Skyrim:Iron

Iron Ingot

An Iron Ore Vein

Iron weapons and heavy armor are commonplace, low-quality items, crafted out of iron ingots, which can be mined at any of hundreds of ore veins scattered across Skyrim.

Overview

	Name	ID	Weight	Value
	Iron Ore	00071cf3	1	2
	Iron Ingot	0005ace4	1	7

3 Iron Ores are obtained by mining Iron Ore Veins. Can be purchased at all levels.
1 Iron Ingot is obtained by smelting 1 Iron Ore (this is the only case where only one ore is required to make an ingot). Can be purchased at all levels.
1 Steel Ingot is obtained by smelting 1 Iron Ore and 1 Corundum Ore.
Iron Smithing is available from the start of the game, without any Smithing perks.
Iron Armor is level 1 Heavy Armor, made from Iron Ingots and Leather Strips.
Iron weapons are level 1 weapons, made from Iron Ingots and Leather Strips.

Mineral Sources

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

Iron Ingots are always sold by all blacksmith merchants, at all levels.
Iron Ingots may be sold by general goods merchants at all levels.
Iron Ore may be sold by blacksmiths and general goods merchants at all levels.

There are a total of 668 veins, 81 ores, and 275 ingots available in the game. Individual iron ore vein outcroppings are found scattered everywhere across Skyrim. Only particularly notable locations are included in the following list, including places where large amount of the metal may be found and places that are particularly easy to access. The Iron Veins category contains a more complete list of places containing smaller numbers of veins.

All exterior ore veins are shown on (map). Note, however, that only 50 veins are shown on the map at one time; to see the next set of 50 veins, click on "Next" at the bottom of the list of results. Given the high density of iron veins on the map, a more efficient way to find veins near your current location is to not use the search feature, but instead simply zoom in at your current location on the map. Veins are shown at either of the two highest zoom levels.

Region	Location	Veins	Ores	Ingots	Details (see place pages for full information)
Whiterun Hold	Halted Stream Camp	16	4
Haafingar	Solitude Blacksmith		5	27	3 Ores and 4 Ingots are outside the building; the others are all inside.
Winterhold	Fort Fellhammer	10	10
Falkreath Hold	Embershard Mine	8	2	2
The Rift	Treva's Watch	1	3	18
Hjaalmarch	Sorli's House		4	19
Haafingar	East Empire Company Warehouse		3	15	In the hold of the Red Wave.
Falkreath Hold	Knifepoint Ridge	6	3
The Reach	Blind Cliff Cave	6
Eastmarch	Gloombound Mine	6
The Pale	Iron-Breaker Mine	6	1
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
Winterhold	Whistling Mine	2	3
Haafingar	Proudspire Manor			8
Haafingar	Evette San's House			5
Whiterun Hold	Riverwood			5	At Alvor's work area.
The Reach	Understone Keep		4	1	At Moth gro-Bagol's work area.

Iron Smithing

Iron items can be forged from the start of the game, without the need to unlock any Smithing perks. This also means that only normal-level tempering of iron items is possible (there is no perk that provides the ability to "improve them twice as much").

Iron Armor

Iron Armor is the lowest-quality heavy armor in the game, and appears in leveled lists from the start of the game. All items can be tempered using 1 Iron Ingot.

A female Imperial wearing Iron Armor

A male Nord wearing Iron Armor

	Name (ID)	Weight	Value	Rating	Raw Materials		Delta		Ratio
	Name (ID)	Weight	Value	Rating	Iron	Strips	Weight	Value	Weight	Value
	Iron Armor (00012e49)	30	125	25	5	3	24.7	81	5.66	2.84
	Iron Boots (00012e4b)	6	25	10	3	2	2.8	-2	1.88	0.93
	Iron Gauntlets (00012e46)	5	25	10	2	2	2.8	5	2.27	1.25
	Iron Helmet (00012e4d)	5	60	15	3	2	1.8	33	1.56	2.22
	Iron Shield (00012eb6)	12	60	20	4	1	7.9	29	2.93	1.94
Totals (with shield):		58	295	80	17	10
Totals (without shield):		46	235	60	13	9

