Smithing (Skyrim)

Smithing is one of 18 skills in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Description
Smithing is the art of taking refined raw materials and combining them into new or improved pieces of armor or weapons. It is one of the three crafting skills in Skyrim falling under the Warrior with to parallels to Alchemy for The Thief and Enchanting for The Mage. As such is affected by The Warrior Stone and, as with all skills, is affected by The Lover Stone.

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.
 * Tannery Rack - Used to create leather/leather strips from animal hides.
 * Forge and Anvil - Used to craft armor, weapons and jewelry from ingots, leather, and/or leather strips.
 * Workbench - Used to improve armor and shields with ingots or leather.
 * Grindstone - Used to improve weapons with ingots.

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: Using a Smelter does not improve the Smithing skill.
 * Crafting an item at a Forge. Skill gain is the same regardless of the item being crafted.
 * 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
The following is a list of books that raise the Smithing Skill:
 * Cherim's Heart
 * Heavy Armor Forging
 * Light Armor Forging
 * The Armorer's Challenge, located at the Skyforge
 * The Last Scabbard of Akrash, in Gallows Rock

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
 * Find Rjorn's Drum for Giraud Gemane in the Bards College in Solitude will award the player with one level of every Warrior governed skill, including smithing
 * 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

 * Ghorza (Adept): Markarth
 * Balimund (Expert): Riften
 * Eorlund Gray-Mane (Master): Skyforge, Whiterun

Smithing Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up. In spite of the shape of the perk constellation implying otherwise perks require explicitly what is listed to be taken i.e. Daedric Smithing requires Ebony Smithing be taken first.



Weapon and Armor Improvement
Improvements to weapons and armor are categorized into the following groups based on size. The table shows what category an improvement will be labeled based on smithing level and if the smithing perk for the item is taken or not. The categories each typically cover a range of improvements so not everything with the same label will be exactly the same strength. This is especially true for Legendary improvements because there is no maximum cutoff for Legendary. 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 combing 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.

Notes and Tips

 * 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.
 * The left hand branch (Steel > Elven > Advanced > Glass > Dragon) gives Light Armor and better One Hand and Archery weapons
 * The right hand branch (Steel > Dwarven > Orcish > Ebony > Daedric > Dragon) gives Heavy Armor and better Two Hand weapons
 * Completing "The Companions" quest chain allows the Dragonborn, when using the Skyforge (Only the Skyforge can be used), to produce "Nord Hero" weapons and armor.
 * The Notched Pickaxe is a unique weapon with an effect that can be learned which improves smithing.
 * To maximize skill gain, activate The Warrior Stone and sleep in a bed to obtain a Rested Effect, (unless you're a Werewolf).
 * Leather Bracers are an effective way to level due to their low materials cost and because they can be crafted entirely out of animal hides.
 * Iron Ingots and Iron Ore are the cheapest and most common type of metal available and Iron Daggers offer the best item to raw material ratio for crafting items.
 * 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 but can significantly improve money yields 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 more experience as well as improve the sale value of the item being improved.
 * Buying large amounts of the materials to make leather bracers or iron daggers then crafting till you've ran out of materials is a fast way to rank up your smithing(and character at lower levels) although doing this may make enemies much tougher to beat on higher difficulties (this being because enemies are usually level-matched with the player and when you use this technique the only stat your raising along with your level is smithing.)

Bugs

 * 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 & Xbox 360)
 * While using the Blacksmith Forge, the animation your character performs whilst you decide on what armor you're going to make glitches rather noticeably. First, the metal strip that has been placed in the furnace is already attached to the player's arm, and it is obviously not meant to be there due to this next point. The player then makes a move to pick out a strip of metal from the furnace, but just grasps at thin air. The player then turns 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, so the hammer is just hitting the Anvil's surface while the cold metal is around the bottom. And to finish, the player then puts the cold end of the metal into the cooling trough, and it hisses as though something hot just got put into cold water, which it obviously didn't. (PC/PS3/XBOX360) (Bug remains for PC on Patch 1.3 and for PS3 on Patch 2.02).
 * 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).