Smithing

Is there anyway to make an actual profit off of it? I like to smithe things and I enjoy it, plus my charecter is a grizzly warrior and I think it would suit my idea of him. Grizzly warrior, smithes as a side job when he isn't out slaying dragon and collecting bounties? However it seems I am losing money instead of making money. Any ideas?

If you want to make money out of smithing you HAVE to mine. Speech skills are optional but it would be worth your time.

Or you can upgrade bandit's gear but this doesn't help as much and sometimes you won't turn a profit. Oh and you can get the transmute spell and smith jewelry but this can be time consuming if you don't have Magicka

Mining iron ore + Transmute ore spell (found for free at Halted Stream Camp, just north of Whiterun) + Whatever Jewels you come across (there are heaps) = Profit.

Or you could mine other ores and hunt animals for their pelts to create high-value armors and weapons. If you have a spare soul gem or Azura's star, then you can enchant them and really see the $$$ come in.

However the best way to make a ton of cash is alchemy, particularly the poison Magicka regen potion. You'll be swimming in Gold before you even learn to Fus Ro Dah

My characters are always smithers in some way and I have RPed that they do it as a part time job when not adventuring. Blacksmith apron with whatever heavy gauntlets give a bonus to smithing looks awesome.

I think for RP purposes, you can't look at it like you want to make a ton of money. You probably want to break even and/or profit only a little. Part of that is definitely mining your own ores. Plus, your grizzled warrior will look like a badass if he walks out of a mine, covered in grime, and starts pounding away on an anvil on the fresh minerals he just collected.

My characters are often master tanners, though. Basically, what this means, is that all the hides and pelts and whatever leather stuff I collect in my travels I turn into leather armor. I make the finest leather armor in all of Skyrim, I tell you what. I've been playing with making iron armor with my current character, though. Just because she wears iron armor and it looks awesome (and keeps me on my toes at higher difficulties).

You can make a ton of money off smithing, especially if you enchant your wares. Get Spell "Transmute ore" to change iron to gold, mine the iron, gathering, of course, various gems in the process, turn it into silver and gold, make jewelry, and suddenly your $2 iron ore is a piece of jewelry worth $1200.

If your serious about making money from it, I think you're going to have to invest in some haggling speech perks. Are you investing in smithing perks as well? Once you get Dwarven smithing make a point of going through Dwarven ruins to get materials. I went through Raldbthar and Mzinchaleft recently. It took several trips to carry all the loot away, but I have about 130 Dwarven Ingots sitting in a safe while I wait to be able to get the perk and use them.

Also, become a hunter. Making leather items count as smithing.

Profit from smithing is easy if you are willing to spend 3 perk points to Merchant. Pretty much an automatic for all my builds because I want to be able to sell my stuff to everyone or at least trade.

original_funk said:

Mining iron ore + Transmute ore spell (found for free at Halted Stream Camp, just north of Whiterun) + Whatever Jewels you come across (there are heaps) = Profit.

Or you could mine other ores and hunt animals for their pelts to create high-value armors and weapons. If you have a spare soul gem or Azura's star, then you can enchant them and really see the $$$ come in.

However the best way to make a ton of cash is alchemy, particularly the poison Magicka regen potion. You'll be swimming in Gold before you even learn to Fus Ro Dah

Click to expand...

It's amazing how much you can make with just a bunch of Frost potions (even at lowest level they're worth 60 each @ creation and sell for 45), same with fire, but frost is really simple.

Wildroses said:

If your serious about making money from it, I think you're going to have to invest in some haggling speech perks. Are you investing in smithing perks as well? Once you get Dwarven smithing make a point of going through Dwarven ruins to get materials. I went through Raldbthar and Mzinchaleft recently. It took several trips to carry all the loot away, but I have about 130 Dwarven Ingots sitting in a safe while I wait to be able to get the perk and use them.

Also, become a hunter. Making leather items count as smithing.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Of course you really don't have to be all that great a hunter to get some great pelts. Just wander around the rift and kill bears or in the mountains up by Windhelm & Winterhold. Bear pelts and deer pelts can render up to 4 leathers each. Wolves will give you one, but there are SOOOOO many wolves (you can get 14 of them just between Helgen & Riverwood and they respawn almost daily).

