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[Begory]

yes its me again with another noob question. smelting is confusing the shit out of me i ran into a lot of chalk and was like mmmk i could use this so off i go to wiki only to realize that i now have to learn a lot more then the bare minimum of making a fort. so what i grasped from the wiki is that chalk along with other materials is a flux material and is used to um... make pig tails and steel so again im like cool looks like ill have some steel ill trade for a lot of food. now after i read up on how to make steel it turns out i need pig tails chalk and charcoal and then it turns out i need chalk and charcoal to make pig tail and i just sorta got really confused so basically heres my question can any one sum up smelting in a more easy to under stand way and can i only make weapons out of steel?     

[diefortheswarm]

Step 1:  Smelt 2 iron.
Step 2: Combine 1 iron and 1 fuel to make pig iron (Not pig tails)
Step 3:  Combine 1 iron, 1 pig iron, 1 fuel, and 1 flux stone to make steel.

queing up the tasks to accomplish this is not hard.
que the following tasks in this order on repeat.

smelt iron
smelt iron
make pig iron
make steal

[LegacyCWAL]

First off, you're confusing pig tails with pig iron.  Pig tails are a plant that you can make into thread.  Pig iron is a metal that's part of the steel-making process.

As for smelting itself, it's simply turning ore into bars.  One of your guys takes a piece of ore to the smelter, messes with it for a bit, and the result is a bar of metal.  Doing so requires either fuel or else a powered magma smelter (information on which is on the wiki).

Go to the weapons page on the wiki to see everything you can make weapons out of.

Also, use the search function on the wiki, it really helps.

[Begory]

thanks holy kitty. so what i just type weapons in the DF wiki and it should tell me all the weapons and what i can make them out off? also will i be able to find any other material then chalk? because i have a LOT of it if. if not how much is 1 piece of chalk worth?

[LegacyCWAL]

Pretty much, yeah.  Just type it into the search bar on the left, and it should take you to it.

There are a LOT of materials other than chalk, and you'll undoubtedly be able to find some.  Digging downwards is the easiest way to find new, non-chalk rock types.

Flux like chalk is twice as valuable as "normal" stone, so the chalk itself is worth 6☼ apiece, and the stuff you make out of it is worth double as well.  However, raw stone, even chalk, isn't worth nearly as much as what you can make from it: single set of chalk mugs made at a Craftdwarf's Workshop can be worth up to 720☼, and the steel that the chalk is used for is even more valuable both for weapons and armor and for trade goods like mugs.

[LegoLord]

If you only want to use it for flux (and not masonry) open the stocks screen (z) and select stone.  Chalk should be written in green.  Select it and hit "enter."  It should turn red.  The dwarves will only use it for flux.