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The art of creating and improving weapons and armor from raw materials.

"Is your armor made of... dragon bones? By the gods, what I wouldn't do for a set of that."

Smithing is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and is one of the six skills that falls under The Warrior play-style. Smithing is the art of refining raw materials and combining them into new and/or improved pieces of armor or weaponry. It is one of the three crafting skills in Skyrim, falling under The Warrior, with parallels to Alchemy for The Thief and Enchanting for The Mage. As such it is affected by The Warrior Stone and, as with all skills, is affected by The Lover Stone.

Mechanics

Smithing is a multistage process with the number of stages depending on what items are being crafted and how raw the materials are. The process can be started at any intermediate stage if the right materials are found, but every stage requires input materials, knowledge of the recipe, and its own tool. Input materials can be found in the world or purchased from vendors. Knowledge of new recipes can be acquired only through perks but some are available automatically. The tools list below roughly outlines the end-to-end process from the most raw stages to the most refined stages.

Tools

These tools, required for various stages in the smithing process, can be found in any main city and most villages. They are also frequently found in forts and dungeons or outside mines. See the individual tool pages for more specific locations.

Smelter - Used to change ores or scraps into ingots.
Tanning Rack - Used to create leather/leather strips from animal hides.
Forge and Anvil - Used to craft armor, weapons and jewelry from ingots and other materials.
Workbench - Used to improve armor and shields with ingots or leather.
Grindstone - Used to improve weapons with ingots or leather strips.

Racial bonuses

Nord, Redguard, and Orc characters gain a +5 boost to Smithing at the start of the game.

Leveling

The following actions raise the Smithing skill:

Crafting an item at a Forge. Skill gain is dependant on the value of the item being crafted.^[1]
Improving a weapon at a Grindstone. Larger skill gains based on the strength of the improvement made.
Improving an armor or shield at a Workbench. Larger skill gains based on the strength of the improvement made.

Books

For the locations of these books, see Skill Book (Skyrim).

The following is a list of books that raise the Smithing Skill, locations can be found on the relevant book's page:

Cherim's Heart of Anequina
Heavy Armor Forging
Light Armor Forging
The Armorer's Challenge
The Last Scabbard of Akrash
Oghma Infinium - choosing the Path of Might increases all Warrior skills, including Smithing, by 5.

Related quests

The following Quests increase or help to increase the Smithing Skill:

Retrieve Queen Freydis's Sword for Oengul War-Anvil in Windhelm
Retrieve Night Falls on Sentinel for Rustleif in Dawnstar
Retrieve The Last Scabbard of Akrash for Ghorza gra-Bagol in Markarth
Discerning the Transmundane can award the player with five levels of every Warrior governed skill, including smithing.
Unfathomable Depths will grant the player Ancient Knowledge which increases the rate of skill gain for Smithing by 15%

Trainers

Main article: Trainer (Skyrim)

	Trainer	Location	Notes
Adept	Ghorza gra-Bagol	Markarth
Expert	Balimund	Riften
Master	Eorlund Gray-Mane	The Skyforge in Whiterun	Must be part of the Companions
Master	Gunmar	Fort Dawnguard after completing A New Order	Only available with The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard

Growth curve

The smithing skill levels according to an exponential curve. This means each level costs more than the previous one.

Perks

The following chart lists the perks that become available to the player as the skill is leveled up. In spite of the shape of the perk constellation implying otherwise, perks explicitly list their prerequisites (e.g. Daedric Smithing requires Ebony Smithing be taken first).

Perk (Ranks)	Requirements	Description
Steel Smithing	20 Smithing	Can create Steel Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Arcane Blacksmith	Smithing 60, Steel Smithing	You can improve magical weapons and armor.
Elven Smithing	Smithing 30, Steel Smithing	Can create Elven Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Advanced Armors	Smithing 50, Elven Smithing	Can create Scaled and Steel Plate Armor at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Glass Smithing	Smithing 70, Advanced Armors	Can create Glass Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Dwarven Smithing	Smithing 30, Steel Smithing	Can create Dwarven Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Orcish Smithing	Smithing 50, Dwarven Smithing	Can create Orcish Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Ebony Smithing	Smithing 80, Orcish Smithing	Can create Ebony Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Daedric Smithing	Smithing 90, Ebony Smithing	Can create Daedric Armor and Weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much.
Dragon Smithing	Smithing 100, Glass Smithing or Daedric Smithing	Can create Dragon Armor and Weapons* at forges, and improve them twice as much

* Dragonbone weapons can only be created if The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard is installed.