A great way to up the smithing perk, I find is to just keep making leather helmets & selling them. I always have at least 20 pelts with me when I get to a city (I strip every critter that attacks me) - up to 50 leathers, make some strips and get about 20 helmets and a couple of points in smithing).

Personally I luv smithing and not only take every ingot or pre mined ore that I find, but always carry a pickax and mine constantly. While transmute is great, to me, I enjoy making steel and banded armors and make great money off of them. I also have a tendancy of rendering my ores and then making slews of arrows (the firewood is cheap and the ores are mine) since you can make 144 at a time (6 ingots + 6 firewoods) (24 for 1 ingot & 1 firewood) and then selling them. Always making gold ore isn't always the best way to go as a lot of jewelery requires silver and you have to figure out which gem goes to which metal, etc... Don't get me wrong - I always make it a point to get the transmute spell right away, no matter the character because it's a great way to make some ready cash, but I really enjoy just making other things. I tend to stick with armors rather than weapons (unless I'm creating them for myself) since I can get a heck of a lot more for the armor than for the weapons (example: Orcish armor is 1K while an orcish greatsword is only 150).

Just my thoughts.

I'm not one to collect dwarven scrap, etc... It's just a waste of weight for me and, frankly, dwarwven stuff doesn't hold up over the long haul. I stick with Orcish, Glass and Ebony but shy away from the Daedric and dragon for sale purposes as there really aren't any vendors (even fences and after you get the speech perks) that can afford more than one item at a time.

For every 100 gold I pay for smiting materials and gems to enchant, I make at least 1000 gold in profit, at minimum, no need to mine if you don't feel like to, there is enough profit already.

Daelon DuLac said:

original_funk said:

Mining iron ore + Transmute ore spell (found for free at Halted Stream Camp, just north of Whiterun) + Whatever Jewels you come across (there are heaps) = Profit.

Or you could mine other ores and hunt animals for their pelts to create high-value armors and weapons. If you have a spare soul gem or Azura's star, then you can enchant them and really see the $$$ come in.

However the best way to make a ton of cash is alchemy, particularly the poison Magicka regen potion. You'll be swimming in Gold before you even learn to Fus Ro Dah

Click to expand...

It's amazing how much you can make with just a bunch of Frost potions (even at lowest level they're worth 60 each @ creation and sell for 45), same with fire, but frost is really simple.

Click to expand...

In fact, the alchemy crafting mechanism really broke the economy system for me, I mean, for Talos sake, a couple worthless ingredients will turn into a multi thousands worth of gold potion (slow/paralyse), I mean c'mon, what am I suppose to do with all the money I'm making ? lol

WillnRoll said:

For every 100 gold I pay for smiting materials and gems to enchant, I make at least 1000 gold in profit, at minimum, no need to mine if you don't feel like to, there is enough profit already.

Click to expand...

I do that a lot too. The main thing to remember is to make sure you've leveled enchanting and speech up high enough that it doesn't override itself. Example: dwarven enchanted dagger: (assuming you already have some leather strips and this is without and speech and enchanting perks and that you have learned a stamina or magicka drain or damage already) - dwarven ingot @ 45 + petty soul gem (loaded) @ 75 = 145. After enchanting with Stamina damage using that same dwarven dagger you just created and the gem you just purchased = 492 value - sell for about 145 so you break even, if, however, you do the same thing with an iron ingot (@ about 10 per) you get almost the same value in the end but a profit of 50+. As your speech goes up the value of what you sell goes up and the cost of the raw materials goes down. Usually I end up making a bunch of daggers and jewelry, enchanting them with the most profitable enchantment I currently know and use a petty, lesser or common gem that I currently have (you find so many of them anyhow and they're easy to fill yourself so you don't have to waste money on buying them if you don't want to) and away you go. You can make beaucoup bucks fast. Just remember that, without the speech perks, you make less, pay more and your vendors have less as well.

Just my thoughts.

Daelon DuLac said:

WillnRoll said:

For every 100 gold I pay for smiting materials and gems to enchant, I make at least 1000 gold in profit, at minimum, no need to mine if you don't feel like to, there is enough profit already.

Click to expand...

