Just short post that I wanted to make about how I see/think Intent comes into play with the Metallic Arts.The most clear one that's on the Coppermind, I think, is really cool how you have to have some amount of Intent to want to get better or how Compounding works.
But I felt like this didn't show much in the way of Intent being put in a really active way.
So, how I see it is that (and I'm pretty sure it's a common interpretation) Intent is required to burn, flare, tap, and store. Since we see stuff like Kelsier teaching Vin that she has to intend to reach in and use that well of power she has inside when she first figures it. And plus, we never actually see any mechanical action that causes Allomancy and Feruchemy to work. It's just "I'm gonna use this" then it works (given they have metals to use, obviously.)
Then we also see Wax needing only the mental intention to "make a steel bubble" and not "push on this." I'm sure there's a bunch of other examples.
Anyway, short post over! ^v^ I just wanted to throw this out here since though I hear people agree sometimes, I don't hear it talked about or mentioned. (AFAIK, at least, so I'd love to hear some WoB or something I might not have seen!)