Historical shop/tools vs. "modern"methods

[Frosty]

Samael: You're really putting the cart before the wheel here. How about learning some basic blacksmithing before designing what YOU believe to be your ideal shop? There's plenty of time to develop your equipment and tools once you have an idea how they work. Trying to pin your future abilities to a tie period is sort of . . . Fun in a beginner speculation dream state way.

Nothing wrong with it if that's what excites your neurons. 

The more skills you earn the fewer tools you need to make things. Conversely, no matter how good the tools if you don't know how to use them, they're just highly refined dirt. No tool can do anything without human direction.

The Chinese were making paper with water powered trip hammers thousands of years ago, they quickly progressed into crushing rock for metal smelting, then fill for construction. No telling when one was used to hammer hot metal but by then power hammers were common industrial level equipment. I expect someone just offered interchangeable hammer heads on Pappy Yang's super hammer and included one for smithing as a matter of course. If you hit a thing with a big hammer, Pappy Yang's Super hammer is just what YOU need!

Frosty The Lucky

[anvil]

Heres another idea. We humans are pretty good at multitasking. Get any anvil and forge setup. Don't worry about history. Start learning the basics. Do understand that learning "The Basics" is not a quick process. There is a reason that in the past an apprenticeship was ~7 years. Since you are not 12, it wont take that long. Plan on 3-5 years, depending,,,.  By that time the basics should be committed to rote. During this time, start your research on whatever era you want to reenact. Timing is all. With luck,That should be the time needed to get setup with equipment. Now you are ready for the world to beat a path to your door!

[ThomasPowers]

As I am a smithing on the cheap type of guy; may I point out that if you start with what you can source easily and cheaply you can begin learning and keeping your eye out for things that fit a certain time/place better.  I have found tongs and hammers over the years that were almost perfect matches for Viking era ones and being sold cheap. (Definitely not originals here in the USA!)

I will also say that working in a historical mode sure makes you appreciate how much grunt labor is involved and why items could be so expensive when all hand made.  (You realize that *cloth* used to be high on the "loot" scale?  There was a reason that the starting Industrial Revolution was really big on cloth production!)