So I've been playing an Orc Blacksmith the last few days and really quickly got him up to 80smithing so I could finally craft some ebony gear and stop carrying around all the ore/ingots I got from Gloombound mine (He doesn't own a house so no storage) but now I can't find any more ebony anywhere and my smithing levelling has completely stalled..

I don't find it worthwhile or logical from RP point of view to craft anything less than ebony as it's kinda tedious, not worth selling steel/iron gear, and I'm pretty much never going to use anything less than ebony.

Shouldn't the blacksmiths be selling ebony stuff now that I can craft it, or at least ebony ingots so I can go make my own?

I've been back to Gloombound a fair few times and the ore hasn't regenerated, so now I'm just walking around like a moron with nothing to do, what good is a kickass blacksmith with no supplies to use? Is there an easy way to tell when the ore has regenerated? Also I'm on PS3 so console commands won't help.

The ores respawn after thirty days, I think (in a "Cleared" Mine). Otherwise, the respawn time is ten days, according to the UESP wiki. You can start buying ebony ingots from merchants when you get to level 27.
-Loth

the ore will respawn after 14 game days. DO not enter the mine, or even the area before that time has expired or it may reset the timer( causing players to think their ore mines never refill).
ebony ore will be sold once your level is sufficiently high.

additionally there are some ebony ores in shor's shor/redbelly mine(south of gloombound) and 5 veins in blackreach.

Sadly, your ability to use ebony has nothing to do with when it shows up, it's your character's current level that determines it.

The mines are supposed to respawn after 30 in-game days, but I'm not sure if this is 30 days after you mined it or 30 days after you were last in the mine.

For RP purposes, I justify using iron/steel to level smithing by imagining that I'm helping to outfit the members of whatever faction, and only sell the resulting weapons to merchants aligned with them.

How do you keep track of how many in-game days it's been though? I don't even really get how the calender system works in TES. Guess I'm gonna have to do some learnding.

Maybe I'll just waste all my current gold on soul gems and making bulk iron daggers and level my enchanting while I'm waiting for some more ebony. He's in the imperial legion so I guess he can sell gear to those dudes but they never usually have much Septims.

the names of days and months will be weird but the numerical date is consistent with normal dates. what ever the date is now, (1-30) add 14 to it and dont go back to the mine until 1-2 days after that number.

If you haven't done Labryinthian yet (part of the Mage college questline), I found maybe 6 ebony ingots in it.

Also, the Abandoned Shack (Dark Brotherhood initial quest), Alchemist's Shack, and Meeko's Shack all have safe containers you can use to store your stuff.

Ebony ingots will start to frequently pop up in merchant inventories. Check both general goods stores as well as blacksmiths. Just note that they're very expensive compared to the other ores.

You have to be a certain level before you can buy ebony.

Mehunes Dagon Shrine ... if you ever come across the quest that allows you access to this mountaintop building --- it think it starts with the museum guy in Dawnstar, just visit it every few game days. Not only does it spawn ebony and other ingots, but there's soulgems, a refilling chest, lotsa goodies --- the first time there and the daedra drop their hearts. If you're really desperate, you can advance time and force respawns.

For mining ores, Gloombound Mine near Windhelm has about 10 veins and can easily net you more than 30 ores --- also, it's not hostile. The respawn time is pretty long, maybe two weeks ... step out of the mine and reset the clock 15 times and then try the mine again.

if you have lots of money you can buy ebony ingots from blacksmiths and general stores in pretty much every town, sometimes they have like 5-10 ebony ingots, sometimes none.

Regarding role-play: hey, everyone's gotta have a job. Dungeon diving is a nice hobby and can bag some good loot, but in your profession you work with what's available. My guy is a bowyer - for the first bit of smithing bows aren't craftable so he plies his skills to lesser weapons. Now that he can smith dwarven bows, the rest is going to come from bows. (I plan to get most of my own dwemer but may resort to buying some if I deplete the ruins.)

Ingots start showing up when you get around level 30 but until that point, you have to use Gloombound or the Mine at Shor's Stone.

Go mine some... problem solved.

Thanks. So helpful. No seriously, I would never have thought of that.

Mining it is available at any time in the game. Quit crying about grinding out your skill level but not being a character level high enough that it never appears in loot drops.

You can mine it at level one (1). Go do some manual labor...

I'm at 24-25 and I've found some on merchants already. Not many, but I check every time I return to Whiterun and I've found enough to craft and improve a Daedric Bow and two Daggers. (Whenever I return with more loot than the merchants have gold for, I just "trade it in" for any crafting supplies or soul gems they may have.)

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Mines

Was that so hard?

I forgot what Orc stronghold.. I THINK the one closest to Windhelm.. has an ebony mine. LOADED with the stuff

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Gloombound_Mine

LOL at everyone pointing him to Gloombound Mine when he already said he'd been there and cleared it out.

That's a fallacy. The average resident of Skyrim doesn't have much wealth so a more affordable material with a higher profit margin makes more sense for a smith.

Material values to profit margin of armor:

Ebony Armor = 759g in mats for a 741g profit
Iron Armor = 44g in mats for an 81g profit / 17.25 sets of armor crafted for a profit of 1397.25g with 759g investment.
Steel Armor = 96g in mats for a 179g profit / 7.9625 sets of armor crafted for a profit of 1415g with 759g investment.
Leather Armor = 23g in mats for a 76g profit / 33 sets of armor for a profit of 2508g with a 759g investment.

From a roleplay sense, you're supplying the gear NPCs in Skyrim use on a regular basis while also making a larger profit on many of the more affordable items.

If you want to check profits without doing the math, hit the link below and take a look at the delta column. You'll probably be able to find something you can craft other than ebony for your particular style of roleplay.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Forge