Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26444332-20160330162225/@comment-26556622-20160418133851

On the elves, the fact that forging techniques improved is right, at leats I would say for most, but the mastersmiths of Gondolin and Nargothrond were better than the smiths of later times, so even though the techniques had improved the hand of the smith still guided it. For the dwarven case, many forging techniques were lost in the process of ruined cities and dragon attacks, this way the ancient forging knowledge wasn't passed on to the new smiths lowering the quality of their work.