Smithing is the craft of turning raw ore, hides and the occasional dragon bone into gear worth wearing. It covers forging new weapons and armor and improving existing ones, and it is one of Skyrim’s three crafting skills, sitting alongside Alchemy and Enchanting. It counts as a Combat skill, so the Warrior Stone speeds it up, and Nords, Redguards and Orcs start with a small head start.
Why bother? Because the best armor and weapons in the game are the ones you make and temper yourself. A well-improved set of crafted gear outperforms almost anything you will find in a chest, and Smithing also feeds directly into every fighting style, from Heavy Armor tanks to stealthy archers. It also happens to be a reliable way to make money.
How Smithing works
The crafting chain
Smithing is a multi-step process, and each step has its own station. A smelter turns ore into ingots, such as iron, orichalcum or ebony ingots. A tanning rack turns hides into leather and leather into leather strips. The forge combines the materials into weapons, armor and jewelry. Finally, the grindstone improves weapons and the workbench improves armor and shields. Every town and many villages, forts and mines have at least some of these.
What raises the skill
Only three actions give Smithing experience: forging an item, improving a weapon, and improving armor. Forging gives more experience for more valuable items, while improving depends on how big the improvement is. Smelting and tanning do not train the skill at all; they only prepare materials.
Recipes and improvements
You can forge basic iron, leather, hide and similar gear from the start; better materials are unlocked through perks. Each material perk also lets you improve items of that material twice as much, so improving a Glass sword without Glass Smithing is possible but much less effective. Improvement quality climbs through Fine, Superior, Exquisite, Flawless, Epic and Legendary. To improve enchanted gear you need the Arcane Blacksmith perk.
Fortify Smithing from potions or enchanted apparel lets you push improvements well beyond what your raw skill allows.
Smithing perk tree
The Smithing tree has 10 perks with 10 ranks in total. Required levels are the Smithing skill level needed for each rank.
| Perk | Ranks | Skill level | Requires | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steel Smithing | 1 | 0 | – | Can create Steel armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Dwarven Smithing | 1 | 30 | Steel Smithing | Can create Dwarven armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Elven Smithing | 1 | 30 | Steel Smithing | Can create Elven armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Advanced Armors | 1 | 50 | Elven Smithing | Can create Scaled and Plate armor at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Orcish Smithing | 1 | 50 | Dwarven Smithing | Can create Orcish armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Arcane Blacksmith | 1 | 60 | Steel Smithing | You can improve magical weapons and armor. |
| Glass Smithing | 1 | 70 | Advanced Armors | Can create Glass armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Ebony Smithing | 1 | 80 | Orcish Smithing | Can create Ebony armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Daedric Smithing | 1 | 90 | Ebony Smithing | Can create Daedric armor and weapons at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
| Dragon Armor | 1 | 100 | Daedric Smithing or Glass Smithing | Can create Dragon armor at forges, and improve them twice as much. |
Perk guide
Every path starts with Steel Smithing, which unlocks steel gear and doubles improvements on it. From there the tree splits into two material lines that meet again at the top.
The light line runs Elven Smithing (Smithing 30), Advanced Armors (50, unlocking Scaled and Steel Plate armor) and Glass Smithing (70). This is the line for Light Armor users, and Glass is excellent for both armor and weapons.
The heavy line runs Dwarven Smithing (30), Orcish Smithing (50), Ebony Smithing (80) and Daedric Smithing (90). Daedric weapons are the strongest standard weapons in the game, so this line pays off for Heavy Armor and melee builds even if you wear something else.
Both lines end at Dragon Armor (Smithing 100), which needs either Daedric or Glass Smithing. It unlocks Dragonscale and Dragonplate gear made from dragon scales and dragon bone, so you do not have to buy both halves of the tree.
Arcane Blacksmith (Smithing 60, needs only Steel Smithing) is the most important side perk: without it you cannot improve magical gear at all. Since most good late-game items are enchanted, take it as soon as you reach 60.
A sensible plan is to pick one material line and follow it straight up, grab Arcane Blacksmith at 60, and only buy perks for materials you will actually use. Dwarven Smithing is a popular early choice because Dwarven gear is solid and its ingots come from scrap metal found throughout Dwemer ruins. Combine Smithing with Enchanting and Alchemy for Fortify Smithing gear and potions and you can push items far past Legendary.
How to level Smithing fast
- Forge iron daggers early. An iron ingot and a few leather strips per dagger are cheap, and the early levels come fast.
- Make jewelry. Rings and necklaces from silver and gold ingots are valuable, and value is what drives forging experience. Gems make them worth even more.
- Turn Dwemer scrap into bows. With Dwarven Smithing, Dwarven metal ingots become Dwarven bows that both level you nicely and sell well.
- Use Transmute. The Transmute spell turns iron ore into silver and then gold ore, raising Alteration while you stock up on jewelry materials.
- Improve as well as forge. Tempering everything you make adds extra experience from the same materials.
- Stack the bonuses. Complete Unfathomable Depths for Ancient Knowledge (15% faster Smithing), activate the Warrior Stone and sleep for the Rested bonus, or use the Lover Stone instead.
- Pay the smiths. Ghorza gra-Bagol in Markarth trains to 50 (after you bring her The Last Scabbard of Akrash), Balimund in Riften to 75 (after you bring him ten fire salts) and Eorlund Gray-Mane at the Skyforge in Whiterun to 90 after Take Up Arms.
- Read and run errands. Skill books such as Heavy Armor Forging, Light Armor Forging, The Armorer’s Challenge and Cherim’s Heart give free levels, and smiths reward returned items: Night Falls on Sentinel for Rustleif, Queen Freydis’s Sword for Oengul War-Anvil and Rjorn’s Drum for Giraud Gemane.
Trainers
| Trainer | Trains up to | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ghorza gra-Bagol | Journeyman (up to 50) | |
| Balimund | Expert (up to 75) | |
| Eorlund Gray-Mane | Master (up to 90) |
Each trainer can teach up to five levels per character level, and training costs more gold the higher your skill is.
Smithing skill books
Reading each of these books for the first time raises Smithing by one level:
- Cherim's Heart
- Heavy Armor Forging
- Last Scabbard of Akrash
- Light Armor Forging
- The Armorer's Challenge
Tips and notes
- The perk constellation’s shape is misleading: perks follow their listed prerequisites, so Daedric Smithing needs Ebony Smithing, not Glass.
- Nord Hero weapons and armor can only be made at the Skyforge in Whiterun once you have finished the Companions questline.
- Crafting a smithed item, an enchanted item and a potion earns the Artificer achievement.
- Items can still be improved after reaching Legendary; the label just stops changing.
Perk tree, required levels and trainer levels from the Skyrim LE 1.9 master files (AVIF AVSmithing, PERK and CLAS records).
