Skyrim:Steel

Steel weapons and heavy armor are low-quality items that are made using Steel, an alloy of Iron and Corundum.

A pile of Steel Ingots

Several higher quality items are also crafted out of Steel, including Scaled armor, Steel Plate armor, Ancient Nord armor, Nord Hero, and Skyforge Steel weapons. These higher quality items are not unlocked by the Steel Smithing perk; details on how to craft them are provided on their separate pages.

Overview

	Name	ID
	Steel Ingot	0005ace5	1	20

• 1 Steel Ingot is obtained by smelting 1 Corundum Ore and 1 Iron Ore.
• Steel Smithing is a Smithing perk that can be unlocked from the start of the game.
• Steel Armor is level 6 Heavy Armor, made from Steel Ingots, Iron Ingots, and Leather Strips.
• Steel weapons are level 2 weapons, made from Steel Ingots, Iron Ingots, Leather Strips

Mineral Sources

In addition to the following guaranteed sources, the best random locations are:

• Steel Ingots may be sold by all blacksmith and general goods merchants starting at level 7.

There are a total of 44 Steel Ingots available in game, mostly at blacksmith stores. Only locations containing multiple steel ingots are included in the following list. Although most of these are owned, befriending the blacksmith may make it possible to freely take the ingots. The ores necessary to make steel are also very common, with hundreds of ore veins for each; vein locations are detailed on the separate pages for Iron Ore and Corundum Ore.

Region	Location	Ingots	Details
Solitude	Solitude Blacksmith	5
Whiterun Hold	Riverwood	5	At Alvor's work area
Riften	Blacksmith	4
Solitude	Red Wave	4
Markarth		3	At Ghorza's work area
Windhelm		3	At Oengul's work area
Winterhold	Driftshade Sanctuary	3
The Reach	Druadach Redoubt	3
Haafingar	Solitude Stables	3
The Pale	Yorgrim Overlook	3
The Pale	Forsaken Cave	2
The Pale	Weynon Stones	2

Steel Smithing

Steel Smithing is the first perk in the Smithing skill's perk tree, and can be unlocked at the start of the game. It enables the crafting of two types of heavy armor, Imperial Armor and Steel Armor, as well as Steel Weapons.

The Steel Smithing perk also causes tempering of Steel weapons and armor to be twice as effective. This perk applies to both unenchanted Steel gear and enchanted gear (generic armor, generic weapons, or custom), as long as the Arcane Blacksmith perk has been unlocked. Tempering of several other items is also improved by Steel Smithing, namely:

• Angi's Bow
• Balgruuf's Greatsword
• Blade of Woe
• Blades Sword
• Bloodthorn
• Bolar's Oathblade
• Bow of the Hunt
• Briarheart Geis
• Dragonbane
• Dravin's Bow
• Falmer Armor, Falmer Boots, and Falmer Gauntlets
• Forsworn Axe, Forsworn Bow, and Forsworn Sword
• Helm of Winterhold
• Hrolfdir's Shield
• Hunting Bow (including all enchanted versions)
• Imperial Sword (including all enchanted versions)
• Ironhand Gauntlets
• Queen Freydis's Sword
• Rundi's Dagger
• Scimitar
• Targe of the Blooded
• Trollsbane
• Valdr's Lucky Dagger
• Vokun
• Windshear
• Wolf Armor, Wolf Boots, Wolf Gauntlets, and Wolf Helmet

Imperial Armor

Imperial armor is the lowest-quality heavy armor in the game, with the armor rating and value of Iron armor, but with the weight of Steel. Only the heavy armor version of Imperial Armor can be crafted; non-craftable imperial armors include Imperial Light Armor and Studded Imperial Armor. Imperial Armor does not appear in standard armor leveled lists, but is commonly used by soldiers.

• The Imperial Helmet that can be crafted is tagged with the ArmorMaterialImperialStudded keyword instead of the ArmorMaterialImperialHeavy keyword used by the other pieces. This means that when wearing the craftable helmet, it is impossible to get the Matching Set bonus. This helmet is also mis-tagged with the ArmorLight keyword, meaning that it is controlled by Light Armor skill perks instead of Heavy Armor skill perks.
• A second (full-face) version of the Imperial Helmet and the Imperial Officer's Helmet are both considered part of the Imperial heavy armor set, and can be worn to get the Matching Set bonus. However, neither of these helmets can be crafted at forges.

All items (including the non-craftable Imperial Helmets) can be tempered using 1 Steel Ingot, and having the Steel Smithing perk doubles the quality improvement.

A female Imperial wearing Imperial Armor

A male Nord wearing Imperial Armor

	Name (ID)				Raw Materials			Delta		Ratio
					Steel	Leather	Strips
	Imperial Armor (000136d5)	35	100	25	4	2	3	26.7	-9	4.22	0.92
	Imperial Boots (000136d6)	8	20	10	2	1	2	3.8	-36	1.90	0.36
	Imperial Bracers (000136d4)	4	15	10	2	1	2	-0.2	-41	0.95	0.27
	Imperial Helmet (craftable) (00013edc)	5	50	15	2	1	1	0.9	-3	1.22	0.94
	Imperial Helmet (full-face) (0009610d)	5	30	18	N/A			N/A
	Imperial Officer's Helmet (000136cf)	4	30	17	N/A			N/A
	Imperial Shield (000135ba)	12	50	20	4	0	2	7.8	-36	2.86	0.58
Totals (for craftable items, with shield):		64	235	80	14	5	10
Totals (for craftable items, without shield):		52	185	60	10	5	8

Steel Armor

A male Nord wearing Steel Armor (alternate)

A male Nord wearing Steel Armor

A female Imperial wearing Steel Armor (alternate)

A female Imperial wearing Steel Armor

Steel Armor is another low-quality armor, but it is one notch better than Iron Armor and Imperial Armor.

