I've been interested in forging blades since I was 18, but only recently I've gotten around to do it, thanks to instructables, forums and some lessons i took, it occurred to me that I could set up a small forge right in my bedroom, since I live in an apartment and sleep alone I got to work.
The first thing I got was a 35kg steel block, I had been browsing online for an anvil or something that could perform that function.
Then it was time to make the forge, there are a couple of tutorials for soup can forges that advice to use a mixture of sand and plaster, but reading through the comments someone said to use ceramic fabric instead, i chose that out of practicality, four bolts and nuts to make the legs and a cookie can. After lining the can with the fabric I made a hole for the torch and that's it.
I decided to try and make a razor, I like them for practical reasons, such as with little skill one can do away with buying disposable, they last forever and they look awesome.
As for material I used a regular file from there hardware store, I won't go into detail about the forging, I'll just say that the only power tool I used afterwards was a dremel rotary tool for cutting and shaping some parts.
After all the work I did ended up with a razor that shaves a bit inspired by Japanese razors and a bit by the European ones.
I hope you find all this informative and entertaining.