v0.31:Melt item

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v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

You can melt items at a smelter, using the furnace operator labor, to recover some of the metal they were made of. Decorations in a different metal are not recovered or considered; the metal recovered is the specific metal that basic item was listed as being made from. The % return is predictable and consistent for each item type, and ranges from 10%-60%, depending on the item. Higher skill levels in furnace operator speed up the process, but have no effect on the % return.

Recovered metal is measured in 1/10th's, and 1/10ths of bars of each metal are saved at the smelter where the item was melted. Fractional bars are not "shared" between smelters, nor do they exist as usable objects as is. When 10/10ths of a type of metal are accumulated at the same smelter, 1 bar of that metal is produced. If the smelter is torn down or destroyed, all fractions are lost.

Example: If two items of the same metal worth .4 bars each are melted at the same smelter, that smelter has .8 bars worth waiting in it.

If a similar item of a different metal is then melted there, that smelter would have .8 bars of the first metal and .4 bars of the second.

If a similar item of the first metal is then melted at a different smelter, that smelter will have .4 of that metal, and have no connection to the fractions in the first smelter.

If (finally!), a 3rd, similar item of the first metal is melted at the first smelter, adding another 4/10ths, and giving a total of 12/10ths of that type of metal, 1 bar of that metal is produced, and 2/10th's are waiting (plus the 4/10 of the second metal, also waiting).

So, it's recommended that you designate one smelter as your "melting" smelter (or one/metal type), to guarantee that fractions will add up effectively.

Designating items to melt

You can designate metal items for melting from any interface that allows you to view the object's description screen, such as from the Stocks page or the Look interface.

To bring up a individual object description screen when the object is:

• On the ground: Type k, scroll to the object, select it from the list, and type Enter.
• In a workshop: Type t, highlight the workshop, select the object from the list, and type Enter.
• Held by a dwarf: Type v, highlight the dwarf, type i to show his inventory, select the object from the list, and type Enter.
• Inside another object: Display the container's object description screen, navigate to the specific object you wish to see, and type Enter.
• In the stocks menu: Type z, hit right-direction a few times to select "stocks" and press return. Scroll to the type of object you wish to melt, type Tab to show individual items (You have to have an exact number or this won't work. See Bookkeeper for how to get this), scroll to the specific object, and type v to view.

To designate the item, simply type m to mark the object for melting. If the item is designated for melting and forbidden then the item will not be melted.

However, this only marks which items you want to be melted - you still have to place the job-order in a smelter...

Melting the items

Items designated to be melted will be left alone until you queue a "Melt a metal object" job o at a Smelter. Melting down an object requires the Furnace operator labor (and consumes a unit of fuel for a non-magma smelter).

The job gives the same experience to the furnace operator skill regardless of % yield of the item melted.

Yield

For every unit of material size an item has, 1/10th of a bar of that item's metal type will be recovered. These fractional bars are "stored" at the specific smelter where the item was melted; when a full bar's worth of one type of metal has been melted, one bar will be produced. Therefore, you should do all your melting at one smelter, at least for each different type of metal or alloy melted.

Melting objects nets you fewer bars of metal than were required to make them, although for some objects this loss is much greater than for others. Some items are available cheap from traders, or are otherwise refuse, so melting is a distinct option. An entire suit of chain armor, including shield, consumes 7 bars to make - melted (and with high boots) it yields only 2.1.

Melting armor & weapons

Fortresses will often accumulate armor and/or weapons that they don't need, either from invaders, from caravans (with or without trading for them, ahem), or from unsuccessful, low-skilled early efforts at forging your own.

Rather than let these gather dust or trade them away, some players choose to recycle them back into iron or steel (or bronze or copper, etc) bars.

Armor Item melted	Percent Return	Absolute Return (in bars)
cap	10%	.1
helm	20%	.2
chain armor	30%	.6*
plate armor	30%	.9*
gauntlet	20%	.2
leggings	50%	.5
greaves	30%	.6*
high boot	20%	.2
low boot	10%	.1
shield	40%	.4
buckler	20%	.2

(* Note that these items take more than 1 bar to make initially.)