Improvement

The table shows what quality improvement an item will achieve based on smithing level and if the smithing perk for the item is taken or not.

Items can still be improved once they reach Legendary, but the description will not change.

Quality	Skill Required		Effect
	Without Perk	With Perk	Armor	Other
Fine	14	14	+2	+1
Superior	31	22	+6	+3
Exquisite	65	40	+10	+5
Flawless	100	57	+13	+7
Epic	134	74	+17	+8
Legendary	168	91	+20	+10

Each additional quality level beyond Legendary improves Armor by 3.6 and other items (weapons, helms, boots, etc) by 1.8.

Alchemy and Enchanting can improve results significantly via the Fortify Smithing effect allowing for greater improvements at a given level than the table shows. Combining both Alchemy and Enchanting to improve one another and then combining both to improve Smithing as much as possible can be very powerful. The relevant Alchemy Tips page or Enchanting page have more information on how to get the most out of those skills.

The improvement of armor and weapons requires one smithing material per item improved. These items can be obtained by Tanning, Smelting, or other in game means of obtaining items.

Smithing Category	Crafting Material
Hunting Bow	Leather Strips
Leather	Leather
Hide
Imperial
Forsworn
Iron	Iron Ingot
Studded	Iron Ingot
Steel	Steel Ingot
Nord Hero
Ancient Nord
Red Eagle
Valdr's Lucky Dagger
Vokun
Steel Plate	Corundum Ingot
Scaled
Banded Iron
Dwarven	Dwarven Metal Ingot
Elven	Refined Moonstone
Morokei	Refined Moonstone
Orcish	Orichalcum Ingot
Ebony	Ebony Ingot
Daedric	Ebony Ingot
Glass	Refined Malachite
Dragon	Dragon Bones Dragon Scales
Falmer	Chaurus Chitin
Jewelry	Jewelry cannot be upgraded

Notes and tips

Click to show
Damage reduction from armor is capped at 80% damage reduced or 567 armor. No matter how much armor is shown on the character page damage reduction will never improve beyond this point by adding additional armor. Completing "The Companions" quest chain allows the Dragonborn, when using the Skyforge (only the Skyforge can be used), to produce "Nord Hero" armor and weapons. The Notched Pickaxe is a unique weapon with an enchantment that can be learned which improves smithing (unless you've already reached 100). To maximize skill gain, get the Ancient Knowledge ability then activate the Warrior Stone, and sleep in a bed to obtain a Rested Effect (unless you're a Werewolf). If you have the Dawnguard DLC, obtain and equip the Aetherial Crown and activate the Lover Stone in place of the rested effect. The Transmute Mineral Ore can be used to improve Iron Ore to Silver Ore and finally Gold Ore. It is a time and Magicka intensive process using a base cost of 88 magicka but can significantly improve money yields and alteration, while improving smithing. All items created to level Smithing can be improved with enchantments which will greatly increase the value of the resulting items. See the Enchanting page for details on which enchantments improve money value the most for each item. When improving an item at a Grindstone or Workbench the Fortify Smithing will yield additional experience as well as improve the sale value of the item being improved. All Mines and Dwarven Ruins provide reasonable amounts of raw materials for Smithing if time is taken to collect and return them to a smelter. Making Dwarven armor and weapons are a great way to level Smithing, although this tactic is only effective if you have the Dwarven Smithing perk. In Dwarven Ruins, you will find different kinds of Dwemer metal scraps, which vary in size. A large majority of these can be transferred into Dwarven Metal Ingots (Sometimes multiple, depending on the weight of the dwarven scrap metal piece that you are smelting). This can make for an efficient levelling style for smithing levels 30-60. The quickest way to level up smithing via Dwarven smithing would be to make Dwarven bows (2 Dwarven metal ingots, 1 iron ingot) as iron ingots are cheap and most dwarven ruins can yield 200-300+ Dwarven metal ingots if all metal is taken. Then upgrade all created bows with one Dwarven metal ingot. This will also provide a large amount of money and speech xp. To grab as much metal on one trip: followers, the Steed Stone, and the extra pockets perk can make smithing the easiest skill to raise. The metal that you can pick up (in order of best weight:ingot acquired ratio to worst) is Large Dwemer Plate Metal and Bent Dwemer Scrap Metal at 2 weight and 3 ingot return, Solid Dwemer Metal at 25 weigh and 5 ingot return, Large Decorative Dwemer Strut at 15 weight and 2 ingot return, then Large Dwemer Strut at 20 weight and 2 ingot return. The experience gained from smithing is based on the value of the items you make with smithing. A quick way to level up smithing is to make bows with the most expensive series of smithing you can. For example, you make Dwarven Bows until you can get the Ebony Smithing perk. At which point, you can start making Ebony Bows (3 ebony ingots) which have a higher value and thus yield more experience for smithing.

