They've already included the option to destroy magic items in order to receive an enchantment spell. For all those people out there trying to level their smithing, why not allow them to melt down (destroy) unwanted weapons, armor, jewelery into the basic materials? It makes perfect sense and I don't know why Bethesda didn't include this ability...?
I can't imagine that this would be all that difficult of a mod to make for someone who knows what they're doing...

...well, OBVIOUSLY you couldn't be able to melt the weapons down into the EXACT materials that are needed to make them, or you could cheat by crafting and "un-crafting" the same piece of equipment... There would have to be some kind of limiter, maybe a random selection of "some" of the base materials...?? JUST IDEAS

I plan to look into something like this.

I want to remove the arcane blacksmith and change it into recyclist (crap name, but you get the idea )

Then use the same method for the dwemer metal but in reverse, I.E. three daggers melt into one bar, one chest plate or a 2h'er melts into one bar. That way you still need the leather/gems and additional bars to avoid the creation loop. You would also loose out on profit from not selling loot or craftables, though that would only really counter the cost on running around buying iron ingots.

I want to rework the exp gain based on number of mats and ore level too, such as an iron dagger does little but ebony chest plate give a good boost.

Not sure what I'll be capable of once the kit is released but I'm always a fan on smithing so that will be my first challenge

People train in real life. I can't see the problem except maybe making a weapon lighter for transportation, which is not such a big deal. On the other hand I won't see any problem either if you obtain a lesser ammount of components than the ones needed to make the equipment.

Just do a skill level /100 * original smithing requirements and cut fractions (or add smaller pieces of each material type) and there you go. As for what 'Activator' [Forge, Sharpening Stone, etc.] you would use that really a matter of preference (could do a limited portable, more extensive fixed placement, inherent/tool-less etc.).

Not sure how to handle Enchanting though, since I think all that entails is a charged Soul Gem (IMO kind of lame and over simplified but nice if you want to enchant without really getting into it so... [btw I don't really get into enchanting]). You could possibly maintain the Vanilla Enchanting and more or less copy Smithing and use that template for an Advanced/Alternate Enchanting (with Alchemy+Smelting producing the materials).

I keep wanting to have a reason to collect all those iron swords that are just laying around everywhere collecting rust. After you level past them they aren't really worth selling to vendors since they weigh so much. But letting them be broken down into some base components would be a great way to help clean up some of these dungeons.

I don't see any reason why it wasn't included as smithing is pretty much broken right now anyways since you can just make leather and hide bracers that provide the same skill up as assembling an ebony briastplate. Any mods that improve this would be very welcome.

If I might also add I was hoping that there would be more interdependence between the crafting skills. It would be great if you could make a frost potion, apply it to bars of steel then forge a sword using the frosted steel. After forging it you take it to enchant and in addition to soulgems you need potions as part of the recipe, or have to learn a spell and actually cast it while its being enchanted.

Epic items could require multiple stages throughout. Craft a dwarven sword, enchant it, melt it down, use the slurry in a potion, apply that to raw dwarven metal. smelt it into glowing dwarven ingots then make a new sword, enchant it again and you've now doubled the properties or effects. I also think it would be great to add gems to the recipes for equipment. Throw in a couple rubies during the forging process and your weapon will now have a name modifier of Ruby Hilted with a red glow effect applied. Value could be increased and variety added with maybe some unique effects like bonus damage to wolves or specific creatures.

I suppose once the CK is released this could be done with the current system as just unique quests for each weapon type. Just have to keep returning to an NPC with the crafted results to receive the next ingredient or location to gather from.

tl;dr breaking down items = good. more crafting stages and linking recipes = awesome.

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to a smelting mod. I don't mind there being a loss of requirements, just give me the metal.

Was going to post this but thought I'd do a search first. Definitely this. Should be entirely possible to smelt weapons, armour, jewellery etc down to its base metals in some form (perhaps with a random chance of messing it up/ending up with waste/dross/unusable materials).

I'd like to see weapon parts used to repair weapons, it's unfortunate they removed weapons degrade from the game.

This?

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=874

Although the author has been having computer issues and it might not be compatible with the latest update. But it does exactly what you want - and more.

I'm a level 40 wood elf and i have 100 in smithing skill.From the start of the game i was making only leather strips cause i didn't know what to do with leather, from level 35 i just maked leather bracers(from level 1 to level 3 i had 344 leather strips) ,so in 5 level i increased from 30 smithing to 100 ,this mode may be intresting but im 50%-50% about it.