I do that a lot too. The main thing to remember is to make sure you've leveled enchanting and speech up high enough that it doesn't override itself. Example: dwarven enchanted dagger: (assuming you already have some leather strips and this is without and speech and enchanting perks and that you have learned a stamina or magicka drain or damage already) - dwarven ingot @ 45 + petty soul gem (loaded) @ 75 = 145. After enchanting with Stamina damage using that same dwarven dagger you just created and the gem you just purchased = 492 value - sell for about 145 so you break even, if, however, you do the same thing with an iron ingot (@ about 10 per) you get almost the same value in the end but a profit of 50+. As your speech goes up the value of what you sell goes up and the cost of the raw materials goes down. Usually I end up making a bunch of daggers and jewelry, enchanting them with the most profitable enchantment I currently know and use a petty, lesser or common gem that I currently have (you find so many of them anyhow and they're easy to fill yourself so you don't have to waste money on buying them if you don't want to) and away you go. You can make beaucoup bucks fast. Just remember that, without the speech perks, you make less, pay more and your vendors have less as well.

Just my thoughts.

Click to expand...

You may not believe me, with a 320 hours old character, I ended up with 4000 leather stripes, 4000 leathers, 4500 Iron ingots, thousands of other ingots, hundreds of filled soul gems, and 2500 lbs of ingredients, and a lot more, and these are all left overs, and the funny thing is, I don't remember putting any real effort collecting these, excuse me, I can't help but bragging about it.

Daelon DuLac said:

WillnRoll said:

For every 100 gold I pay for smiting materials and gems to enchant, I make at least 1000 gold in profit, at minimum, no need to mine if you don't feel like to, there is enough profit already.

Click to expand...

I do that a lot too. The main thing to remember is to make sure you've leveled enchanting and speech up high enough that it doesn't override itself. Example: dwarven enchanted dagger: (assuming you already have some leather strips and this is without and speech and enchanting perks and that you have learned a stamina or magicka drain or damage already) - dwarven ingot @ 45 + petty soul gem (loaded) @ 75 = 145. After enchanting with Stamina damage using that same dwarven dagger you just created and the gem you just purchased = 492 value - sell for about 145 so you break even, if, however, you do the same thing with an iron ingot (@ about 10 per) you get almost the same value in the end but a profit of 50+. As your speech goes up the value of what you sell goes up and the cost of the raw materials goes down. Usually I end up making a bunch of daggers and jewelry, enchanting them with the most profitable enchantment I currently know and use a petty, lesser or common gem that I currently have (you find so many of them anyhow and they're easy to fill yourself so you don't have to waste money on buying them if you don't want to) and away you go. You can make beaucoup bucks fast. Just remember that, without the speech perks, you make less, pay more and your vendors have less as well.

Just my thoughts.

Click to expand...

You can even buy an iron ore, turn it to gold and make a gold necklace, that is so simple and 1000% profit

WillnRoll said:

Daelon DuLac said:

original_funk said:

Mining iron ore + Transmute ore spell (found for free at Halted Stream Camp, just north of Whiterun) + Whatever Jewels you come across (there are heaps) = Profit.

Or you could mine other ores and hunt animals for their pelts to create high-value armors and weapons. If you have a spare soul gem or Azura's star, then you can enchant them and really see the $$$ come in.

However the best way to make a ton of cash is alchemy, particularly the poison Magicka regen potion. You'll be swimming in Gold before you even learn to Fus Ro Dah

Click to expand...

It's amazing how much you can make with just a bunch of Frost potions (even at lowest level they're worth 60 each @ creation and sell for 45), same with fire, but frost is really simple.

Click to expand...

In fact, the alchemy crafting mechanism really broke the economy system for me, I mean, for Talos sake, a couple worthless ingredients will turn into a multi thousands worth of gold potion (slow/paralyse), I mean c'mon, what am I suppose to do with all the money I'm making ? lol

Click to expand...

Hookers? You could marry Ysolda and become a Sleeping Tree Sap addict. Buy all the property you can find, trick it out and build and decorate to your hearts content? Adopt and give your kids 1K a week in allowance and shower them with presents? Buy every ingot and piece of ore in Skyrim and horde it so nobody else can use it? By every arrow in every town/city of every type and horde them? Collect 10 of everything every created, in existence or that is collectable in all of Skyrim (at least it would give you something to fill up that dern Store Room in your hearthfire house). The possibilities are endless! Personally I buy all the ores & ingots as well as every ingredient, potion or poison and just store them away so nobody else can have any. I'm selfish that way.

