[@KoL][@KOgaming] I'm not sure where the forge is, but I'm guessing everyone will first and foremost start designing their sword on paper. In the first OOC post Rofl said you could "steal idea's from fellow students workshop". So I'm guessing each student does have his own place to work at. I'm also guessing that the workshop for a smith student would be pretty useless without a forge.

Now all of this is pretty much guessing, but I'm assuming that the units are already forged ingots and not ores (as there is bronze which is an alloy). So you don't need to melt your metal, which would require a powerful furnace. You only need to heat it to shape it. This requires far less heat and can be done in an open charcoal furnace. Which isn't that hard to make. If I were to guess, I'd say that there is one big forge where you can make your alloys (and everyone can reach this forge) if you so desire and every student has a smaller forge in their personal workshop where you can shape your metal (and probably store it and such things). But [@RoflsMazoy] can correct me too if I'm wrong.

Though, a disclaimer: I'm not in the metal business myself. However, there are some great channels out there that teach you a lot about sword making. I would certainly advise you to watch the "Ulfberht Viking Sword" and "Narsil" of Man at arms: reforged. They explain a lot about how forging works. Then again, this is a fantasy setting so I'm guessing you generally can do whatever you want.