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I've started slaying dragons (like all good Dohvakiin must), and with each beastie I down, I'm getting close to 200 lbs of loot, mostly in the form of Dragon Bones and Scales. These two items are high weight, and high value, but I can't seem to find any actual use for them, especially since most of the shopkeepers I talk to aren't interested in purchasing them.

Are these just supposed to be for decorating one's house? Or is there some nefarious purpose for them down the road that I should stockpile them for?

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Trevor G is correct, they are used for creating Dragonplate and Dragonscale armor, as well as Dragonbone weapons.

To craft the entire Dragonscale set, you'll need 10 dragon scales. If you want the Dragonscale shield as well, that's another 4 dragon scales. You'll need an additional dragon scale for each of your Dragonscale armor pieces in order to improve them.

To craft the Dragonplate set, you'll need 12 dragon scales and 5 dragon bones. The Dragonplate shield is another 3 dragon scales and 1 dragon bone. Dragonplate Armor and Shields both need a dragon bone in order improve them while Dragonplate Helmets, Gauntlets and Boots need dragon scales.

Additionally, as of the Dawnguard DLC, they can also be used to craft weapons as well. These are largely forged from Dragon bones, leather, and Ebony ingots.

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    So in the meantime, keep searching for a merchant who'll buy them from me? 100 smithing is gonna be awhile...
    – Raven Dreamer
    Nov 12, 2011 at 8:16
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    @RavenDreamer I'd hold onto them: dragonplate armor is worth several hundred to a few thousand gold per piece, so if you're going to level smithing eventually...
    – user3389
    Nov 12, 2011 at 8:23
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    And you can keep them on your follower if you are not rich enough to buy a house
    – user14118
    Nov 13, 2011 at 2:12
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    Don't forget the extra materials for upgrading them all to Legendary, too. You wouldn't want to run around with plain-vanilla Dragonplate/Dragonscale armor, would you?
    – Hyppy
    Nov 21, 2011 at 14:56
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    @Hyppy Added the information to the answer.
    – Drew
    Dec 12, 2011 at 20:14
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I was wondering the same thing and found this wikia page. According to the article, you can craft dragon bone armor once you become a master at smithing.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Bone_Armor

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You can sell them at Belethor's general goods in whiterun, its just past the smith on the right as you reach the well

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Early on, the best thing to do with dragon scales and bones is to sell them to a general goods merchant. They're too heavy to consider hoarding (without exploits) until you've purchased a house, and it's likely you'll get more scales and bones than you'll need for crafting armor (if you decide to spend the perks in smithing to unlock dragon armor).

While you can make more money by saving up your dragon scales and making armor after you've mastered smithing, money is usually more of an object early on in the game, so there's no real harm in selling them until your smithing skill is getting close to maxed out.

The bones especially are something to sell frequently, as you'll get just as many bones as scales, but the light "dragon scale" armor requires only scales (14 for a full improved armor, plus 5 for the shield), and even the heavy "dragon bone" armor requires more scales than bones (13 scales and 6 bones for full improved armor, plus 3 scales and 2 bones for an improved shield).

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You can take a dragon bone and scale (one each) to Esbern, a Blade at Sky Haven Temple (if you did the quest).

He will make you Esbern's Potion, which supposedly reduces damage dealt by dragons by 25%.

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  • Pretty sure this applies to melee damage from dragons only, not breath attacks. Still, Their bite and tail attacks are quite a bit more powerful than their breath and wing attacks. If you happen to be facing off against really high level dragons, this can potentially be a life saver. More so on higher difficulty levels, even if you are armor capped and have a lot of health.
    – Jtenorj3
    Mar 17, 2017 at 15:26
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I had heard they were used for dragon smithing, so I am dropping them next to the smelter in Whiterun. Got about 15 each already. If you buy the house, you can just store them in the cupboard or the chest upstairs

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  • The easiest way to store them is actually just to place the dragon scales and bones into a random chest or sack, where they will stay for free.
    – user14574
    Nov 16, 2011 at 23:07
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    @Dark_Angel ... until the random chest resets and you lose them forever.
    – Trevel
    Nov 17, 2011 at 0:21
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    @Dark_Angel As trevel side, chests and sacks reset after a certain amount of time, unless owned by the player. So storing anything in chests/sacks not owned by the player is the last thing you want to do with your items.
    – Wipqozn ♦
    Nov 17, 2011 at 13:06
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I would save them and make them into armor when you level up enough, but if you want to you can sell them to a general goods merchant or to an alchemy merchant.

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Once you achieve level 100 smithing and acquire the Dragon Armour perk (Last perk) you can make Dragonscale and Dragonbone armour (No weapons) which are 2nd to Daedric armour which has the best armour rating of armour that you can smith.

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