Did you go out to mines and mine all of your ore, or did you buy the iron ingots at the vendors and train it up that way? (could get expensive doing that)

Reason I ask is I cannot find mines that have a good amount of ore as the one I have been to (near Markath I think) had like 4 veins in it and that was it.

1. Do you just stick with the task of mining ore?

2. Where is a good area to keep a constant flow of ore coming in to train up smithing?

I bought iron ore's, leather strips and leather to make iron daggers, leather helmets and (whatever the glove type things are called).

Mining is for people who want to "role play" whatever that means.

There are practically endless suplies of amimals to kill for pelts... mining is pretty slow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvVsObu7FVw

To level up your skill just buy iron ingots and/or leather to make iron daggers and/or leather bracers. Can do this all the way up to 100 skill. Its really not that expensive.

You can also save the daggers and then use them to level up enchanting. Making a profit if you just run around and buy petty and lesser soul gems for them.

Just buy materials, buy loads of leather and make leather bracers (I think it's bracers, the one that costs 1 leather and 1 leather strips) or iron ingots and leather strips to make iron daggers. Raid dungeons to make money, or use alchemy to make [censored] loads of money. Loads of way to make money in this game.

There's not enough for mining. I bought most of it, but intended to mine originally.

Don't power-level smithing. Seriously, you're going to regret it. That said, my first char did just that with leather, which is cheap and plentiful. Go out, kill deer, wolves, and other assorted fauna. Come back, tan a bunch of leather, make some leather strips, and make a bunch of leather bracers. Congrats, you're now a blacksmith. Make yourself some gear fast, you're going to need it.

Well i was to poor at the time to buy the ingots so i just googled mining locations :bonk:

If you want to artificially beef up smithing and enchanting at the same...

1. Buy leather strips/leather and iron ingots, craft iron daggers.

2. Enchant daggers with best possible enchantment, use low level soul gems.

3. Sell daggers for profit.

4. Repeat!

Only trouble is finding the soul gems and souls with which to fill them. And, of course, this kinda breaks the game.

Make iron daggers, all you need is 1 iron ingot and 1 leather strip. Each which you can buy from the merchants. Theirs two merchants right in Whiterun at the blacksmith, the girl at the outside and guy in the building. They both sell a decent amount of ingots and ore along with leather/leather strips. Quickest way to level it as far as I know.

Not necessarily. I powerleveled smithing at level 17(or so) and the quality of the new gear allowed me too made up for the almost instant 6 or 7 level rise and even give me an edge. At a lower level than 15 or so I think it might be a bad idea though.

I did both. Mining for the RP value, plus making leather out of aaaaaallllll the frigging wolf, bear, and cat pelts I kept acquiring. Bought up a lot of iron and steel ingots, though.

ROFL - BUY STUFF, YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING??!! My toon steals what he needs. Mining can get too tedious especially with other NPC's that don't shut up and keep blathering on. Also, if you're in a tight spot and really want to craft something and need the ore, use the console - that is if you have a PC. If you need obsidium ore for example, just type: ~ help ore 4. Then the different types of ores will pop up. Once you find the item ID #, just type: player.additem ID# goes here quantity goes here - that simple.

First and Foremost: Buy the House in Whiterun. Seriously. DO IT. buy the Bedroom Set and the Alchemy lab. you get spots to stash stuff/sell later type items when shop keepers get more money.
-Thats just an FYI Tip to do regardless of Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Enchanting, Etc-

Back ontopic:
Ebony Ores I only mined once from the one Mine shaft near an Orc Spot. But I mostly buy it because you find two-three rings or necklace thats worth 700 gold, your done, you pretty much paid for like 20-30 iron ingots.
You level up via Lover's Stone or Warrior Stone and make Leather Bracers and Iron Daggers. Just...go out and kill [censored] for leather to make leather strips.

Armor: upgrade it on the Smith Table then Sell it to the person with the most gold.
Weapons: I don't bother making, they usually drop or found in chests after you beat the Bandit Boss of X Fort or X MIne Shaft or X Cave. When you find something you can upgrade to epic/legendary, Sell it. You'll be getting it right back.
Daedric Items: Keep them.

