When making a sword, axe or mace, the player should be able to make it their own. Right now, the smithing system just runs a recipe check and spits out the same iron mace or steel sword that everyone else in Skyrim seems to have.

But what if your weapon (and others in the world) was unique? What if I like the hilt of the steel sword, but not the blade? This is why weapon crafting should be an interactive process. The player should be able to choose from a variety of blades and hilts/handles when making their weapons, as well as the materials that they are made of. Who wouldn't want a skyforge steel blade with a jeweled, golden hilt?

This also extends immersion, since a blade forged by Eorlund Gray-Mane would have lovely nordic patterns on it, making it unique, and a sword bought from a Khajiit caravan would be covered in exotic patterns and be shaped quite differently.

This could also be extended to armour, with different option such as pauldrons, cloaks or tabards for cuirasses, horns, spikes or wings on helmets and different engraving styles for everything. This way each character would be unique, regardless of what level they are. It's quite boring when every warrior I make looks the same at level 7 because I just end up using the best armour available.

When Bethesda fixed the exploitability of the smithing skill, it was a boon to gameplay and a damper on aesthetics. This would mke up for it.

I actually agree 100% if they added this it would be awesome.

That would be a huge undertaking. But very cool; i remember people speculating that we could do this before launch. I'm hoping that with Dawnguard a lot of things that Beth didn't have enough time to implement will be put in.

This is one of the things I want the most in Skyrim actually

Seems like more effort than Bethesda would like, but mods or the next elder scrolls I would say

Just playing devil's advocate to keep the topic alive: Think of the disk space you would need for every possible combination of blade, hilt and materials.

That would be nice to have. I wouldn't want it too complex - the game is already taxing enough on your system - but the ability to add a gem to the hilt or engrave something on the blade would be a really awesome addition.

Yes. Please. This is what I was hoping for after Smithing was announced. After seeing the different animal hide I had assumed that you could customize the wrappins/sheaths of your weapon.

This would kind-of make up for the fusion of chest and legs!

Absolutely, I agree