The solution is simpler (or possibly more complicated... ) than that.

1. Bring back item degradation, use an Anvil for full repairs and Field Repair Kits (see below) for field repairs... just don't make items so fragile that they have to be repaired from 0 after every fight like in Oblivion. Tiny xp award. Every Field Repair makes an item degrade faster, while a full repair at an Anvil makes it as good as new.

2. You cannot repair items using a Field Repair Kit (you can't even make the kits) until you have the appropriate materials Perk, you can only use an Anvil.

3. XP is based on complexity and material - Daedric materials are worth a lot more base xp than Iron/Leather. Higher xp for more complicated recipes, lower xp for simple recipes.

4a. Put the Grindstone and Work Bench into the same category as the Tanning Rack and Smelter - no xp.

-OR-

4b. Grindstone and Work Bench award minimal xp in line with repairs.

You have to make a Field Repair Kit yourself and they are worth no xp. A Leather Kit only repairs Leather Armour pieces. An Ebony Kit repairs Ebony and so on. Each kit requires An Ingot, Leather and Leather Strips to make. Whetstones act like single use Grindstones as well as Field Repair Kits. Using a Whetstone on a fully repaired weapon will give it a temporary damage bonus, above that given by a grindstone, which is lost through degradation. Using it on a degraded weapon will only return the item's damage to it's original maximum and make it degrade faster. Whetstones can be found as loot (as abundant as some of the food ingredients) or purchased from a Merchant. Instead of a Whetstone, Bows use Oils. Field Repair Kits, Whetstones and Oils all have negligible weight. Repair xp is half the materials value of the item rounded down (repairing an Iron Dagger is worth 1xp, repairing a Dwarven Battle Axe is worth 6xp).

Forge-use xp is calculated based on material and recipe complexity. Leather, Leather Strips and Iron Ingots are worth 1xp, Steel Ingots are worth 2xp, Dwarven Ingots are worth 3xp and so on. XP awarded is the sum of all the ingredients. An Iron Dagger will only be worth 2xp, while a Dwarven Dagger will be worth 10xp. A Dwarven Battle Axe is worth 13xp (2 Dwarven Ingots at 3xp each, 1 Iron Ingot for 1xp, 2 Steel Ingots at 2xp each, 2 Leather Strips at 1xp each).

The most efficient way to level Smithing would then be by actually playing the game rather than standing around in town. Because you have to repair, your Smithing skill will grow with your character rather than your character growing with your Smithing skill.

Meh. It's not exactly fully fleshed out, but it's an idea, at least, and far better than just saying "nerf it" or "leave it alone".

EDIT: I started this post when there were no replies... I prefer some of the other ideas like making Iron only get you to level 30, Steel to 40 and so on and having the materials available dependant on your character level. Let the above portion of this post serve to show what happens when you over-think things.

I'd prefer a cool down period combined with a chance of ruining the materials. The first time you create an item in a 24 hour period, you do so with full xp and 0% chance of failure. Every time you make an item after that in the same 24 hour period, your chance of failure increases and the xp you get decreases. If you sleep until you're Rested or Well Rested, it resets.

The logic is that at the start of your day you are fully rested and attentive. By the end of the day you are tired and becoming careless and not learning as much. I'd make the penalties somewhat non-linear: first attempt: 0% failure, full xp; second attempt: 1% failure, 99% xp; third attempt: 2% failure, 98% xp; fourth attempt: 4% failure, 96% xp; fifth attempt: 8% failure, 92% xp; +8% failure and -8% xp for each attempt after that. This restricts the number of objects you can create in a single day to something reasonable, encourages you to do less, not more, handles ore and ingot supply naturally without having to mess with the economy, limits the amount of xp you gain from repetitive actions, avoids arbitrary level limits on crafting certain items, etc. This way, you're encouraged to do your best work at the start and become less and less inclined to continue until you've rested. After crafting a few items, most people will probably want to do something else to avoid wasting supplies.

There may be flaws in that logic.

These games have always been like this, it seems to me Skyrim is the most balanced yet. I decided to create my own game experience, I didn't sit in a town and wait 48 hours for supplies to replenish, I just used them whenever they were available. I also don't use Google very much for help, have been exploring the world blindly. Maybe next Elder Scrolls they can put a level requirement on higher tier blacksmithing skills.

I basically played the way you did. When I came back to town [to offload my stuff] I'd buy some supplies and craft away for a while. I had more fun that way. I'd end up with a level or maybe 2 to Smithing during most visits to town and once in a while I'd be able to get some upgraded gear.

