Raising your skills with weapons? Options

[Count Valerius]

I see people in the fighters guild+arena and stuff hammering away at dummies with their weapons. Also i see targets for practicing archery in some places, like by the fighters guild. can you hit these with your weapons or shoot your bow at the targets to increase your weapons skills?

[bloodyfish]

You just summon a skeleton, kill it and instant xp.

[Furious_George]

You just summon a skeleton, kill it and instant xp.

This is a simple way to level them. Like with spells, you must actually strike something for it to count as practice. Keep in mind you may find an animal or person who has tons of health points and use something like an iron dagger on it - you'll get tons of 'hits,' but not kills the enemy very quickly.

But the summon/kill way is simple and works well, and you can practice soul trap at the same time if you like.

In this case, I've done no leveling of weapons (although I have trained blunt a bit since I never use blunt weapons); there's plenty of 'real' battles to be had and you'll level just fine. My blade is second highest next to strength.