Iron Ore

down below on level -50 and below are the most iron. sea level is zero so go down 50 levels. bedrock is level 60 to 64 and you can't dig thru it. I went down 20 levels from my home base, went over a few meters and then went down 20 more levels back under
my home base. then I put a smelter etc there and explored from there. chas

I'm levelling my Alteration by transmuting iron ore into silver and silver into gold. Just find a mine with heaps of iron ore and your set.

[quote user="Lax"]

Good tip on the firewood. I've only been able to find one location to mine iron ore. That was in the bandit lair retrieving Gold Claw. Anyone find more locations to mine iron ore or other metals? I'm really interested in mining since you can mine gold, ebony
and all kinds of metals.

[/quote]Look on the ground for other colored rack. There are corundum outcrops around Whiterun. For mines go do Embershard just out side Riverwood towards Helgen. It's easy and has iron ore. Then go to Halted Stream Camp. It's harder but there is iron ore,
corundum ore, mammoth tusks and, most important, the transmute spell tome with witch you can transmute all the iron ore you have into gold ore. I took enough iron out of Halted Stream to make 48 pieces of gold ore while standing behind Warmaiden's then took
the ore to the smelter and made 22 ingots of gold. Once I have enough flawless gems I will make jewelry. Gold requires flawless gems. If you want to stop at silver ore, you will need to drop it on the ground as you make it because the transmute spell will
turn silver to gold before turning iron to silver. Silver ingots, though, can take plain gems. The jewelry is pretty valuable in itself but if you enchant it, even just a teeny bit with a petty gem, its value goes way up.

is he saying that location in the tutorial world has a strip of iron ore all the way down to bedrock?

[quote user="OldPepsiMan"]

Ah! This is the first I've heard of the transmute spell. I'm definitely going to hunt that one down!

[/quote]

Just note that the transmute spell transforms iron ore into silver ore first, then silver ore into gold ore. You'll have to use the spell twice to successfully transform iron into gold. Additionally, it will cost you 2 gold ores to make 1 gold ingot.

This is another great way to get your smithing and enchanting skills leveled up when crafting and enchanting the jewelry.