Bugs

Click to show
PC 360 If you improve a weapon on Grindstones, and then go in to your inventory and look at the damage difference (the number in brackets in either red or green, depending on whether that weapon has a positive or negative improvement on the weapon's damaged that you're holding) you will notice that the difference is based on the weapon's damage difference before you improved it. To resolve this, either equip another weapon, or unequip your current weapon. PC 360 PS3 Occasionally while using the Blacksmith Forge, the animation your character performs whilst you decide on what armor you're going to make glitches. The following is a long and drawn out explanation of what very rarely happens: First, the metal strip that has been placed in the furnace is already attached to the player's arm. If the player then makes a move to pick out a strip of metal from the furnace, the arm grasps at thin air. The player will then turn to the Anvil to begin using the hammer on the metal's hot end. But the hot end is up by the player's elbow, and the cold bit is near the Anvil, but not actually on the Anvil. The hammer hits the Anvil's surface while the cold metal is around the bottom. Finally, the player puts the cold end of the metal into the cooling trough, and it hisses as though something hot just got put into cold water. Only seems to occur when a shield is equipped. PS3 PC When attempting to use any of the smithing stations (including the Tanning Rack and Smelting Ovens) at any location, the attempt will fail. The game goes into the third person camera and stops, but after a second or two, you can move again. To resolve this, try restarting the system PS3 There are times when if you put on Smithing trinkets(when you use the workbench), you will find that the amount of improvement you can put on an armor's rating will go down from the amount of improvement you may see before equipping the smithing trinkets. (So save before improving armor so as to be able to get the maximum improvement you can with or without the trinkets.) It is possible that this is due to Armor perks that award a bonus for either a matching set or all the same type of armor (ie light). When I put on my Heavy Armor blacksmithing gloves, my overall armor drops because I'm no longer awarded the 25% bonus for light armor. Sometimes you can't improve items beyond the the current improvement level.

Achievements

	Artificer Make a smithed item, an enchanted item, and a potion
Points	10
Trophy

References

↑ 1.5 patch

Start a Discussion Discussions about Smithing

Fastest way to improve smithing?

88 messages
- A Wikia contributor
  
  An easy way to fill soul gems is using a bound weapon(particularly a bow) with the conjuration perk that makes bound weapons have a permanent s... 2013-06-13T08:17:31Z
- TodKarlson
  
  Make sure you have lots of empty Soul Gems when going to Solstheim, it's a target-rich environment, and the number of people who have them ... 2013-06-14T14:35:56Z
Re-improving stuff

4 messages
- Malac'ra
  
  You can always improve them again. You can even improve legendary quality gear again if the resulting armor rating or damage would be higher, l... 2013-04-30T01:48:58Z
- A Wikia contributor
  
  Thank you guys for responses! This thing should be on the main article though, I'd apprecciate if someone put the info in proper place. 2013-05-01T07:47:02Z

See more discussions >

[0] 1.5 patch

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Wikia

Smithing

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