A few months ago my linkshell put forward an idea that we should try to have members that cover all of the crafts in FFXI. As I had already started to level the three Bastokan Guilds I decided (being a WAR) to focus primarily on Smithing as my craft of choice. No craft is cheap to level, but there are numerous methods and ideas that I'll put forward that shall hopefully ease the burden on your pocket - and perhaps even generate a little Gil!
Final Fantasy Online (FFXI) Goldsmithing guide - Bolthole
Up until now you have mostly make weapons and ingots. Hopefully you have been following the guide and (potentially) have a couple of hundred thousand Gil from Steel sales that you are ready to sacrifice to get you through to 55. At 55 you'll make it all back - easily - trust me.
Moghancement: Desynthesis - BG FFXI Wiki
You will not really make much of a profit off of these, they can sell on AH (but slowly), or sell them to NPC. The advantage is that they only need one ingot and the skill ups seem to come thick and fast off of them.
Colbwa's Guide to Riches and Maximizing Time Effienciency
TEST ITEM : Chain Gorget : Earth Crystal , Silver Chain x8: Buy it however you can, because this is expensive to make.
Remember to check the prices at Guild Shops if you are in a pinch, the prices of items at these shops are dictated by the previous days demand for said item - remember that - the best day to purchase anything from the Guild is the day after the Guild holiday!
9. Rule of Three : Make around 8 times the amount of profitable items, especially ingots, that you need for skill-ups because you'll want some as components for future crafts. Sell the excess, so that you hate yourself later when you have to throw gil at this craft.
Learn to love it, seriously. Invest in the Field Tunica Set (or the HQ version Worker Tunica Set ) as you will be spending --a lot-- of time underground. Diligent mining for Ores can save you an absolute fortune when skilling up Smithing.
6. Basic Pattern is 9 Ores - Ingot - Sheet - Attach to Weapon/Armor. There's only one Sheet - Scale step in there but it's a dump synth. For the most part, you should stick mostly to the Ingots and only sometimes make Sheets. There's often no profit in anything else, unless you can HQ.
When I skilled on this recepie Darksteel Ores were 65k a pop at the AH, now they are down to around 5k, so if you are vigilant at the AH you don't need to mine these to make Ingots and still get a profit (although it shall only be about 8k an Ingot compared to about 8k if you mine). Welcome to Darksteel, you have just qualified for a license to print gil!
Of course, these can be bought at the Auction House or alternatively the Tanners Guild in Northern San d'Oria (although they are not guaranteed stock).