Daelon DuLac said:

WillnRoll said:

Daelon DuLac said:

It's amazing how much you can make with just a bunch of Frost potions (even at lowest level they're worth 60 each @ creation and sell for 45), same with fire, but frost is really simple.

Click to expand...

In fact, the alchemy crafting mechanism really broke the economy system for me, I mean, for Talos sake, a couple worthless ingredients will turn into a multi thousands worth of gold potion (slow/paralyse), I mean c'mon, what am I suppose to do with all the money I'm making ? lol

Click to expand...

Hookers? You could marry Ysolda and become a Sleeping Tree Sap addict. Buy all the property you can find, trick it out and build and decorate to your hearts content? Adopt and give your kids 1K a week in allowance and shower them with presents? Buy every ingot and piece of ore in Skyrim and horde it so nobody else can use it? By every arrow in every town/city of every type and horde them? Collect 10 of everything every created, in existence or that is collectable in all of Skyrim (at least it would give you something to fill up that dern Store Room in your hearthfire house). The possibilities are endless! Personally I buy all the ores & ingots as well as every ingredient, potion or poison and just store them away so nobody else can have any. I'm selfish that way.

Click to expand...

Dude, you're not helping Skyrim to evolve at all, you'll end up with a 3rd world Skyrim monopolizing the hell out of it like that

WillnRoll said:

Daelon DuLac said:

WillnRoll said:

For every 100 gold I pay for smiting materials and gems to enchant, I make at least 1000 gold in profit, at minimum, no need to mine if you don't feel like to, there is enough profit already.

Click to expand...

I do that a lot too. The main thing to remember is to make sure you've leveled enchanting and speech up high enough that it doesn't override itself. Example: dwarven enchanted dagger: (assuming you already have some leather strips and this is without and speech and enchanting perks and that you have learned a stamina or magicka drain or damage already) - dwarven ingot @ 45 + petty soul gem (loaded) @ 75 = 145. After enchanting with Stamina damage using that same dwarven dagger you just created and the gem you just purchased = 492 value - sell for about 145 so you break even, if, however, you do the same thing with an iron ingot (@ about 10 per) you get almost the same value in the end but a profit of 50+. As your speech goes up the value of what you sell goes up and the cost of the raw materials goes down. Usually I end up making a bunch of daggers and jewelry, enchanting them with the most profitable enchantment I currently know and use a petty, lesser or common gem that I currently have (you find so many of them anyhow and they're easy to fill yourself so you don't have to waste money on buying them if you don't want to) and away you go. You can make beaucoup bucks fast. Just remember that, without the speech perks, you make less, pay more and your vendors have less as well.

Just my thoughts.

Click to expand...

You may not believe me, with a 320 hours old character, I ended up with 4000 leather stripes, 4000 leathers, 4500 Iron ingots, thousands of other ingots, hundreds of filled soul gems, and 2500 lbs of ingredients, and a lot more, and these are all left overs, and the funny thing is, I don't remember putting any real effort collecting these, excuse me, I can't help but bragging about it.

Click to expand...

I know what you're saying. On my first playthrough, I had similar volumnes in my basement and alchemy barrels and over 1500 filled soul gems and an equal number of empty ones. I even had over 200 filled black soul gems (I just kept collecting them and never using them). I agree - no real effort was needed once I got above 30th level.

As far as smithing goes, i agree that making jewlery is a good way to make money (particularly if you are using transmute to turn irom ore into gold). But for me, the most convenient way to make money is enchanting. All you need is a decen weapon with soul trap on it (or the soul trap sell if you're a pure mage). Buy up all the cheap empty soul gems you can. Then in the normal course of playing, your gems get filled up as you kill ranom critters. When you return to town, just enchant the loot you found with your petty and lesser gems. Each 20 G petty gem adds about 100 - 400 G to a piece of loot (depending on which enchantment you use). It's a quick and easy way to make money just by doing the stuff you would normally do anyway.

You can buy your gems if you're impatient, but don't waste your time on the Greaters and Grands (you'll just end up filling them with the wrong souls unless you're really in to killing Giants & Mammoths), besides, they're expensive. You can also just find them all over the place like skittles. Every time I go in to a dungeon, cave or tomb, I inevitably come out with at least 5 or 6 of them.

Just another coupla cents here: I've never taken a speechcraft perk and have always ended up independently wealthy. Even with my current character, who possesses 23 stones of Barenziah and has given up on figuring out where the 24th is.