I think this should be somewhat damage related, (as far as weapons) and perhaps also affected by race, i.e. if your char is an orc should be getting better results from using orcish weaponry ...
Original and new as proposed side by side
2 Daggers = 1 ingot > 5 daggers = 1 ingot (everybody got daggers)
1 Sword = 1 ingot > at least 3 swords for 1 ingot... perhaps a percent bonus chance for refined swords...
1 Mace = 1 ingot > 3 Maces for an ingot, unless mace is better than lowest quality
1 War Axe = 1 ingot > 2 ingots. War axes are huge, and not as easy to find
1 Warhammer = 2 ingots agreed.
1 Battle Axe = 2 ingots agreed.
1 Greatsword = 3 ingots > 2 ingots.
1 Bow = 2 ingots > Are bows made of metal? Perhaps in the modern world, in Skyrim, haven't seen them yet (lvl 8. char, using 1/2 speed levelling mod, but still... bows?)
10 Arrows = 1 ingot > no arrow recycling. The metal used on arrows would have to be carefully resmithed, by a very skilled smith, to yield some ingots that would be usable to create nice metal objects. Perhaps you can adjust this with smithing level. *THAT* for me would have realism.

1 Chest Piece = 3 ingots (yeah, chest pieces are big, but again, let it depend on quality/skill of smithing. 2/3/4 acc. to smithing level seems appropriate to me)
1 Gauntlet Set = 1 ingot
1 Boot Set = 2 ingots > 1/1 with a chance of 2 /2 depending on smithing level. Think of the smell when melting other peoples feetwear :P
1 Shield = 2 ingots > 2 > 2.5 > 3 Shields are heavy, and rich of metal...
1 helmet = 2 ingots

I've immediately noticed you can get infinite ingots using arrows. I get 24 arrows from one ingot and can then melt those down at 10 per ingot getting two ingots from one. You may want to make it 25 arrows per ingot so you can't just repeatedly recycle arrows to max out blacksmithing.
Or in proper format :
25 arrows = 1 ingot

Thank you for your suggestions. I'm going to leave this discussion open for another day or two after which i'll make a decision.

I agree with _Z who posted on the main page, "half the required ingots, rounded down" seems like a well-balanced way to go.

e.g.:
3 Daggers = 1 Ingot
50 Arrows = 1 Ingot
Helmet = 1 Ingot
etc...

I think the more items meltable (or cutable) the better (I vote for keeping the glazed ceramics/malachite stuff), but realism is important. I support the people who suggest giving a piece of ore back for small items. Another possible approach, and I'm not sure if it is even possible, would have the smelter take two or more of a stacked item for one piece of ore or ingot or whatever. Just something to keep in mind. Good luck with tweeking the mod, you've really excited a lot of people.

Opps nevermind you already have the stacked part. Well keep up the good work.

Thank you for your comments. As stated before i am taking them into consideration.

Personally agree that it should be half the required ingots rounded down. I've played with mods that gave the same number of ingots as was used to craft, or only slightly less just to keep you from recycling the same daggers or whatever to level your smithing, and ended up deleting them because it was too easy to get stupid ammounts of ingots and way too easy to level smithing. But if you only got half the ingots from the smelting of the item, then you wouldn't end up with stupid amounts of ingots, or with being able to level your smithing to max just by robbing one house...you would still need to work at it to level it...

I've seen alot of suggestions that are very similar to yours. I think i'm going to implement that idea in the next update.

Half the ingots required rounded down makes sense, except for the arrows.
The proficiency of the smith, or the (supposed) racial bonuses, should still have to do something with the results, but I can surely live with that :)

I'll make the arrows work a little bit differently. (the way you and other people have been suggesting)

if you do alter smelting to get half the ingots rounded down from an item, then if there is half an ingot left over, please add the option to smelt 2 items in order to get a full ingot rather than losing 2 half ingots. the only issue with this is that the menu size would increase as far as i can tell...

That's a good idea. The issue of the menu size is a big one though. I'd have to add a new smelting recipe for every one of the two item smelting recipes. It would essentially take me as long to do that as it did to make the mod up to this point.

That's about 8hrs. I will do it eventually if more people request it.

Agreed... This would better balance the output for this awesome custom smelting mod.

Originally posted by _Z:

I think this should be somewhat damage related, (as far as weapons) and perhaps also affected by race, i.e. if your char is an orc should be getting better results from using orcish weaponry ...
Original and new as proposed side by side
2 Daggers = 1 ingot > 5 daggers = 1 ingot (everybody got daggers)
1 Sword = 1 ingot > at least 3 swords for 1 ingot... perhaps a percent bonus chance for refined swords...
1 Mace = 1 ingot > 3 Maces for an ingot, unless mace is better than lowest quality
1 War Axe = 1 ingot > 2 ingots. War axes are huge, and not as easy to find
1 Warhammer = 2 ingots agreed.
1 Battle Axe = 2 ingots agreed.
1 Greatsword = 3 ingots > 2 ingots.
1 Bow = 2 ingots > Are bows made of metal? Perhaps in the modern world, in Skyrim, haven't seen them yet (lvl 8. char, using 1/2 speed levelling mod, but still... bows?)
10 Arrows = 1 ingot > no arrow recycling. The metal used on arrows would have to be carefully resmithed, by a very skilled smith, to yield some ingots that would be usable to create nice metal objects. Perhaps you can adjust this with smithing level. *THAT* for me would have realism.

1 Chest Piece = 3 ingots (yeah, chest pieces are big, but again, let it depend on quality/skill of smithing. 2/3/4 acc. to smithing level seems appropriate to me)
1 Gauntlet Set = 1 ingot
1 Boot Set = 2 ingots > 1/1 with a chance of 2 /2 depending on smithing level. Think of the smell when melting other peoples feetwear :P
1 Shield = 2 ingots > 2 > 2.5 > 3 Shields are heavy, and rich of metal...
1 helmet = 2 ingots