First of all am I right, there is no perk specific to leather?

What is the skill level requirement to improve leather to 'superior'?

You need a pretty hefty amount of skill to improve armor, so my guess is about level 50 or so, maybe as low as level 45. It all depends if you have taken some perks before, or have some special items with you to help your smithing skill.

Skill level 31

After that, the breakpoints are in increments of 34 to 35 skill levels.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing

Level 20-39 for superior armor

I believe you need the Advanced Armor perk to improve Leather. Not sure. Anyway, it is not too far up the skill tree. It is not listed as a Leather Perk, but I think it covers it. It was so long ago that I got that perk.

As for Superior or Epic or Legendary, those come at Smithing Skills levels, see the chart about half way down

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing

0-19 Fine; 20-39 Superior; 40-59 Exquisite; 60-79 Flawless; 80-99 Epic; 100 Legendary

This is correct. Listen to UnclePain... or he will hurt you.
-Loth

Those figures are definitely wrong...for leather.
I think UnclePain may be right...wont know for sure for a few more levels.
I've looked at the info on the UESPWiki...but I dont know how it applies to leather. Assuming There is no perk for leather it looks by the UESP I will need a skill level of 168 to improve leather to legendary. Is it even possible to reach level 168?

Oh my, yes... you can get Smithing to very high levels using enchanting and alchemy. If you have a Smithing skill of 100, and drink a +130 smithing potion... that's 230 right there. Add in 4 pieces of equipment that raise +29%, and that becomes a Smithing of... really high. (Maths is hard )
-Loth

With potions and enchants, yeah.

Thanks Folks, that helps a lot. I'll be on the lookout for potions and enchants. I was planning on sticking with leather armor.

remember that there are a lot of different leather armors to chose from as well.

hide, fur, stormcloak, guard, leather, forsworn etc.

Uh, since when? Anyone can improve armor as soon as they see their first workbench, if they have the items.

Not so.
The improvements you can access are limited by your smithing level.

So I just reached level 31 in smithing and I can now improve leather to 'superior'. So UnclePain was right.
I'm keeping an eye out for smithing potions.
I did try a blacksmith potion which said it would give a 20% increase in improvements, but it made no difference at all to the armour levels of anything I improved.
Any ideas?

Not so?

All right, let's back up a few posts. I believe what Icerunner meant to say was that you need a hefty amount of skill to improve leather armor to a high grade. But I'm guessing here, because all he really said was "you need a pretty hefty amount of skill to improve armor."

Now Kristoffer pointed out - correctly - that you do not need "a heft amount of skill" to improve armor, you can begin improving leather armor right away.

Yes, higher grades are limited by your smithing level. I'm sure Kristoffer agrees with this. But so what? You are in agreement, but seem to think you are disagreeing. There is much miscommunication going on here.

Blacksmithing pots temporarily increase your Smithing skill. That's it. So, you could have had a smithing level of only 26 (with that +20% potion) to improve your leather instead of waiting until Smithing = 31.
-Loth

Thanks for clarifying that

Well if you back up to my very first post you will realise my question was about accessing the higher levels of improvement and at what smithing levels they became available. The miscommunication was that Kristoffer didnt read the thread carefully and his reply was incorrect in relation to my question and the thread discussion.
How am I to know he does or does not know there are levels limits to the smithing improvements.
In the context of the actual discussion of the thread the reply was incorrect.
But so what...my reply was informative.