I have a full bag of silver utensils and cutlery - plates, trays, a cake stand, knives, forks etc.
Can't make any of those melt using the furnace.
Was hoping to make a couple of silver bars out of them.
Am I missing something or it's not meant to work like that?

I had a similar question. After playing more, I think Larian decided to implement minimal crafting. It seems you can only really craft in the context of some specific quests. Alchemy seems to be the bigger focus. Although I do have an item in my inventory that looks like an ice arrow point. I imagine I probably can combine that with something to make an ice arrow but I haven't spent the time trying to figure it out since I've never had occasion to use special arrows.

Potions of speed are pretty awesome. Kind of a cheat for sailing through an otherwise hard fight.

the plates and things are junk to sell

the ore has a few things with Mithral and Infernal being the big two

and yes most people miss at least half the stuff on their first few playthroughs