Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Originally posted by Reften:

Probably safe to assume in the future there will be more ore that will require blast furnace. Plus, just wait, it gets worse :)

It already exists and it's even available. But technically it's still ashlands content and has no real use in the game at this time.

And considering both the ashlands metal and black metal are both something of fantasy material, it's okay for them to have completely separate processing furnace IMO.

I hope the ashland smelter can let us smelt everything else with backward compatibility in term of quality though still. That would be practical.