I find it only logical to suggest that mages would enchant most objects, except for maybe holy items, but would there be a specific type of mage who would specialise in such a thing, like say a druid would probably be an expert in alchemy? Or does the skill of enchanting come with simply being a mage, where all mages put enchantments on their own objects?

Why would enchanting be purely a mage thing? You can play a pure warrior or a thief who uses not a single magic skill except enchanting, no reason why that would be a no-no.

In Morrowind. Sorcerers, Witchhunters, Bards, Battlemages, Knights, Mages and Spellswords had it marked as a skill.

So the answer is yes, all Mages enchant [censored].

It's kinda in the job description, but others also use it sometimes. But, I wish we were super enchanters that made the amazing master spell robes...

Surely enchanting is to a mage what smithing is to a warrior

So then, enchanting is more akin smithing, where all mages would be experts in their own fields of enchanting (ex. Destruction mages and Destruction enchantments), unlike a specific class of mage like Alchemist, which I guess would be a type of druid, right? I'd like to point out that this question is more about in-world rather than gameplay.

In-world, yeah, enchanting is probably pretty exclusive to mage oriented people. In Morrowind you couldn't enchant items without actually knowing a spell that contains effect you wish to put on stuff, which greatly fortifies your idea on destruction mages being effective in destruction oriented enchanting.

Personally, I like to think that experienced enchanter is also experienced smith. Based on Morrowind as well, materials of better quality could also hold greater enchantment, so in my opinion enchanter that knows metals, their capabilities, and their limits will be in great advantage over enchanter that never worked with any kind of metal at all.

Interesting older thread that really got me thinking about enchanting.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1312501-the-way-of-the-artificer/

edit: oops, changed link to eliminate highlighted search results....

Yes, I've actually been working on the idea of Battlemages being specialists in both smithing weapons and enchanting them with Destruction magic. After that, if the weapon needs an enchantment (i.e. Fear, Paralyze, Soul Trap etc.) from another school of magic, then it would be passed on to that particular type of mage to add their enchantment.

Thanks! I've just had a short look at the http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Artificer and that looks exactly like the sort of thing I was thinking about, an enchanting version of an Alchemist! I'll have a more thorough study of the wiki page in question first, but it looks very, very promising indeed! If I can use the class as it seems very likely I can, then I can see the "Artificer" being like a specialist branch of the different schools of magic (ex. Conjuration Artificer).

Yep, I thought it was pretty cool too! Glad you found it interesting.

Obviously I foresee the Artificer as being a non-combat role, just as the Alchemist would be. If RPing I would expect them to be enchanters of objects, weapons and armour within a community. They would be the enchanting Smithies/Alchemists and traders for the people around them, taking objects then applying their trade in order to sell on; either that or doing requested enchantments for customers. And the most professional ones might become the Artificers for the Jarl of a town or city. The lesser ones would probably use a myriad of lower level spells from across the schools, but a Jarl would most probably rely on high level specialists from all the schools of magic. This was my thought when I made this thread.

That's how I imagine them in my own head-canon, enchanting things for convenience too! Enchanting pantries to keep foods such as meat fresher, longer and things like that. Mostly the wealthy folks can afford the more expansive enchantments that cover whole buildings.

I made a sort of http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a487/berret1111/TESV2014-07-0111-45-02-38_zps4e864ed6.jpgwhen I got the PC version of Skyrim. It was interesting, but could have used more fine tuning. Basically, what I did was enchant weapons and armor, gave them to followers to equip, had followers do all the fighting while my Orc stayed back.

In the game you can get quests at the College of Winterhold from Sergius Turrianus to pick up things that are being sent to him for enchantment. So enchanting as a service to others is already there. You'd obviously add value to plain items before selling them, as well.

I hope my Dragonborn, Chadric Draca, will eventually have Artificer Dragon Mages, who'd work for him and his other Dragon Mages in order to enchant weapons and armour for his Dragonian armed forces. As specialists in their own fields of magical enchanting they would wear the same colour coordinated robes as his field mages, but of a slightly different tone. They would also have their own dwelling within Dragonia and work together in their duties of providing highly enchanted equipment for the city and garrisons (yes, really!).

Enchanting would seem applicable to all types of mages. Those mages specializing in necromancy or conjuring would probably be more inclined to enchant things, since soul trap is in that magic school. But pretty much any mage could reasonably enchant - from a role play perspective.

As mentioned about enchanting is to mages as smithing is to warriors.

Personally I would tend to not have a Mage get good at smitthing. My current level 61 mage will never smith anything or mine anything -- she thinks the manual labor is beneath her. On the other hand my warrior characters would tend to not enchant, thinking it is not exactly honorable. That way I avoid the over poweredness of using both crafting skills. That is just my (current) opinion.

The third crafting skill (Alchemy) is in the stealth school. I love Alchemy so much I use it with all characters. But I tend not to put perks into it except for stealth based characters.