Question in topic. In fact. smithing I imagine downright may ruin your game. For instance, if you invest heavily into smithing right from the beginning, sure you migth be able to make some nice armor, but none of your melee skills will be leveled, and if you walk out of town as a lvl 30 smith, you will be salughtered by the first leveled bandit you meet as he thanks you for the nice suit of dwarven armor.

Smithing seems to be only good for sharpening weapons etc. Anyone see any other real use for it?

A shame, since it was such a cool addition. But personally Im afraid to use the fore as I want my combat skills leveled for the end-game, not low level smithing.

Well, you can always sell things you do...

I actually made myself some armor... Even before I could buy them....

I'm saving money for a house.... And a horse...
It's getting hard to travel....

I was just about to post on this topic, I know in the perks you upgrade all the up to dragon scale/bone armour but then you will also find or buy these in the world. So I think the main benefit is being able to upgrade armour and weapons twice more over their normal state (fine + superior), which is better then when you found/bought it.

I invested one point in Smithing to craft Steel, long before Steel drops in the world. Only seeing Iron still.

Yeah. I got to dwarven armor pretty quick in game. Long before it was dropping. I love it

I like smithing, particularly useful when you're going to change companions (mainly because I want to see the differences between them if any) and planning to keep their gear updated. As far as getting lvl up from doing them I wouldn't worry about them, I just hit lvl 40 smithing with a lvl 17 character and it took a lot of smelting/upgrading/creating items to get there so it really won't be that big a deal... And you can always lower difficulty settings if you find yourself in a bind from lvling non-combat skills. But yeah getting the gear for my companions is definitely sweet