Lotus is right about it being the easiest way to level smithing in one go, but for the purists or ppl avoiding exploits, jewelry is a decent method to use, me personally, I make arrows...the smithing skill increase is based off of the value of the item you create, so yes, a "silver garnet ring" will net you a good chunk of xp, most often a level, but the problem is, the plain silver and gold jewelry just isn't that expensive so it can take AWHILE to level by making just jewelry, however, when you make arrows, the value of the arrow is multiplied by 24 to get your total value of the xp gain when you make them...typically, when I start a new character, the leather I collect in the houses (stealing etc) and on the way to river wood will get me within 2-3 smithing levels from 30, then After selling what I've made+what I've collected I have around 1400g at level 3 right after I get to river wood.
If you want some speed leveling real fast do the quest for faendal and choose to lie so he becomes a follower, then use your money (after he's following you) to train archery off of him, if you have at least over 25% level gained+warrior stone+sleeping 8 hours at hod and gerders you should level up everytime you train with him until you reach skill level 50. Then leave him there and move on to buying ingots and making arrows lol
That's just til skill level 30, then get dwarven smithing perk and take about an hour long trip to alftand (with a follower) and the alftand ruined tower, if you took the time to do the leveling w faendal and your careful, alftand should be a decent challenge but definitely passable...collect every piece of dwarven metal you and your follower can, then once you get to the lift and can get out, travel back, convert to ingots, find a safe place to store said ingots (faendal's house chests are a good spot) then make however many trips are needed to collect the rest of the dwarven metal you couldn't carry, typically I net around 275-325 ingots off of a clear of both towers, which translates into ALOT of firewood and arrows at 96xp per craft, which yes is less xp than a dwarven bow, but the sheer number of arrows you make will more than make up the difference in cost lol it usually takes between 6-8 Ingots per smithing level, until you get above 70 then it spreads out a bit more, but that little trip there has gotten me nearly to 80 smithing within a few hours of beginning a new character, plus selling the arrows (or bows if you want to make as many of those as you can first) to acquire more crafting material from the shops etc. just stay on task and it shouldn't take long to get your smithing where you want it lol not to mention that there are PLENTY of dwarven ruins to explore for TONS of ingots should you want to continue this method to 100 lol
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