Huhhhhh?

I really don't see the point of balancing Smithing, if you want something just rush your Smithing skill.

And you can't exploit it anyway, if creating stuff is the only way to level it then so be it.

Personally, I try and keep all of my melee abilities leveled at the same rate. For instance, if I build my 2h weapons to 50 skill and my heavy armor/smithy/block are still in the 20's then I will try and catch those skills up to my 2h skill. I play the game naturally though, I don't try and max any one skill. I just play the game and if any of my skills start blowing past the other core skills I want to use then I stop and take the time to build the lower skills up. This makes for a well balanced character and a much more enjoyable gameplay experience.

I can offer this tip:

Play by the rule: "My smithing skill can't be my highest skill." You can also take this a step further, and tie your smithing to a different skill and not raise it any more than the other... for example, your heavy armor skill. Obviously, don't power grind heavy armor (by letting mobs beat on you without retaliation) if you do this just so you can raise your smithing some more.

-Loth

Well, I'm doing smithing for the first time and I'm realizing that it doesn't take much to level up smithing at all. I'm used to Alchemy. I don't want to get too powerful too fast.

You wont get too powerful too fast, trust me, I boosted Smithing on my first Character and I got to level 11 or so but I didn't craft my first piece of Daedric armour untill level 34.

Only craft with materials you mined.

Until we get a balancing mod, any restrictions you make are going to be solely at your discretion.

You could restrict the quantity of cheapy items you produce (i.e. iron dagger). This is how I think a mod to smithing gains should function, btw, with diminishing returns to what you get for crafting the same item.

I think if you are a board and sword player you must take smithing to 100 and your enchanting up to around 60ish otherwise you will get SLAPPED!!!!! lol
p.s I play on master difficulty

A really good idea here.

I started first with alchemy to 100. Then
moved on to enchanting and smithing at the same time.

I avoided speaking to the Jarl of Whiterun that triggers the dragons to spawn.

Vampires and Mages in my game were in place instead of dragons.

Difficulty at startup master difficulty.

Alchemy, Enchanting, Smithing then i placed my perk points to my playstyle.

for me its:
light armor 5/5 and all light 1. (skipped the rest)
1 handweap 5/5, sword 3/3, decapitate
shield 2, element, arrow, run ( skipped the rest)
smithing all
enchant all (minus soul svck)
alchemy 5/5, 25% boost, 25% skill boost (skipped the rest)

i use a falmer mask w/circlet when creating potions.

147% smithing pots
37%. enchanting pots
1 full set of crafting gear of 6 pieces total at 29% boost each.

game play is ok difficult but thats how i enjoy playing. The more deadly the game from the NPC to me the better but thats just how i like it.

donno if this helps you but thats how the game is balnced for me.

Also i found light armor to better balance the game for me rather then Daedric. Ancient Nord is good stuff but i like the look of Most light armor. 572 is armor cap anyway so imo its all up to the player.

I focused/enchanted my gear to straight damage.

Stormcloak officer is really nice stuff (nice look)
Scaled armor set
Or legendary fur w/storm officer gloves & boots

set my gear to 48% archery & 48% 1handweaps
stam regen on bp & stam boost
add steed stone

i trigger the dragon whiterun quest after having set my gear. Then for me my gameplay comes alive and still enjoyable. If an ice mage can almost 1 shot kill me im good to go. Thats how i enjoy my game. Dragons in my game with my set up do and can kill me via thier fire or frost. I just wish the dragons would use other shouts besides fire or frost.

id play a higher difficulty setting if it were an option. But im on an xbox360.

This is what I do. Only pelts I find get turned to Leather, and only Ore I mine is made into ingots. And only those are used for crafting. Makes you actually stop in at different mines instead of bypassing them because there likely won't be enemies.

Generally my rule is to only craft what I plan to use, and improve only what I plan to keep, except in the case of jewelry. Smithing jewelry is nice because it sells for decent money and isn't heavy in case you need to lug it around a bit.

Just don't grind smithing by making tons of daggers and it should level at a normal rate.

When I started my character I would only upgrade pieces of armor and various weapons that he brought back into town with him after looting bodies during his latest exploits. If you play it that way it feels more "realistic" and definitely takes a good while to level up to 100. But it also costs quite a bit of money to buy all the mats needed for the various items. I never made back what I put into the items so eventually you just have to sell some stuff without upgrading it to boost your money a bit and then get back to it on the next haul. Eventually I got tired of doing that and did the dagger grind for the last levels. But it's possible to role play it if you really want to.

Like some other posts, immediately once I started the game and noticed it was too easy to get smithing up I started ONLY using the ore I mined myself. I went a step further as well, considering my character used heavy armor I couldn't level up making any light armor, unless it was for a set I was going to use to hang up in my house. (cough glass armor)

Made the game much more enjoyable

I just use smithing when I need it; mostly improving the crap I get off bandits before I sell it. Just don't actively grind it if you're not roleplaying a smith.

Smithing on its own isn't that bad, if you keep it roughly in step with your other skills things should be fine. Avoid using +smithing enchanted gear though, and fortify smithing potions, and limit your fortify damage enchantments to 1 or 2 items rather than 4.

I only improve my smithing when I see the piece of armor or weapons in the store so when I see someone selling steel i get the steel perk and when I see dwarven/elven I get that perk and so on so I'm not ahead of the game.

Why is this hard? You just do a smithing session every once in a while. Like, when you feel like it, instead of just selling off your crap, buy or smelt/ tan some materials and improve the stuff you've looted, then use whatever is left over to smith a few new pieces. This will level smithing pretty evenly with your combat skills because you're out pillaging most of the time.

I've noticed the rate of smithing progression seemed a bit more natural when my character used smithing as the only crafting skill (no enchanting or alchemy to wind up with crazy smithing boosts).

So far, I have been limiting smithing to crafting or improving armor and weapons for actual use by the PC and follower, as well as a bit of jewelry. As a result it's taken about 100 hours to get my smithing up to 40 or so.

I was thinking it might also be fun to try using only the raw materials you collect yourself, such as ore you have mined, animal pelts you have skinned. The only potential drawback would be that buying ingots from merchants is an excellent gold sink, so gold would likely accumulate a bit faster if you only use your own raw materials.

My first character was a blacksmith so he levelled smithing quite high early on without any problems at all. The game didn't get too easy or too hard (on master). I wouldn't worry about it.

Only use materials you got yourself?

Buy expensive training as opposed to making stuff yourself.

Though I don't know if there is enough ebony to be mined in the game to make an entire suit of daedric, so take the idea with a grain of salt.

If you zoom through it, I believe you are missing out on the fun of unlocking each new type of armor and weapons.

I may be progressing perhaps a bit too slowly, but it's nice to always be looking forward to unlocking a new type of item you can improve.