What have you guys found to be the fastest way to level up smithing? Just make daggers over and over? Do you guys make leather items? Curious as to what your methods are. Going out and killing a bunch of deer is boring as hell.

Just make iron daggers and/or hide bracers. They require the least amount of materials to produce. It doesn't matter what you craft, as long as you're crafting. I can run outside of town and hunt for 15-20 minutes and raise my smithing 10 or 15 levels, easily.

Once you get a little coin under your belt you can also buy ore/ingots from vendors and use it to craft.

Good luck!

-SkyrimFAQ

You can train with Eorlond Gray-Mane up at the Skyforge to the left of Jorrvaskr (Companions Building). You can do 5? per level I think?

Basically there ARE people in the game who will train you for Septims still (Gold).

Pretty much what he said. Mass produce iron daggers (1 Iron Ingot / Leather Strips) / hide armour (1 Leather / Leather Strips)

Yes, the limit is 5 training sessions per level. They do increase in price as you increase your skill.

If you are willing to toss coin at the skill you could always purchase your ore/leathers/hides and craft that way, as mentioned above.

-SkyrimFAQ