Weapon melted	Return (in bars)
large dagger, whip	.1
blowgun, scourge	.2
bow, crossbow, mace, scimitar, short sword, spear, war hammer	.3
battle axe, flail, longsword, pick, pike	.4
great axe, halberd, two-handed sword	.5
stack of # arrows, bolts	# /100, rounded up*

(* Round up to nearest 1/10th. A stack of 1-10 bolts or arrows produces .1 bars, 11-20 produces .2, 21-30 = .3, and 31+ = .4. A weaponsmith can produce a stack of 25 metal bolts, which produces 0.3 bars. You could "create" metal this way, if you could reliably collect individual metal bolts after they were shot (and unbroken).)

Due to the low return, many players opt to install weapons into weapon traps instead, especially if the weapon is of any quality.

Training metalsmith skills / Maximizing return

It can consume many, many bars of metal to train the various metalsmithing skills up to high levels*. If you are short on metal, producing items, melting them and re-producing them may be necessary. If you want to retain as much metal as possible from this process, some items are better to produce and re-melt than others. The skill to be trained in the chart below is trained at a forge; melting items at a smelter only raises the Furnace operator skill. When using a produce/melt loop to train up a skill for a minimum metal loss, the following items work best:

(* Upwards of 1,000 bars to train from unskilled to Legendary+5, the highest skill level.)

Skill to be Trained	Best Percent Return	Recommended Item(s) Melted
weaponsmith	50%1	enormous corkscrews, giant axe blades, menacing spikes
armorsmith	50%	leggings
metal crafter	60% (2/10 each)2	goblet
metal crafter	50%	chain
metalsmith	50%	bucket

Notes:

1) Some other weapons have a better return/weapon, but cannot be manufactured by dwarves, negating their value for training purposes.

2) Goblets are produced in threes, and have an individual item size of 2; 2/10 x 3 = 60% recovery/bar.

Buying items to melt

Merchants will often offer metal items, metals that you might want but can't find or produce. This chart shows the base value of a given item, without material multiplier, and then a "cost" relative to its yield, so you know what the "best buys" are if you want (or are forced) to go down this road.

For instance, a cap has a base value of 10*, and produces .1 bars when melted. That means you would need to buy 10 caps to make 1 bar, and so a cap that has a "relative cost" of 100, since it costs 100* (10 caps at value 10*) to produce 1 bar. (And it turns out, that's a pretty poor return on investment!)

* The Base Value is then multiplied by the Material Multiplier (how valuable the material is), but the relative cost/yield of each item remains constant.

In practice, these values are then all multiplied by the material, but all are multiplied equally for any one metal. For example, a helmet has a Base Value of 15, before material multipliers, and greaves 30, twice that of a helmet. So a copper (MM x2) helmet would have a base value of 30 and copper greaves would have 60, while a steel (MM x30) helmet would have a base value of 450 and steel greaves 900 - so both would have the same relative value compared to any other item of the same metal - more than a low boot, and less than a weapon.

Note also that quality and decorated items can greatly increase the relative cost.

Item Bought	Base Value	Absolute Return	Relative Cost/Bar1
cap	10	.1	100
helm	15	.2	75
chain armor	60	.6	100
plate armor	100	.9	111
gauntlet	15	.2	75
leggings	15	.5	30
greaves	30	.6	50
high boot	15	.2	75
low boot	15	.1	150
shield	15	.4	37.5
buckler	10	.2	50
bow, crossbow, mace, scimitar, short sword, spear, war hammer	10	.3	33.3
battle axe, flail, longsword, pick, pike	10	.4	25
great axe, halberd, two-handed sword trap weapons	10	.5	20
stack of 25 bolts, arrows	25	.3	83.3
cage2	10	1.0	10
anvil3	100	1.0	100
crafts			(poor, tbd)

Notes:

1) You're buying, so you want a low cost/bar.

2) Cages are offered in only copper, lead, nickel, tin, or zinc. All furniture returns 1 bar for each item melted, but only cages are offered for trade.

3) Anvils are offered in only iron or steel.

Your top "best buys" for melting objects down for the metal are cages, weapons, and leggings, in roughly that order, followed by helms and shields, and then on up from there. Stay away from chain and plate armours, and anvils, unless you have trade items to burn. What is "too expensive" is up to you and how badly you need that metal, and how much how fast.