Corundum Ore is the less famous half of the steel recipe. Pair one chunk with one 
Iron Ore at a smelter and you get a 
Steel Ingot; smelt two chunks on their own and you get a 
Corundum Ingot, which goes into Advanced Armors gear like Steel Plate Armor and Scaled Armor. At 20 gold a piece it is also ten times more valuable than iron, so it is worth pocketing even when you don’t need it.
How to get it
The motherlode is Knifepoint Mine at Knifepoint Ridge with 19 veins, though the bandits there won’t hand it over politely. After that the counts drop fast: Liar’s Retreat, Dead Drop Mine and Goldenrock Mine have 4 veins each, Gloomreach Cavern has 3, and you can even find 3 veins in and around Whiterun. Around 16 more veins sit outdoors with no dungeon attached.
Loose chunks turn up at Darkwater Crossing (4), Dead Drop Mine (4) and in the Skaal Village on Solstheim. Blacksmiths and general goods traders also sell it, including Ahkari, Arnskar Ember-Master, Aval Atheron and Camilla Valerius. Bandits, peddlers and Falmer occasionally carry some too.
Smelting and tanning
- 1 Corundum Ore + 1 Iron Ore → 1 Steel Ingot at the smelter
- 2 Corundum Ore → 1 Corundum Ingot at the smelter
Used to craft
Corundum Ore appears in 2 recipes in the game files.
Weapons and other items
- smelter: Steel Ingot (1), Corundum Ingot (2)
The number in brackets is how many Corundum Ore each recipe needs. Bold labels are the Smithing perk the recipe requires.
Good to know
- Corundum is the bottleneck for steel: you need as much of it as Iron Ore, but there are far fewer veins.
- Two ores (40 gold) make one Corundum Ingot (40 gold), so smelting is about crafting, not profit.
Data from the Skyrim game files (Skyrim.esm and the official add-ons): value, weight, ore veins, recipes and merchant lists. ID 0005ACDB is the item’s form ID for the console.
