Where can you farm ore in Skyrim?

Question

I want to level up my blacksmithing, but I can't find enough ores to do it. I've farmed all dungeons, that I've farmed so far (I'm level 11) and bought all ores\ingots from NPCs. So are there respawn timers on ore sources, and what are the best places to farm it?

Answer 1

I've found that fast traveling between blacksmiths as they restock is much more efficient than mining as a method of leveling smithing. Ore veins are few and far between and as far as I know, the respawn time is when the area resets. Furthermore, the act of smelting does not by itself give you experience.

For that reason, I found bouncing between War Maiden's in Whiterun, Alvor in Riverside and Beirand in Solitude, buying their entire stock of usable ore, ingots and leather, turning it into weapons or armor then selling those back to them was the fastest method.

Since you gain experience in smithing proportional to the value of the items you create, there are a few items that can make the process more efficient. Those are the Forgemaster Fingers and the Notched Pickaxe. You can use the enchantments on these items to improve the items you create beyond you current skill level.

I also found that for each type of item you can create (Orcish, Elven, etc.) there is an item with the highest input to value ratio. If you are going to grind smithing, it is best to grind whatever item this is for your level. You can refer to the tables on the relevant type. For instance, for Dwarven smithing, the bow has by far the highest ratio as it requires only two dwarven ingots and an iron ingot.

Answer 2

As ever with Skyrim, UESPWiki is your friend.

Region          Location            Veins       Ores    Ingots
Whiterun Hold   Halted Stream Camp  16          4       
Solitude        Solitude Blacksmith             5       42
Winterhold      Fort Fellhammer     10          10      
Falkreath Hold  Embershard Mine     9           2       2   
The Rift        Treva's Watch       1           3       18  
Hjaalmarch      Sorli's House                   4       19  
Haafingar       East Empire Company Warehouse           21  
Falkreath Hold  Knifepoint Ridge    6           3       
The Reach       Blind Cliff Cave    6           
Eastmarch       Gloombound Mine     6           
The Pale        Iron-Breaker Mine   6           
Riften          Blacksmith                      2       15  
The Reach       Left Hand Mine      5           
The Reach       Nchuand-Zel         4           
Hjaalmarch      Rockwallow Mine     4           
The Pale        Forsaken Cave                           11  
Haafingar       Haafingar Stormcloak Camp               10  
The Pale        Nightgate Inn                           10  
Hjaalmarch      Stonehills                              10  
The Rift        Forelhost                       5       5   
Haafingar       Jala's House                            9   
Haafingar       Solitude Lighthouse             1       8   
Eastmarch       Lost Knife Hideout  3           
The Rift        Northwind Mine      3           
Solitude        Proudspire Manor                        8   
Solitude        Evette San's House                      5   
Whiterun Hold   Riverwood                               5   
The Reach       Understone Keep                 4       1   

Answer 3

I've found that farming ore is too time consuming.

Find a vendor that sells it, buy them out, sell them something (if you have something) that will get your money back, then quick-save, attack them, quick-load and they have money and inventory back in full.

Rinse and repeat as long as you want to. Works great for grabbing ingredients too.

I use it for buying the following:

• black soul gems (as well as the others) (Falion)
• ingredients (anyone that is an alchemist)
• ore/ingots/leather (any blacksmith)
• building materials (any general sales vendor)

Answer 4

Get the dwarven smith feat and raid dwarf fort/mines.

They are usually so loaded with scrap that you can't get enough of it.

If you cant get the feat then focus on raising money and buying smith materials. Improve your speech feats until you are getting good deals on your stuff.

Enchanting and Smithing were the first skills I got to a hundred on, fairly rapidly. The better you get the more you can resell your products for and thus buy more crafting materials. Eventually you start clearing out smiths inventories.