We got snowed in with a dusting of snow and I thought I'd share the tools in a blade smiths shop.  Certainly, this isn't every tool and they can vary from shop to shop with what the smith needs to make their style of knife.

The king of the shop is the Anvil.  The most common style, and the one most think of when they hear "anvil" is the London Pattern which began in the late 1700's, sometimes those early ones are referred to as a "colonial".  By the mid 1800's the London Pattern anvil had been fully refined.

Here's an 1830's English wrought/tool steel anvil.  This one has been repaired.

Here's a mid 1800's English Peter Wright.

And finally, an American Fisher which was cast iron with a tool steel top.

The next piece of equipment is the forge.  The two main types of forges are a more traditional coal forge and a propane forge.  Most blade smiths will opt for a propane forge as they are easier/cleaner to operate and are less likely to burn up the steel.

The next tool is the hammer.  A bladsmith and blacksmith will have a lot of hammers of various weights and shapes tailored to the specific job.

To hold the hot steel a smith uses tongs.  These are made to hold certain shapes and sizes of material.  As such a smith will have a large selection of tongs, if asked if he has enough he will reply "no".  

other notable pieces of equipment are:

The blacksmiths post vice.

To do the grinding a 2x72 belt sander.

A surface grinder to true up billets.

A forging press for making those Damascus billets.

Lastly, a heat treat oven

This by far isn't all the equipment but does represent a lot of the equipment seen in a blade smiths shop.  So if you ever wonder how much work goes into making a custom blade this might help understand what it takes to forge a blade.