Can I achieve a legendary Draedic bow without the black smithing perk ?

I understand I need 168 skill to improve a draedic item to legendary if i do not have the perk is that correct ?

I am currently on my first character in skyrim and I have made some bad skill choices and I went down the light armor path rather than the heavy path which would allow me to easily upgrade ebony/draedic items. I am currently lvl 43 and I have just found my first 'clean' draedic bow in a chest at the end of a dungeon.... and I would like it to become legendary as I am playing a thief.

So I am currently lvl 100 in BS so I need to use fortify smithing items and or potions ? with this approach will I be able to obtain the required level to improve these draedic items.. or do i have to spend some points into heavy armor perks ?

You'll be able to do it without the perk if you use +Smithing enchantments and/or potions, depending on the strength thereof, as they stack. You can't make them from scratch, as that requires the perk, but you can upgrade ones you find/buy.

Yup, sounds about right. For similar reasons, my warrior is using an elven greatsword he smithed up. He's got the Orc Smithing perk, not Elven Smithing, but the Elven sword is lighter and has higher base damage.

BTW, you don't really need a "clean" bow (unless you want to put in a specific enchantment); once you have the perk that lets you enhance enchanted weapons, they work up like any other of the same type.

How high can you get the smithing skill? I am at 100 now, and I still have to drink potions//use fortify smith items to get to legendary on items. If I'm at max, which is at 100, shouldn't everything be improved to legendary? Sorry if I'm a little ot, but this has been driving me nuts.

That depends on whether you invest in Enchanting and/or Alchemy, if both then you can add 246% to your smithing skill if both are at 100, for a rating of 346. Since that's a multiplier, you get some pretty insane weapons and armor as a result.

Example:

Legendary Daedric Bow: 58 damage
Same bow with +246% Smithing: 195 damage

Thanks for the feedback so its not impossible to achieve 168 ? I take it that each point of skill is equal to 1% increase on an item ?? therefore I need a further 68% smithing skill to be able to make a draedic item legendary ... is this correct ?

Uncle Alchy - Yes I do realise I can upgrade 'any' item clean or not... I was just stoked to see a draedic item in a chest for me.. as they are fairly rare !? I have already enchanchanted it and made is flawless I just want to go to legendary staus with it and go to town in sneak mode even more so than I currently am

had a quick last night and I couldnt find fortify poitions to buy from vendors ...

Are they random drops of do I simply need a higher level of alch before I can make them ?

Wear items of fortify alchemy&restoration. I made a potion of fortify restoration and drank it. Then I unequipped and reequipped my gear. The potion actually fortified the enchantments on the items for 60 seconds. Before it expired i made another potion of resoration this time it was more powerful. I repeated this step a few times before making a couple potions of fortify enchanting. With that potion of fortify enchanting I made an amulet that fortified my smithing by abotu 300%. I could upgrade daedric to legendary with a base smithing of 60.

Of course because I have the steel smithing perk(required for arcane smithing) my legendary steel items are more powerful then my legendary daedric.

You make them.

Legendary status is just a distraction, it does not really mean anything.

If you have smith perks in elven or glass, they will ALWAYS be better than daedric unperked.