Hello! I just had a question for you all...

So, I crafted some leather armor and made a steel sword, as well as an Imperial bow. I have upgraded all of the armor to "superior" using the workbenches found at most smithing vendors in cities. I also upgraded the bow to "superior", but cannot upgrade neither the bow nor the leather any more. I have the required materials, such as leather strips, leather, and ingots. I also upgraded my steel sword to "exquisite", which is equally as strange, because I can't upgrade the bow or the armor. Can anyone help me with this issue of mine?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You need to level your smithing by making things or doing upgrades to items.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. My current smithing level is between 50-55, I forget. I noticed a notice saying "you lack the required skill to improve this item", but there aren't any perks to improve weapons/armor past the "superior" rating. I also have the first three perks for smithing on the left side of the tree.

The closer to a hundred you get the closer to Legendary weapons you can forge, I think its every 10 rank so you can upgrade to a higher level at 50 then 60 then 70 and so on till you get to 100.

Thanks for telling me this! If this is true, though, I don't understand how I could upgrade my steel sword to "exquisite", but not the bow or my armor...

It's most likely because you picked the perk to make your upgrade to steel weapons and armour better so if you use light armour go down the left side of the perk tree if you use heavy armour go down the rightside of the perk tree and you can upgrade the selected types of armour better.

Yeah, I did go down the left side of the tree.

I've been playing the game for a bit.
There is a Smithing potion that improves your ability. Legendary is what you want to aim for. gather the materials, improve yourself and your items. I've got a sword which does 178 base damage. I didn't make it, just improved it.

Okay, but I'm asking how to upgrade weapons & armor past "superior"

The Steel Smithing perk allows you to improve steel weapons and armor twice as much. The bow and the armor you mentioned do not have a smithing perk associated with them so you cannot improve them as much as the steel weapon/armor. After you level smithing more, and/or with fortify smithing gear, you can better improve the bow and leather armor past superior.

Some items cannot be upgraded as much as others. All the specific perks that have to deal with armor types are the ones that can be upgraded the most. Things like Iron, leather, fur, and such can only be upgraded so much. Since you have the Steel smithing perk you can now upgrade Steel more than any other type of material excepting other armor types that are tied to perks like Dwarven, Ebony, Elven, Glass, etc etc...

That is why the perks say Improve by double.

The posters above have answered the questions. If you want more detailed info check out the UESP. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing This page answers questions about all things smithing.

EDIT: I'd recommend the Hunting Bow over the Imperial Bow. The Hunting Bow is a great bow and will be improved "twice as much" with the Steel Smithing perk.

gather the materials and improve your smithing skill by improving weapons and armor. when you go up in a level spend your perk on a smithing skill. also become an alchemist and make your own smithing potions.

246 here!

The first perk in smithing is 'steel', so when you are at maximum skill points (100), you can upgrade steel armour and weapons to maximum status. The relevant 'type' perk gives you that extra boost to a. make the stuff; and b. Upgrade to the maximum.

Unfortunately, there is no perk to let you improve an Imperial Bow, or leather, fur, hide or iron armor "twice as much" so no how matter how high you get your smithing skill or what potions or enchants you use to buff smithing, you will always be able to improve steel weapons and armor "twice as much" with the Steel Smithing perk than you can improve leather, fur, hide or iron. It is actually not "twice as much" cause the formula is more complicated than that. See the UESP link I posted above for more info.

Wow, thanks for all of the help everyone! I'll keep this thread in mind for future reference. Thanks again