Does one handed skill increase based on the number of successful attacks or the amount of damage done?

IE would I be better off with a sword because its faster or a mace because it does more damage?

Thanks!

If it's just hits then you'd be better off with a dagger, actually.

And in fact because a dagger can do 15x damage with sneak attacks I suspect it's not based on damage.

actual damage.

I'm not so sure of that. Going everywhere backstabbing people I was getting little One-Handed skill. As soon as I went in slashing it seemed to increase much faster.