One thing I've observed is that there are enchanted items in the world, there are potions in the world, but there are no pre-improved weapons and armor in the world. It's as if smiths never thought about possibly using their skills to improve their weapons and armor.

I guess the reason is, is that from a design perspective, there are a relative few number of creations and improvements done through smithing than through the other two crafting skills, which means that it would make the smithing tree far less useful (as opposed to alchemy and enchantments where finding the right combinations are harder).

Still, it is a tad bit odd that you can buy something from a great smith, and assuming you had the materials, could always make at least a marginal improvement (to fine) with no skill in smithing.

One thing I think that would have this make more sense is if smithing bonuses wore out with use and had to be reapplied (note, this would not wear down weapons below the base level). This would also give you reason to keep getting smithing materials even when you have end game armor and weapons. For alchemy you need to keep locating ingredients for your potions, and for enchanting, you need to get more soul gems (though the star does mitigate this) to recharge your weapons. As it stands now, once you have your final armor and weapons for you and your companions, it's still a good idea to locate materials to keep them up to date.

This would also have the side effect of allowing you to find improved items in the world, and still keep smithing from being useless.

Well, my thoughts anyway.

Edit:

Another thing that this improvement would do is increase the usefulness of the Arcane Smithing perk. Right now, if you were an enchanter, you could improve the base weapon and then enchant it, strongly decreasing the usefulness of the arcane smithing perk. If improvements were to degrade, the only way you could reimprove your enchanted weapons would be to have the arcane smithing perk.

This sounds good.

Aye, that part does sound good. I'd even have it drop below the "base" level, though never zero. Such as Superior drops to Fine through repeated use, Fine drops down to the base quality, and then finally base quality drops down to "Poor" quality.

It'll never get worse than that though. As you say, it would give a good reason to keep gathering smithing supplies to "sharpen" your weapons and repair your armor.

No. no. no. Do not reintroduce weapon or armor durability degradation. Ever.

That was an insanely annoying mechanic. I can't stand not having my equipment in its best condition, so I'd be compulsively repairing aaaall the time. i.e. in Fallout 3 I'd be carrying like 10 of the same weapon to make sure I could keep up repairs. It'd be even worse if I had to return to a grinding stone to do this.

This is exactly the armor/weapon degrading we've been missing. It was a huge discussion before the game came out, and unfortunately they left it out. Would love to see it in a mod tho.

If this were implemented, I'd like the UI to show me the level of improvement rather than "Superior" or "Legendary." Maybe show 5 stars at max improvement, and 1 or 0 stars at no improvement. It would be easier to see when you are losing your improvements.

That does sound like a good idea op. Also I would love it if npc smiths could improve your weapons as well. As it stands right now, Dovahkin is literally the only smith in Skyrim that can sharpen a sword.

Great for immersion and RPing -- I like the idea, and I'd be in favor of it only for IMPROVED weapons and armor.

The reason I would not want it to degrade below the base level is so that someone who does not choose to go into smithing at all, does not feel compelled to use it to keep repairing their gear, not to mention, it would be annoying if the item became useless during a dungeon crawl.

However, having improvements degrade seem to bring about a number of benefits.

It keeps smithing useful into the end game.
Makes the arcane smithing perk more useful.
Gives a usefulness to grinding stones and workbenches in dungeons (alchemy stations in dungeons are useful in that you can create potions if you're running low, and you can disenchant items at an arcane table you found in a dungeon to help free up weight).
Gives a reason to keep finding smithing materials (or keep things like dragon scales useful)
Gives a way to more naturally level smithing.

Having the item go down to the base level would not be terribly gimping, since technically, you can right now play the game without smithing anything at all (albeit its harder).

This is a minor point, but arcane smithing is already necessary to keep your weapon upgraded. If you upgrade it via smithing, and then enchant it without the perk, then it loses its original upgrade.

I wouldn't mind hearing more opinions about why degradation is a good idea, but I really think it does more to reduce immersion instead of increase it. It gives me a number I have to keep checking. A chore to do. I have to stop thinking for just a moment about the cool little quest I'm on, or the neat thing I'm looking at, or that awesome monster I'm fighting, to worry about how much my equipment is degrading. That's awful.

I actually don't find that to be the case. I frequently upgrade items without the perk, then go enchant it, and it retains the smithing improvement.

Hmm. Could someone else weigh in on this? We're getting exactly opposite results.

arcane smithing is also good for upgrading deadric artifacts and such. (like the mace and warhammer)

In real life, no sword (made in medieval times anyway) would survive the constant fighting that our adventurers go through. Those swords would be battered and useless within a few minutes or hours of combat. But what we do in this game isn't very realistic. Real weapons back in those days were rarely had to suffer much in the way of pure attack&parry dueling. Usually it was a good thrust or hack, which rarely did much damage to the weapon, so a good sword would last a lifetime or more with careful attention, even if it'd seen a few battles. Warhammers or Maces wouldn't need ANY maintenance beyond just keeping away the rust and maintaining the handle.

I'd be perhaps a little keen on the idea that a sword would have to be discarded through wear, or reforged, but NOT outside of a smith's attention at a forge, and perhaps a minimum of a day's work. I think at a minimum, one should want to visit a smith after every large dungeon where the sword saw some active use. All depends on how much it's needed. I use a two-hander, and as these historically had a mostly blunt edge with only a portion of the blade actually sharp, so these would need less attention.

i was actually worried about this, so i saved before i enchanted a sword i was using, and it kept the smithing improvements.

edit: by the way, i really like the idea by the OP, as i have thought "why isnt there any fine or superior weapons dropped by bandits?" what they never thought to upgrade the sword or whatever?

Well, damn. I must be wrong. I could have swore I saw the weapon damage drop when I enchanted it. Ah well.

So, I've been thinking about the OP's idea, and I could see it working for me if it were implemented in a very specific way. If your smithing upgrade functioned just like your enchanting. That is, you would have a set number of "charges" on that improved item. When the charges are gone, it goes back to normal. No gradual decline. Also, I'd want a visual indicator outside of the menu, just like the enchanting charge bar. I think that would address my concerns and give the OP what he's looking for.

I think that would be a fair compromise and would improve things over what they are now.