Thinking about it for about a day, there seems to be a fairly easy solution for the Weapon/Armour/Goldsmith thing. If armour and weapon smiths are simply permitted to use precious metals to gild/decorate arms and armour, all my concerns are pretty much eradicated. It would make for an easier solution than combining Weapon and Armour smithing into something like Warsmithing or changing Goldsmithing to be more akin to Jeweler. If decorating ones arms and armour within reason is already permitted, I just feel it makes sense to permit the use of gold and silver.
Readin back, I do want to clarify one thing to
Dragondusty. When I compared a chaimail ring to a golden "ring", I did not mean to elude to the jewelry type of ring but instead the generic ring/o-shape. The point I wished to make was that if you do something like winding a metal around a pommel/mandrel/etc. to fill gaps/make a shape that falls into a groove, it matters fairly little that it is a softer material. That's what I meant with the "Armorsmithing, Bladesmithing and Goldsmithing use metals with a small range of properties, the same tools with maybe a tiny adjustment in taper and near identical techniques (billets, sheets, way of rotating the piece around a tool, etc.). Compared to the materials used in generic produce of arms and armour, the use of Gold and Silver is easy mode." section. I was focusing on the "use of gold and silver" meaning of the Goldsmithing specialization, not the "Jeweler" part. Apologies if that came across as "being a jeweler is easy, lel" to anyone that might be one, is related to one, etc.
So this was a long time coming. I'm sorry I haven't gotten to this sooner, but I wanted to let the few ideas that were thrown around regarding this sit for awhile. Our ideal conclusion to this dilemma goes as follows and I would like to hear what you all think:
Goldsmithing would be changed to the "Ornamentalist" specialization. Normal smiths will be able to work with Gold, Silver, and Platinum (as well as a new fantasy soft metal) to create the crafts they normally would. A sword, an axe, a ring. But an Ornamentalist will specialize in coating premade crafts in these soft metals, 'gilding' them. Normal smiths will be able to smelt and cast with these materials, but coating another material (like steel) in a lasting, durable, pretty coating is something deserving of its own profession. While normal smiths will be able to make jewelry out of these metals, such as rings or bracelets, it will be the Ornamentalist's task to create jewelry that have slots for Gemstones, unlocking the "when worn as jewelry" effects that new-gemcutting will have. For the eviscists: Just a bladesmith will be needed to socket a gemstone into your sword, as long as you have the gem.
Weapon coatings and gemstones will have additional tags on your craft, such as [Gilded] or [Bejeweled] to tack on extra flavor to your craft. To throw smiths more of a bone with these soft metals, we are looking into ways to add in metals to the hilts of weapons. Where it would say Yew Hilt, a smith could add on a gold ingot to make a Gold and Yew Hilt, which the smith would describe at their leisure what that looks like. That way, there is still a way for a non-ornamentalist bladesmith to make a pretty sword. (The hilt feature is a maybe, barring any sort of plugin issue, but if it's a no-problem, I'd like to know what you think).
Engraving isn't something we want to restrict, so any smith can say that their crafts are engraved with words or runes or such.
Here's our reasoning: It's true that melting gold and pouring it into a ring mold is something that any smith who has lit coals on fire can do... probably. But coating a material in a lasting cover to make it appear, say, out of solid gold, is something that requires time, patience, and skill, deserving of its own profession. Furthermore, you heard above about a new fantasy soft metal. It's something that doesn't work really as a solid object, it's too soft, and will bend, dull. But when you coat it in a steel sword, it becomes an ample weapon... Here's a sneak-peek for you Ornamentalists:
Blooded Silver
Often indistinguishable from normal silver, but softer, and carrying a divine blessing of the hunt; That is, blooded silver causes the blood of those strongly cursed as Vyres and (redacted) to boil on contact. Too soft and pliable to make an effective weapon of its own make, blooded silver is most efficient when plated over an existing craft.
Let me know what y'all think.