Pick axes are like spears, except they don't have a useless blunt attack that your dwarves might try to use.
this is a piece of misinformation. spears do straight stabbing damage while picks do a sort of tearing damage at an angle. you'll notice picks severing nerves and limbs a lot more often against small humanoids than spears but cause less bleeding against larger beasts. tearing damage is a combination of slashing and stabbing effects and picks use the miner skill
i dont personally use picks outside of the early game though. i love seeing the badass military tiles on my troops and pick users always end up as wrestlers and look unarmed from a tile perspective
Edged/piercing: Adamantine, Steel, Bronze, Iron, Copper
it's a very bad idea to make any adamantine weapons, it will result in a bloodier bath if you ever have a loyalty cascade and the weapon grade is higher than your armor grade
in an undead biome you should have 50% of your military at least with blunt weapons, maces for stronger dwarves and warhammers for weaker ones. you can have as much as 100% blunt users and it works because no armor stops legendary blunt weapon users from causing muscle and spinal tears from the force of their blows
i regret not going 100% on my undead embark, too many reaminated severed limbs, but i guess for larger beasts reanimated limbs are easier to pulp
for weaker dwarves try to give them lighter weapons with smaller penetration area such as short swords or warhammers. they'll still be able to keep the enemy busy when they're fully trained. large contact area and low strength (for example, using a maul on a dwarf with only 1500 maxed out strength) is usually the worst