Mostly; I bought all my materials seeing I am banking on Stolen goods to the Theives guild, and I'm great with buying/selling which items to the three shop keeps in Whiterun.

I hate that you can't "Buy" something and start looking at items in your inventory to sell/trade for it...but its all good.
Right now, level 34, sitting at 20k gold and like 95 blacksmithing. Barely did any Mining which would have probably saved me some gold, but I wind up making money easily by just doing Bounties from Tavern Keepers.

Pretty much, Pick up EVERYTHING and trade it. from Iron Daggers to Fur Armor. UNTIL that becomes too small of income/not worth the haul...
My next option is: How much does it weigh vs Price. If the Price of the Item is double the price or for some of the heavier armors, triple The Price of the Weight, pick it up and sell it. Clear out the Fort/Cave/Mine shaft/Ruin, kill everything, haul back the expensive heavy [censored], sell it...then go back and pick up all the little stuff and sell it to their right shop keeps.

Mostly;
1. Don't sell weapons to Belethgor (What ever his name is) in Whiterun, only Circlets/Robes/Jewelry.
2. Sell Some things to the Drunken Huntsman Shopkeep, then when he is out of money,
3. USE That money from Drunken Huntsman to BUY Ore/Ingots, and then Sell the heavy armor/weapons to the chick near the blacksmith stand in Whiterun...

Do NOT BE AFRAID to be overencumbered while in Whiterun, I've yet to have any dragons attack this city while I'm in its walls, same with Riften.

PERSONAL TIP: Do the SIlver-Inn Family Quest in Markarth, he gives you a ring that increases blacksmithing by like 10-15%, the moment you find bracers/gloves that increase blacksmithing aswell.

And no, to the rest of you who put out guides, I did NOT do this to power level, I'm an Orc Raider...I use Heavy Armor, Two-Handed Axes, Archery, One-Handed Axes and Shields.

I manag to find enough animals to not have to buy my leather straps. but I jump from imperial to stormcloak secret base buying my ingots. Though, I tend to mine ores like ebony though since they are harder to find. Also if you find ingots you can steal, steal it. It's just going to become armor or weapons anyway.

A really decent spot for getting some iron ore (although you'll still need a ton more if you're primarily using it to level smithing) is the Halted Stream camp north of Whiterun (it looks like a tent symbol /\), populated by a few bandits about 5-6 iron veins and a corundum vein. As others have pointed out pelts are another good option (leather bracers or hide helms are 1 leather and 2 leather strips).
What I find ridiculous is that the Skyforge Steel weapon you get from joining the companions pretty much outclasses (or is equivalent) to any weapon made of a material below glass or ebony/daedric.

I play with a house rule of no purchasing items for the purpose of leveling a skill. By mining everything I see and killing every deer, elk, fox, wolf, etc. that I see I've had no trouble leveling Smithing. I do the following:

• Unless I specifically do not want to level Alteration I transmute all Iron Ore into Gold Ore and create jewelry to either sell, enchant, or both.
  
• Any remaining Iron Ore I do not want to transmute is used in Iron Daggers to sell, enchant, or both.
  
• Remaining leather is used to make Leather Bracers to sell, enchant, or both.

Doing that I make a ton of money and level Smithing, Enchanting (optional) and Alteration (optional) all at the same time. In fact, to keep them in line with combat skills I have to put a lot of it into storage for future use because if I used it all right away I'd have 75 Smithing 75 Enchanting and only 40 in my combat skills.

Quoted for truth.

I just maxed out my character with full daedric armor and bow.

What else is there?
Oh.
Enchanting and actually taking the archery perks...

...
...

But it feels like half the game is gone now that you're never going to check chests because you got everything you need and not even artifacts are better than your current gear when you get daedric.

I'm rerolling a second time.

First time, I discovered the uselessness of destruction.

Second time, I discovered the absurdity of smithing.

Third time, I will avoid smithing, alchemy, destruction and enchantment alltogether.

Perhaps a stealth-conjurer that specializes in enchanting end-game and only use bound weapons?

Buy a house, and store all the pelts you find off of creatures. When you feel like doing a little leveling, create leather items. That was how I did most of my smithing. Once I got to 90, I wanted the dragon armor so bad that I started buying iron though.