Banded Iron Armor

A female Imperial wearing Banded Iron Armor

A male Nord wearing Banded Iron Armor

Banded Iron Armor is marginally better quality heavy armor than standard Iron Armor, and also appears in leveled lists from the start of the game. One drawback of Banded Iron armor is that only a cuirass and shield are available, meaning that it is impossible to create a Matching Set of Banded Iron armor (Patch 1.9 later addressed this bug). Both items can be tempered using 1 Corundum Ingot.

Name (ID)	Weight	Value	Rating	Raw Materials			Delta		Ratio
Name (ID)	Weight	Value	Rating	Corundum	Iron	Strips	Weight	Value	Weight	Value
Banded Iron Armor (00013948)	35	200	28	1	5	3	28.7	116	5.56	2.38
Banded Iron Shield (0001394b)	12	100	22	1	4	1	6.9	29	2.35	1.41

Iron Weapons

Iron weapons are the lowest-quality weapons in the game, and appear in leveled lists from the start of the game. All items except ammunition can be tempered using 1 Iron Ingot. Arrows can only be smithed if the Dawnguard add-on has been installed.

There is no "Iron Bow", only Iron Arrows. The bow found at similar levels is the Long Bow, which cannot be crafted but can be improved with firewood.

Name (ID)	Weight	Value	Damage	Crit. Critical Damage	Speed	Reach	Raw Materials		Delta		Ratio
Name (ID)	Weight	Value	Damage	Crit. Critical Damage	Speed	Reach	Iron	Strips	Weight	Value	Weight	Value
Iron Dagger (0001397e)	2	10	4	2	1.3	0.7	1	1	0.9	0	1.82	1.00
Iron Sword (00012eb7)	9	25	7	3	1	1	2	1	6.9	8	4.29	1.47
Iron War Axe (00013790)	11	30	8	4	0.9	1	2	2	8.8	10	5.00	1.50
Iron Mace (00013982)	13	35	9	4	0.8	1	3	2	9.8	8	4.06	1.30
Iron Greatsword (0001359d)	16	50	15	7	0.7	1.3	4	2	11.8	16	3.81	1.47
Iron Battleaxe (00013980)	20	55	16	7	0.7	1.3	4	2	15.8	21	4.76	1.62
Iron Warhammer (00013981)	24	60	18	9	0.6	1.3	4	3	19.7	23	5.58	1.62
Iron Arrow (0001397d)	0	1	8	N/A			1 Iron + 1 Firewood = 24 Iron Arrows^DG		-6	12	0.00	2.00

Notes

Iron Ore can be transmuted into Silver Ore, which in turn can be transmuted into Gold Ore.
Iron Ore can be sold to Beitild, Gestur Rockbreaker, Grogmar gro-Burzag, Skaggi Scar-Face, or Thorgar for the quest Mine Ore. Note that these people will pay you 7 gold (instead of 2 gold) for each ore.
Iron Ingots are needed when forging all varieties of Iron, Steel, Orcish, Dwarven, Elven, Ancient Nord, and Dragonscale armor and weapons.
1 Iron Ingot is needed at Workbenches to improve all varieties of Iron armor (Except Banded Iron armor and Banded Iron shields, which require 1 Corundum ingot), Ancient Nord armor, guards' armor, as well as numerous unique items and artifacts.
1 Iron Ingot is needed at Grindstones to improve all varieties of Iron weapons, as well as numerous unique items and artifacts.
Ore veins of all types sometimes do not respawn normally. See Mining bugs.
^HF All crafted housebuilding items use Iron Ingots in their creation, and many items built at carpenter's workbenches also require them.
Due to a cross-promotion between Bethesda Game Studios and Valve, in the game Team Fortress 2 the Iron Helmet appeared as the "Dragonborn Helmet".

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