Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-70.50.115.121-20130731034811/@comment-24700384-20140326020138

You need the smithing perk relevant to the wep/armor, or in cases of some uniques,max smithing plus very well enchanted smith gear. There are many weps/armors that do not benefit from a smithing perk and require you to boost over 100 smithing through enchants/pots to upgrade them past flawless. I'm really hoping you hit a glitch though, because upgrade smithing at any level without smith gear is just silly.