It would be nice to have a Sticky with a FAQ for enchanting, smithing, and alchemy.

my current problem is that I don't know why I can't disenchant some items. I have like 10 magic items in my inventory, and the one that I can't disenchant is the one I really want to get!


there are so many disorganized threads about enchanting, and UESP does not have a FAQ for enchanting. I get the basics, now I have specific question.

You can't disenchant items if you already know it's enchantment and i suppose you can't disenchant artifacts (would be hard to be able to make uber-equipment with the double enchant perk).

I'm assuming the item you can't disenchant is a unique item or a staff. Neither of those can be disenchanted.

Also (just in case you were confused) you can't disenchant a weapon/armour piece if you already know that enchantment. If you disenchant an axe that does 20 stamina damage, then you learn the "stamina damage" enchantment, not the "20 stamina damage" one. You can then enchant any applicable armour piece with +X stamina damage, and your Enchanting skill and the size of the soul gem will determine the level of the enchantment - i.e. how much stamina damage it will do.

Actually he has a point. You can't disenchant staves. It doesn't even show up as grayed on the list of items. Why?

Once you disenchant an item with a particular type of enchantment, you cannot disenchant items that have that same type of modifier.. The whole point is to learn that type of enchantment for your own uses. The value of the modifier is irrelevant (5% vs 50%), once you know how to reproduce a fire damage enchant, it's up to your characters skills in enchanting to reproduce that enchantment type on your own gear. Your skill level and perks in the enchantment tree determines how strong it is.

If you dis-enchant equipment that is very valuable, you gain more experience from it. But once you learn all/most of the enchantment types, the only way to increase your enchantment skill is to enchant more items.

Wow. Ok. that makes sense. man, I think I am going to leave enchanting alone for now.

I have raised up my smith ability and that levels you, and I would rather up that and reap the benefit rather than have low smithy benefits and low enchantment.

Because staves cast actual spells, not enchantments. If you take a spell off a stave, the best you could do with it is copy it to another stave in the exact same strength.