Can you unlock all forge recipes for your base?

[Vyper]

When I was able to build the huge forge and smelter I thought I would be able to make everything at home after I unlocked each new forge, but it seems maybe I did something wrong or is this inteded?

[william_es]

There are still some weapons that can only be made at specific forges in the world. Durin's axe can only be made durin's forge, and later on the mithril weapons can only be made at the great mithril forge. I just built mapstones in the forge rooms so I could fast travel directly to them. The great mithril forge has a mapstone in a cavern outside the forge already too.

The big giant furnace is definitely worth building in your base. Once you unlock the right recipes by visiting the other forges, you can smelt even the top tier metals like star metal and mithril in the big furnace at your base. Build a salt bath too at your base, for purifying gundabad slag into ore. This way you can set huge batches to smelt while doing other things around your base, then pull the ingots out and go to the other forges to actually makes weapons and armor.

If you're pressed for time, you can also start a batch of ingots in the big smelter in your base, then fast travel to the other forges and start other batches there too. They all be smelting simultaneously, then fast travel to each forge to collect them. The only thing it costs you is food loss for the fast travel.

The khazad forge is still useful to build at your base, but you will outgrow it eventually. You will be able to make better weapons and tools at the other forges later on. But for a certain crucial period, the weapons and armor you make in the khazad forge ARE WAY better then previous stuff you had access too. The weapons of that tier are crucial to being able to survive.

[MaddogDino]

Nice tip about the forges.
They don't require fuel for smelting. Saving all that precious coal.
So I have a map stone at each forge and do all my smelting with them.