Skyrim Leveling Guide — Fast Smithing, Enchanting and Alchemy

Smithing levels fastest when you craft items with a high value-to-material ratio rather than spamming the cheapest thing available. The classic route is to transmute iron ore into silver and then gold using the Transmute spell, which you can learn from a specific tome found in a bandit camp north of Whiterun. Turning cheap iron into jewellery gives you a repeatable, cheap source of smithing experience that also produces saleable goods.

Once you are past the early tiers, the most efficient single craft is the Dwarven bow: dwarven metal ingots are easy to obtain in bulk from the ruins scattered across the map, and the bow sits at exactly the sweet spot of material cost to experience gained. Make a few dozen of them and you will be near the top of the tree. Enchanting pairs naturally with this — smith a batch of weapons, then enchant them all. The trick to levelling enchanting quickly is to use high-value enchantments such as Banish or Paralyze on weapons, since experience scales with the value of the enchanted item, and to keep a steady supply of filled soul gems. The Black Star, obtainable from a Daedric quest, traps human souls and never breaks, making it the best soul gem in the game.

Alchemy is the third leg, and its own reward: potions you brew are worth far more than the ingredients you gather, so a lap around a river picking flowers funds your next house. Combined, these three skills let you craft gear that outclasses almost anything you can find, which is why so many veteran players treat smithing and enchanting as the real main quest.