-For maximum skillups and HQ synthesis u want to craft on the day that the crystal is weak.
Fire is weak on Waterday
Wind is weak on Iceday
Darkday is also good

-For maximum synthesis success u want to craft on the day that the crystal is strong.
Fire is strong on Iceday

Look up a complete list of crystals strenghts and weaknesses if u need to. For blacksmith to lvl 20 this is all u need to know.

Now for crafting
(Before u start get a complete synthesis information list from allkhazam for synthesis ingredients)

lvl 0-2
Make bronze ingots

lvl 2-4
Make bronze sheets

lvl 4-8
Make bronze scales

lvl 8-14
make bronze bolt heads

lvl 14-20
Make iron ingots
They sell for 32000 at AH on my server (Valefor)
the pickaxes cost about 10k to get enough iron ores to do this. Field Gear will help tremendously.

You can also try breaking apart goblin helms at lvl 15,
but those have low success rate so its a gamble. Best day for this is darkday

At this point u start to make profits if u mine yout own iron ore. U can mine for ore Zeruhn Mines. U can also use the excess zinc u find to make brass ingots for goldsmithing. I did this and got goldsmithing all the way to lvl 7 and made 30k off brasss ingots. About 20k profit cause i bought my fire crystals from AH.