• Each of the cuirass, boots, gauntlets, and helmet comes in two variants that have identical statistics, but differ in stylistic details.
• Any combination of these items can be used interchangeably to create a set of armor that qualifies for the Matching Set bonus.

All items can be tempered using 1 Steel Ingot, and having the Steel Smithing perk doubles the quality improvement.

	Name (ID)				Raw Materials			Delta		Ratio
					Steel	Iron	Strips
	Steel Armor (00013952)	35	275	31	4	1	3	29.7	179	6.60	2.86
	Steel Armor (000f6f22)	35	275	31	4	1	3	29.7	179	6.60	2.86
	Steel Shin Boots (000f6f21)	8	55	12	3	1	2	3.8	-18	1.90	0.75
	Steel Cuffed Boots (00013951)	8	55	12	3	1	2	3.8	-18	1.90	0.75
	Steel Imperial Gauntlets (000f6f23)	4	55	12	2	1	2	0.8	2	1.25	1.04
	Steel Nordic Gauntlets (00013953)	4	55	12	2	1	2	0.8	2	1.25	1.04
	Steel Helmet (00013954)	5	125	17	2	1	2	1.8	72	1.56	2.36
	Steel Horned Helmet (000f6f24)	5	125	17	2	1	2	1.8	72	1.56	2.36
	Steel Shield (00013955)	12	150	24	3	1	1	7.9	80	2.93	2.14
Totals (any one set, with shield):		64	660	96	14	5	10
Totals (any one set, without shield):		52	510	72	11	4	9

Steel Weapons

Steel Weapons are low-quality weapons, better than only Iron. They appear in leveled lists starting at level 2 (enchanted varieties at level 3). All items except ammunition can be tempered using 1 Steel Ingot, and having the Steel Smithing perk doubles the quality improvement. Ammunition can only be smithed if the Dawnguard plug-in has been installed.

There is no "Steel Bow", only Steel Arrows. The bow found at similar levels is the Hunting Bow. Although the Hunting Bow cannot be crafted, it is generally treated as a steel weapon but it isn't tempered by Steel Ingots—instead, it is tempered with Leather Strips and its tempering is enhanced by the Steel Smithing perk.

The Dawnguard plug-in adds a Crossbow and an Enhanced Crossbow which are both treated as Steel weapons. They can be smithed if you have the Steel Smithing perk, and tempering them is enhanced by the Steel Smithing perk.

	Name (ID)				Crit.	Speed	Reach	Raw Materials				Delta		Ratio
								Steel	Iron	Strips	Other
	Steel Dagger (00013986)	2.5	18	5	2	1.3	0.7	1	1	1		0.4	-12	1.19	0.60
	Steel Sword (00013989)	10	45	8	4	1	1	2	1	1		6.9	-5	3.23	0.90
	Steel War Axe (00013983)	12	55	9	4	0.9	1	2	1	2		8.8	2	3.75	1.04
	Steel Mace (00013988)	14	65	10	5	0.8	1	3	1	1		9.9	-5	3.41	0.93
	Steel Greatsword (00013987)	17	90	17	8	0.7	1.3	4	2	3		10.7	-13	2.70	0.87
	Steel Battleaxe (00013984)	21	100	18	8	0.7	1.3	4	1	2		15.8	7	4.04	1.08
	Steel Warhammer (0001398a)	25	110	20	10	0.6	1.3	4	1	3		19.7	14	4.72	1.15
	Steel Arrow (0001397f)	0	2	10	N/A			1			1 Firewood Makes 24 arrowsDG	-6	23	0.00	1.92
	CrossbowDG (xx000801)	14	120	19	9	1	1	3			3 Firewood	-4	45	0.78	1.60
	Enhanced CrossbowDG (xx00f19e)	15	200	19	9	1	1				1 Crossbow + 2 Corundum	-1	0	0.94	1.00
	Steel BoltDG (xx000bb3)	0	1	10	N/A			1			1 Firewood Makes 10 boltsDG	-6	-15	0.00	0.40

†	Crafting crossbows and bolts is only possible at Gunmar's forge in Fort Dawnguard, which does not appear until after A New Order (must side with the Dawnguard).

‡	The Enhanced Crossbow has an additional property: Attacks with this crossbow ignore 50% of armor. It can only be acquired by siding with the Dawnguard (see Ancient Technology for details).

Notes

• All of the generic enchanted steel gauntlets in the game are modeled on the Steel Nordic Gauntlets; there are no generic enchanted Steel Imperial Gauntlets.
• All of the generic enchanted steel helmets in the game are modeled on the Steel Helmet; there are no generic enchanted Steel Horned Helmets.
• Keep in mind that 1 Corundum ore costs the same as 1 steel ingot. When smelting for steel, you will also have to buy 1 iron ore and so buying ore will not save you money when creating steel ingots, as it will for other materials.