I've read the information on the Skyrim Wiki page, but it's still very unclear to me.

I've read that you can "fill" a soul gem. And I know that the higher quality soul gem, the greater the enchantment.

The logical "character-builder-gamer" in me says that these soul gems can be held on to, to become a much higher value.

I've JUST now found the soul trap spell and have yet to use it. I started reading about all of it first, so let me know how close I am with the following example.

I use the soul trap spell --> "fill" a petty soul gem, such that it's no longer a petty soul gem, it's one grade higher? Then in turn, fill THAT one to become a yet higher grade soul gem?

How close am I?

(I'm at work and can't try it....I'm just preparing myself for when I get home.)

You have various grades of soul gem, petty, lesser, common, greater, grand, black.

This refers to the maximum possible "grade" of soul you can capture using that gem.

Say you have only a grand soul gem in your inventory, and you soul-trap a mudcrab. Then your grand soul gem will be filled with a mud crab soul. In fact, you could have used a petty soul gem to capture this soul. When you go to make an item using your grand soul gem, it will be no better than if you had used a petty gem. The soul matters, not the gem.

Say you only have a petty soul gem in your inventory, and you try to soul-trap a mammoth. Then the game will tell you that you don't have a "big" enough gem, and the soul will not be trapped.

Ideally you want to have many of each type in your inventory, always. That way you won't to make a mistake and use a soul gem that is too "big" for the soul. If you do, it is not the end of the world, though. You effectively just lose a bit of money.

No. You get filled petty gems, and empty ones. It will never get bigger. You can only fill a gem with a soul of that size, or smaller, and once it is filled, that it it. So if you only have empty grand gems, and soul trap a basic wolf, you are wasting it.
Remember mortals have 'black' souls, they cannot be trapped by normal gems. Only a black gem will work on a bandit, for example, even if that bandit is level one.

Okay, that makes perfect sense!

Thanks, and I am glad I asked.

Supposedly you can drop the gem on the ground then pick it up again to empty out the small soul. I have not tried this yet.

Also the two possible awards from the Azura quest can be refilled over and over.

I've done this, and it works. I have 'refilled' several greater and grand soul gems this way.

Glitchy

Using Soul Trap I've filled several petty gems which after filling have a value of 10. Found (full) petty gems have a value of 40. Does this mean that there are indeed differently sized petty souls, as there were in Morrowind and Oblivion, or just that Bethesda didn't want me breaking the Skyrim economy by selling full gems?

Can't wait to try this out. All my weapons have (Firey) Soul Trap on them, which often leads to some suboptimal captures.

The best way to increase enchanting is to get every petty soul gem you can find, like 100 literally. Go way up north walk around the islands and ice killing wolves, bears, and hoarkers with a soul trap weapon. If you are boosting smithing by making iron daggers enchant soul trap on the daggers using the petty soul gems. You get more money, and level up enchanting fast.

I do wish the filled soul gems indicated which critters soul filled them, like previous games.


Note: soul gems were my favorite way to make money in Morrowind. You wont make money on them in Skyrim, but you will have great armor and weapons.

I think the souls are different sizes because the filled gems don't stack unless they contain the same sort of creature. I've got a bunch of common gems all standing alone excepting two which stacked.

You mean like Daggerfall and Morrowind. Oblivion didn't show what soul was trapped.

Something that I liked about Daggerfall was that the soul bound enchantments were dependant on the creature you caught, and if the weapon you enchanted somehow broke, the creature came out very angry at you (can't blame them)

REALLY?!?

WOOOOHOOOOOOO

My Arcane Archer has a bound bow with soul stealing and I unintentionally filled all my greater and grand gems with worthless souls.... this is GREAT news


BTW: I HIGHLY recommend AGAINST power leveling Smithing or Enchanting. Try to level them naturally.

For Smithing that means only improving items you find and crafting Items you'll use. 1 exception I use is leather pelts from wild beasts... I collect a few everytime I wander and I need to do something with them. I don't buy ingots or ore however except to improve a weapon/armor I plan to use. My main goal here is to hit 60 smithing for the Arcane Smithing Perk... so I can improve all my found weapons/armor I'm actually using now.

For Enchanting... well... you won't get any good enough enchantments to USE them for some time... however I only enchant gear for selling from loot hauls... NOT crafted daggers. This slows down leveling speed significantly. Refilling magic charges on weapons/staves is the only truly legitimate way to level which I also try to use as much as possible.


If you power level them, you will find quickly yourself outfitted in gear grossly more powerful than your level and experience should account for... removing challenge from the game as well as the lure of rewards.

You're not close at all
The size of the gems determines the quality of soul it can contain.
If you cast soul trap on a creature and kill it, it will fill the smallest gem it can in your inventory.
If you have only a grand gem and cast soul trap on a skeever and kill it it will go into the grand gem...a waste of a grand gem!
The more powerful a monster the higher grade of soul gem is needed to contain it, and the more powerful the gem will be in enchanting.

OK

I dont know if I'd ascribe the same noble intentions to the difference, but no, there is no difference in soul value between two soul sources of the same grade. Pre-filled soulgems are just worth more.

The first response you got is really very good.
I would suggest using a weapon that has "Soul Trap" as its enchantment. It makes it much easier to trap souls.
The Mace of Molag-Bal has it. That is a Deadric Quest item.
There are also bows and random weapons through Skyrim with soul trap as its added effect.
All animals in Skyrim will be a petty soul, while larger enemies will be greater and grand, such as frost trolls and higher level draugs and mammoths.
Black Soul gems can carry human souls, which in turn are grand, and the best for using when enchanting.
If you ask me, nothing is really worth enchanting without a grand or black soul gem, unless, of course, you are trying to raise your enchanting skill.
The best way to boost your enchanting skill is to make a buttload of iron daggers, catch a buttload of petty souls hunting deer and fox etc, and enchant all the daggers using ANY magic enchantment.

Here is the quest for the Mace of Molag-Bal http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_House_of_Horrors

Yes, repair hammers were an important part of your kit in that game.