what is the difference between blacksmithing and making skills

[Kaseijin]

If blacksmithing is about shaping iron and other materials into weapons. What do making skills do.
Blacksmithing seems a bit redundant, since there are all the separate making and repairing skills. Or will training blacksmithing mean that you would be able to do all those things but not as good as those who specialise in it?

[zabeal]

My impression is that blacksmithing is used in the basic smelting of turning ores into usable bricks, and the making skills will be turning those bricks into something usable. Repairing is seperate I guess, but all of this is still up in the air. All we have to go on is this:
http://laanx.fragnetics.com/images/shield.png
 

[Moogie]

I\'m not entirely sure what you mean. There\'s Blacksmithing, and then there\'s Repairing. What\'s this \"Make Skill\" you speak of?

[zinder]

I think he refers to the Sword Making, Axe Making, etc. They are at leats in the  Player Guide. Dont know about ingame.
I think the relation is like in real life. IMO it will be like this:  Blacksmithing is knowledge how to use a forge, when the material is ready to work it, things like that. It allows you to make simple tools like horse shoes, nails, perhaps a shovel or a pick.
 But for weapon and armor you need specialised knowledge which is represented by the Making skills. Judging from the other skills, you will be able to make swords with sword making on level 0, but it wont be a good sword and may take quiet a while for a success.

[Kaseijin]

yeah that\'s what i meant by making skills...
i was bit thrown off by the description of the blacksmithing:
\"working steel into weapons and armor\"
and then right below it are all weapon making skills...
then i thought \"why would one want to learn a swordmaking skill when he can make all weapons with the blacksmithing skill?\"

however there is no armor making skill...so i guess you will use the blacksmithing for making armor.
I guess like, Zinder said, you would use blacksmithing for making tool like picks and woodsaws.

[pincushionman]

Perhaps blacksmithing would be a \"general skill\" and weapon crafting and repair would be \"subskills?\" Here\'s how I envision something like that working:

General skill: Smithing
subskills: smelting, weapon repair, armor repair, weapon crafting, armor crafting,...

You have to have at least two general skill levels before you can train in subskills. Your skill in using the skill = [ general skill + appropriate subskill ].

Why take the subskill when leveling the general skill will have the same effect? Easy. Make the subskills two-thirds (or so) easier to train.

Why not specialize and become really good? Make an upper limit for subskills, like the subskill cannot exceed 3x the general skill level. Do you really think a master armormaker can\'t do general smithery? I find that hard to believe. I also think crafting/repair skills need to be kept close as well. How many swordmakers can\'t fix their own work? Not many. Whether or not they WILL do it is a different story.

This same gen/sub system could be extended to other crafts as well:

Textiles: weaving, taning, dyeing, leatherwork, hidework, woolwork,...

Carpentry: Framing (housemaking), cabinetry, furniture, carving, cooperage (barrelmaking),...

[Kiva]

Actually, the true definition of a blacksmith is one who makes useful items from iron, such as tools and horseshoes and so on. A weaponsmith makes weapons and an armorer makes armors. Not a blacksmith.

But in PS, blacksmithing is more the general knowledge of how to shape iron and make it do what you want, and it affects all the specialization skills (make axe, sword and blabla).