Hi, I might be able to help, I've been a hobbyist bladesmith and blacksmith for several years. Obviously the most important tools for getting started are an anvil and hammer, but tongs are almost as essential. It may be possible at first to use long enough pieces of stock that tongs are not needed (this is always the best option when possible), but eventually any new smith learns the limitations of this approach and tongs become necessary. In my experience, nothing is more frustrating (and dangerous) then having inadequate or poorly fitting tongs and it makes the work of learning how to forge doubly difficult. Without proper tongs the metal is difficult to control and is likely to end up flying off in a variety of directions, I have never found pliers of any type adequate to the task. A medium sized set of wolf's jaw tongs is highly recommended for the beginner, making these is probably not a good first project, so buying a pair is well worth it. As far as hammers go, a 2 lbs cross pein hammer like those you can get at any big box home improvement store is adequate to start, the face and pein will have to be dress however in order to make acceptable forging tools. The steel disk you mention should be adequate to produce a workable anvil, however it will need to be firmly anchored to a solid base of considerable weight. To give you an example, I started on a 60 lbs anvil with a wooden base filled with gravel and scrap steel, the combination weighed about 140 lbs and it still jumped around when I used heavy hammer blows. If you have the means to customize the disk it might be worth while to cut it into a square and help the budding smith to mount it upright, such that the 2" thickness is the working surface instead of the flat. A large work surface is not as useful as having a solid mass of steel below the striking surface.

Beyond a hammer, anvil, and tongs there are not really that many hand tools that are required to begin smithing. Some other tools that are nice to have are a cold chisel, hot chisel, tapered punches of various sizes and shapes, and perhaps a slitting chisel------but to be honest most of these are not used that often for blade making. Blade makers need a good set of files, sand paper and a lot of time or a grinder of some sort, even an angle grinder can be used to rough grind blades. As far as the steel for tools, stick with mild steel for tongs, 4130/40 make acceptable hot punches and chisels (S7 is excellent for this, but forging it is not for beginners, if you machine the tools then go with the S7). A2 and D2 make great knife steels, but they are far too difficult to work for a beginner, good forging steels for entry level knife makers are plain carbon steels like 1075/85/95 and 5160------W1 is my favorite steel for forging knives and it is not too bad for beginners.