I play a stealth character that does 30x backstabbing damage, so I basically one shot most enemies with my dagger if I can get close enough. But my one handed weapons skill rarely increases. I can't recall ever getting a skill increase from a backstab kill.
How does the game know when to increase the one handed weapon skill?
Best Answer
According to wiki information (from UESP and Wikia), you get experience in skill based on base damage and not the number of hits or the damage done. As such, damage multipliers do not provide any extra experience to skill.
You can try finding a trainer or use following books to get some skill points:
The following books also increase the player's skill, with some easier ways to get them:
The following miscellaneous quests increase the One-Handed Skill:
Following people can help you train your skills for money:
If you want to use less legitimate ways, certain targets can serve as an exploit for training combat skills, because they are essential, and therefore cannot normally die, because they may be expendable, or because they have high health or can regenerate health. They are not normally "enemies".
They include: Shadowmere, Hadvar or Ralof during Unbound, creatures you have conjured, Paarthurnax (before starting his quest), and M'aiq the Liar.
Another, more "easy" way is to use trainers then pickpocket the money back. Becoming Harbinger of The Companions will also allow training to expert level with Athis and you can have him as a follower which allows all the gold spent training to be returned (take it from his inventory).
Source(s):