As said by Ksusno, a very nice item to skill up on. Just load up on zinc and copper ores, then farm off bugbears in Oldton Movalpolos. With TH1, Kopparnickel Ore drops fairly often.
I wouldn't worry too much about synth support out in the field, the breaks don't cost you that much.
Also, bringing a stack or two of pickaxes each run isn't too bad of an idea.
OMG Why do you nubs undercut each other on this when....j/k
Great item to skill up lower level smithing with, materials are farely common, Kopparnickel Ore usually goes for between 100-600 gil, Copper Ore can be bought from the Smithing/Goldsmithing guild for 9 gil if demand is low and zinc ore goes for between 100-300 on the AH (depends on server) so you're roughly making about a 4k profit per ingot.