Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-14027812-20131029222234/@comment-72.238.141.241-20131219200343

I don't think it is a knowledge thing really, my guess is Summerset Isle has a very large supply of moonstone and generally you mass produce things from the resource that is easy to get and most plentiful, so that is what they made their equipment from.

I doubt the Elven smiths are better skilled than the Nord ones, just simply using a better material. You could be the best smith in the world, but if they used iron while a novice smith was somehow able to smith with ebony, the ebony weapon would still be better even if extremely crude.