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[Minority]

What do you guys find as the best way to train a weapon smith? Mass produce something or wait until you get a migrant of decent level or fey mood? I'm tempted to mass produce bolts but I don't want to waste all that metal.

[rolk112]

i save up metal and wait for one to show up

[Mitchewawa]

Iron isn't exactly rare. Find a decent weaponsmith and pump out weapons and bolts.

[acetech09]

I keep a staff of weaponsmiths in a starting fort - normally one of them gets a mood in a reasonable amount of time. I train up the weaponsmiths on copper/bronze bolts.

[Darkening Kaos]

The wiki says this -
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Melt_item
if you intend on melting objects until you're reliably getting masterworks.

I got lucky with my fortress, my first mood hit the weaponsmith who, with a cold forge and no fuel, made a lead battleaxe, instant legend.
Of course, training up two other weaponsmiths was no real drama on the embark with 160,000 tetrahedrite and 64,000 galena, I have silver to waste, copper slowly being smelted into bismuth-bronze when I import bismuth and tin - I have only trace cassiterite about 17,000.

Darkening Kaos, CIS, LUH.

[Garath]

mine also receives training by making trap components

[King DZA]

Bolts. Lots and lots of bolts. It's beneficial to my marksdwarves, who burn through the things while training, and to the weaponsmith, who won't be risking losing his precious ☼iron bolts☼ after they're embedded in the flesh of a retreating enemy.

If I don't have the resources to mass produce those, I just make do with whatever level weaponsmith I have, and hope he gets a mood sometime in the near future.

[nerdyboy321123]

Iron isn't exactly rare. Find a decent weaponsmith and pump out weapons and bolts.

The F**k kind of worlds are you playing on???

[Oliolli]

Iron isn't exactly rare. Find a decent weaponsmith and pump out weapons and bolts.

The F**k kind of worlds are you playing on???

Ones with minimum mineral scarcity 

[acetech09]

Iron isn't exactly rare. Find a decent weaponsmith and pump out weapons and bolts.

The F**k kind of worlds are you playing on???

Layers with magnetite. Vein iron isn't real abundant.

[proxn_punkd]

I've found tetrahedrite nearly everywhere. Train your weaponsmiths on copper bolts/trap components/ballista heads and early-game weaponry so when you get to play with iron and steel and (spoilers) they'll be able to do wondrous things with it. Incidentally, you'll not be wanting for silver hammers.

[nerdyboy321123]

Iron isn't exactly rare. Find a decent weaponsmith and pump out weapons and bolts.

The F**k kind of worlds are you playing on???

Ones with minimum mineral scarcity 

I do too when I'm playing fortress defence, but I'm usually stuck with a copper military until maybe 3 years in when I can make one steel squad due to iron scarcity D:

[King DZA]

The main thing I've learned about iron in my time within the realm of Dwarf Fortress is this:

You either have absolutely none of it whatsoever, or you have so much that you could use it to make everything in your fortress for the next couple decades. As far as I know, there is no middle ground.

[Sutremaine]

If I'm not bringing a weapon / armoursmith along (you like steel? And you're not a lazy slug? Eat material preferences, random ubersmith immigrant!) and I don't get one by the time I want to shift metalworking into high gear, I flip through the spare dwarves and look for either a suitable preference or high agility. Once I've done that I'll either make and melt items that give a good return, or mass-produce what I need and hope there are enough high-quality items to make the reduced melting return worth it. With the way minerals are placed in .31, the latter is usually the best option.

Having dwarves get attached to their crappy gear is a mild irritation, since at that point it can be taken off them and melted. It's naming that's a real annoyance.

[Iton Ibrukrithzam]

The main thing I've learned about iron in my time within the realm of Dwarf Fortress is this:

You either have absolutely none of it whatsoever, or you have so much that you could use it to make everything in your fortress for the next couple decades. As far as I know, there is no middle ground.

This exactly matches my experiences.  Incidentally, next time I find the latter, I intend to just make absolutely everything in my fort out of it that I can.  Bring on the Steel Block Floors.