hole. Nothing can pop up out of the magma if you do that.

[Jake]

I hadn't stumbled on the usable/non-usable setting yet; thanks guys.