The xp grind for smithing needs to be re balanced and you should be able to get weapons parts from battles as rare loot, as with the current smithing system the only way i was able to get lots of parts, and actually up my smithing was cheat and get the most exspensive swords and break them down, right now without cheating the grind is to much for so little gain, without cheating i figured out that smelting down weapons an then refining the materials/making charcoal is the only way to up a few levels, though i resorted to the cheatmenu bc wandering around the map running down after bandits,(lords parties have better loot) going back to town to smelt a few things and then wait half a day, this painstaking process took me about 3hrs, only to go up a few levels, of course the xp amount needed to reach next level is increased after you gain a level, sorry all about this jumbled paragraph, im writing this quickly, just my experience on smithing and it needs work