Playing a Dunmer for the first time. In Riverwood, (Level 5) I went improve an iron knife and got the message that I didn't have the skill to do that (or words to that effect).

Can a Dunmer work with Armor?

Sorry if this sounds stupid . . .

The only reason any character wouldn't be able to improve an iron dagger (or iron anything) is if they either did not have an iron ingot (or corundum in the case of banded iron) or if the item was enchanted and you do not have the "Arcane Smithing" perk.

To add to that, you don't have to have a perk in any material to improve an item made from said material. You only need the perk to create items and the perk allows you to improve items twice as well.

Day_Man, thanks for the quick reply. My fault . . . I was day=dreaming earlier and had already crafted it to "fine." (Level 2--new character). At level 5 , I wanted to make it better. It was already fine and got the message, "You don't have the skill . . ." or whatever.

Still being stupid, I didn't think what it was really saying.

No worries; in the case of a fine iron dagger, you just need to level your smithing skill some more before you can improve it to the next stage of quality