As for your suggested fix why put in artificial restrictions like level requirements?? What would be the point of that? As for resources things like Ebony and Malachite are somewhat rare in my playthrough [I only now stumbled across an Ebony mine and I'm L40!!] so I wouldn't want to make stuff like that even more rare.

Why not just award XP in proportion to the value and / or the complexity of the item that you're making?? This way you make reasonable increases to Smithing as you would naturally play the game and we wouldn't be talking about "exploits" because a system like this would make more sense than what we have now.

I agree it's odd, but Enchanting levels up pretty darn quickly as well.

It's only broken if you abuse it. I'm level 41 and just unlocked Daedric armor, so I play correctly apparently.

The way to fix smithing is to decrease the amount something skills you up if its an early tier of item.

Level up like WoW. Older items learned do not lvl you, only new items.

Want to reach high level? Craft current high level stuff.

Let's face it, the "level up smithing with only iron daggers" plan just doesn't work. Cool idea Bethesda, but it just doesn't work. They need to accept that it was a bad idea and patch the game to fix it.

Side note: Id like to be able to make arrows on a console platform.

I agree that's a better system, but does it really matter? If you choose to abuse it, it's your fault. If someone else does, who gives a [censored]?

I'm level 41 and just got Daedric armor and have only been crafting Ebony Stuff for a while, I don't make Iron anymore.

It doesn't "matter" no but there's no reason for there to be such a blatant broken mechanic that is left unchanged.

just because people have boosted smiting doesnt make it broken or OP

Just put limitations on your smithing... I could easily craft a full Daedric set for my character right now but then everything would be super easymode. I'm going to keep wearing my Ebony set until 35+ probably, we'll see how difficult it gets.

Self control is what is in order. like someone else said further up, it's not an online, nor MMO game, so the only person it affects is the person playing the game. don't like OP gear/weapons - then logic should tell you don't make OP gear/weapons. After all, the game allows the player to make their own choices when it comes to using skills. That includes not going out of your way abusing a skill, then coming on here telling everyone how much a skill is OP if you choose to go out of your way to abuse the skill.

It's a cool idea, but needs balancing. (specifically the things that boost over 100 smithings ability should be nerfed, heavily).

Meaning, it's the boosted smithing, boosted enchanting and boosted alchemy that are broken. Not the skills of their own.

Even if you don't abuse the obvious iron dagger xp exploit Smithing on it's own is still a huge source of XP. I started to make a suit of armor for my companion and some weapons for me and instantly had two levels from just that.

this
if you spend an hour doing nothing but buying up ores to grind your smithing skill you're doing something wrong
can't blame the game for unintended side effects if you're playing it like it's intended

it's an adventure RPG not a smithing sim

I found a book which detailed the secrets of elven smithing, which made me think:

There should be a smith level requirement, a perk, and some sort of ancient tome or knowledge found/learnt to enable the creation of the rarer items.

So what? This being an issue makes no sense.

This. Instead of tweaking the system for everyone, you could just...not abuse it.

Not sure I understood this either. Are you complaining that you gained a level from using a skill legitimately? That's a game feature.

I really have to shake my head at comments like that. I get complaining about the texture issues, or the framerate, or the UI if you're on PC - I truly do. But whining about the game having too much stuff to do or leveling up because you made armor...incredible.

Two changes in my opinion.

1) Smithing levels up according to the value of the smithed item (with a non-linear scale)

2) Smithing effects are halved from current levels

"Death is not a problem, just don't die. Fixd."

See how absurdly broken your logic is? The fact that it's an option is worthy of a fix. "Don't like it don't use it" is not a solution.

Same response as for all other "owerpowered" things in Skyrim: Don't abuse it, and it works just fine.

Oh my god.

Look, if you found a glitch that allowed you to beat the entire game at level 1 and used it, and complained that makes you the dumb one. The dev [censored] up with the glitch, but you didn't have to use it.

I only craft higher level armor now, and don't just mass make iron daggers. If you do it, you're at fault. You don't have to. It took me to level 41 to get Daedric Armor unlocked, and I don't even have any hearts to craft it with.

"I stole this necklace because they made it easy for me! Then I went to jail, WTF? IT'S THEIR FAULT!" That's your logic.

Does it make more sense that by making a bunch of ebony armor you all of the sudden can make daedric armor?

It would make more sense if they added some quest to unlock the differed armor classes, so when you reach smithing 30 iron stuff wont gain you skillups and you have go to a steel armorsmith and do a quest to unlock steel smithing.