im currently wearing some orcish (exquisite) armour i made.
found some ebony armour and upgraded it to exquisite and its 2 points less damage reduction than my orcish, but still 2 pounds heavier than orcish.

they are both heavy armour so isnt ebony supposed to be better?

O_o Ebony > Orcish. Always.

Ebony is supposed to be the 2nd best armor, 1st being daedric.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor

What is your blacksmithing skill? This is interesting because the base armor of the orcish armor could be stronger because you crafted it.

Yeah, I made Superior Leather armor and it had the same exact armor as Superior Elven... it was very odd.

is it because the orcish amour i created was crafted by me and the ebony armour was just found in the wild?

could my crafting skill have added extra damage reduction?

Yes it seems likely. Try crafting something common and compare it to the one that blacksmith's sell.

i cant exactly remember what my skill level was when i made the orcish set (i made the full set of armour at the same time, excluding weapons because i was using really good ones)
but i 'think' it was the precise level needed to craft the stuff. id just leveled up and immediately made it iirc

so it would 'appear' that crafting stuff actually is better than any ordinary equipment you find. i wasnt aware of that but would like more input if thats actually the case.

i will also add that the orcish has a minor enchantment on it (+20 health iirc)
does enchanting also increase the armour rating? my enchating skill has no perks in it, and its relatively low.

Yes! Because Orcs are way cooler than... Ebons!

Might be that smithing your own weapons do make them better, as there has been smithing buffing gear that say 'smithing items is 15% better'. So I think it does add more damage to make them yourself from nothing.

Coming from someone who just upgraded from orcish to ebony, there is a MASSIVE difference between the two. I went from 267 armor rating to 335ish, and my mace went from 39 damage(exquisite) to 59 damage(epic).

I don't think there's a difference at time of creation between "loot" versions of an item and crafted, but improvement varies. It's percentage based.

Superior/Exquisite/Legendary etc. are general guidelines that your improvement fell into a range of quality. Example: You can make an Orcish Cuirass. Improve it, it comes out as (Exquisite). Make another and improve it, after downing a potion that improves smithing 30%. It may still come out as (Exquisite) - but it will certainly be statistically better.

I take it you jest and are aware ebons aren't people. Ebony is a type of wood and although not an ore I believe in lore it is treated as such

Yes I was kidding, I am pretty sure ebony is better than orcish.

Noticed this too. Orcish warhammer has more dmg than ebony greatsword (even if just by 1).

It's a type of volcanic glass in Tamriel. Similar to obsidian but less break-y.

EDIT: grammar

You cant compare a Warhammer with a Greathsword, the hammer does more damage then a sword

The Orcish warhammer does less damage then the Ebony Warhammer 10 points or so

Are we talking about base stats or after improving them ?

Base stats could be lower, but they could be improved much more than the lower level items, thus the result being better in the end.

On Nirn Ebony is a type of dark coloured metal, for example in Morrowind there are mines with Ebony deposits. The same goes for Glass.

Yeah I knew in Elder Scrolls lore it is treated differently to real life, afterall wood armour would be crap. Thanks for clarifying though exactly what it was, I'm no lore buff...... yet

There is a :Bethesda: bug in one of the "matching set" perks that doesn't work quite right with Ebony.