It seems that this is my biggest trouble in being a smith. I always end up having to buy steel ingots or corundum ore. (the former is always more in stock than the latter)

Well this happens with quicksilver/moonstone/malachite as well... but corundum should be fairly more common given it's value compared to some other ores.

Only good source i know of is in through fort dawnguard.

-I LOVE SCALED ARMOR. I'm wearing a full set, though unfortunately i can't make the horned variant OR upgrade it . (come-on beth just add a goat hide/horn into the smithing formula)

-I also find that nordic weapons and the heavy nordic shield look amazing with it.

I go to the various smiths.

For Malachite, I go to the mine in Kynesgrove.

For Quicksilver, I go to its mine in Dawnstar.

Shops, I basically never mine except in the very beginning when i cannot afford crafting stuff

Apparently knife-point mine has 18 ore veins... but is only accessible after boethias calling which is level locked at 30 By the time i hit 30 i wont need steel anymore.

Most of the corundum I've mined, I've found in individual vines, scattered through the wilderness -I do travel a lot. Turns out that ~80% of the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Corundum are indeed "out there". The richest corundum concentration in a single place, can be found in Knifepoint Ridge, but it's locked by Boethia's Calling quest.

Quicksilver, Moonstone & Malachite, are rare in Skyrim. If you don't mind the Falmer, the Forgotten Vale (DG) is a rather decent source. Whirlwind Sprint will also help you access the bird nests, placed on the cliffs under the Inner Sanctum's bridge, if you're in rock warbler eggs shortage.

Other than that, there's always the option to head to the nearest smith and exchange loot for materials.

Just craft leather helmets and armor. Leather is easy to come by, and its cheap if you want to buy it front merchants. Unless you need to craft with corundum/steel for some reason?

Well Smithing the same thing over and over gets repetative. Going from leather to stahlrim seems a bit silly. :-p

Lots of recipes use steel and corundum.


Though it is fun to go out and hunt for leather then sell my leather armor at venders. (specifically in shors stone where wildlife and a black smith is close to eachother)

There's no real concentrated source of Corundum ore veins that I've noticed, mostly you just find it randomly in the world. You tend to find them more often in Whiterun Hold in my experience, but you'll still come across them in out of the way places in any hold really. There's also the only Corundum mine in Skyrim located at Darkwater Crossing in Eastmarch but that is a fairly small mine.

There's three veins just above the bandit camp with treasure map I. As you leave Riverwood, pass the three standing stones and turn right at the intersection at the top of the hill, the bandit camp is to your left after another 100 yards or so. To find the veins, don't take the right at the intersection, just continue straight (towards Helgen) and turn right off the path when you think you're above the bandit camp (maybe 25 yards, it's quick). Look for the fog bank which is an excellent land mark. The veins are under the fog.

If you want to grind smithing, steel and iron are too restricted by the availability of corundum. I think the best choices are jewelry and dwarven smithing. If you can get the transmute spell-book, jewelry is that much easier (you can use the spell to change iron into silver and then gold).

Oh yeah, dwarven is another good one...Dwarven bows for everyone!

I don't mine, I buy. And for Dwarven, I scrounge the ruins as well.

Same thing with alchemy, just roam from town to town and buy stuff. Make potions, sell 'em, use the money for more alchemy stuff. Adventuring may be more fun, but alchemy is more lucrative.

I buy all of my ore/ingots. The only ore I mine is Ebony.

ooh thanks' ill check it out. Once you get dwarven smithing it's cake. Going through that ruin in markarth gives me enough ingots to make around 100 bow AND improve them. That gets me to level 75 or so generally.

I only do that when I'm really impatient though. Lately I've just been wanting to make a variety of items, give them to my followers, or try to make a profit.