I just have a problem finding ores... so i can gather up for smithing.. anytips?

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=193 Glowing Ore Veins, as a first step.

Second, TRAVEL. A LOT. And enter EVERY DUNGEON. Then TRAVEL MORE.

thanks for the info..

it also takes like a full in game month for the ore veins to replenish

Don't use a torch in a mine, some are filled with explosive gas!

I don't activate ores I noticed hacking at the veins with a pickaxe will sometimes yield jewls. I've never gotten any free gems the other way, but I could be wrong.

I stopped mining altogether. It's simply not worth it unless you want a bunch of iron equipment or have transmutation. By the time you find a mine that has what you want, you'll be selling gear for the ingots faster than it can respawn.

Go to the wiki

Cheers

torches/candelight

The only real point is for smithing purposes. I've read that smithing will let you get better armor than anything you can loot or purchase, and certainly you can improve armor and weapons with smithing, but it requires ingots (and leather) to do so. Given the steep prices merchants charge on metal ingots (even lumps of ore aren't very cheap to purchase) it's good to save some $$$ by mining the stuff yourself.

But a word of warning: Smithing is not a really good way to make money, and you can in fact lose your shirt if you don't pay attention to the money. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing; most especially, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing#Skill_Usage Long story short, if you buy the raw materials rather than hunt and mine for them yourself, many items are worth less than their constituent raw materials. Add in the merchants' markup when selling ingots and leather and their markdown when buying the finished product, and you really have to choose the right items to smith in order to show a profit.

Also, merchants' supply of the raw materials is rather limited. They aren't gonna be sitting around with 50 ingots of refined moonstone for you to go forging Elven armor.

Yeah I think I will just do the mining.. thanks for the help

Don't mine straight down! oh, opps, wrong game

I've never even mined stuff. The items might be expensive at first, but once you have tens of thousands of weightless gold in your pockets, it tends to become trivial..

If you want to just level up smithing fast you can buy in riften then fast travel to markath and buy there. Then fast travel back to riften and the stock will have replenished, rinse and repeat.