Smeden gegen

Salt water use, my grandad who put it in our barn salvaged it from a burned up ocean faring boat

Can a propeller shaft be used for making hammers? I have found an old shaft from somewhere in the 60's or 70's, thickness of 51mm and length of about 3 meters, weight estimate roughly 150 kg, a distinguishing feature is that the shaft itself is nice and sliver with a lathed finish, but other metal parts have surface rusted

Okey, good stuff guys

The thought of using corn seems good, It’s actually cheaper than charcoal, but how long time to get 10-15 millimeter thick stock into the high yellow range?

I dont have any pics, they will come later Bottom blast forge, most forges in sweden that have survived the test of time are bottom blast I do make my own charcoal ocassionally, which is good but you already know the facts of coal/coke/charcoal The thought i had with all this is that if i'm extremely conservative with the fire, take it slow with the heats, and use a striker to "mash out" the round bar to flat, good or bad idea? Should i take my time with it?

@ThomasPowers It's an old traditional swedish smithy, just a regular solid fuel forge and and a (kohlswa?) London anvil, but also a power hammer powered by a small windmill. I have some experience in striker work, but the guy i'm considering to "employ" is quite inexperienced, and a bit sloppy, so might have to train him on some mild steel

I'm about to do a project, a finnish knife from auto spring steel, i am going to work in a proper smithy with more or less full gear, but the problem is that coal and coke is a pain in the xxx to find where i live, (west coast sweden) and highly expensive, so im considering to use techniques showed by joey van der steeg to effectivize my forge's fuel use, and to recruit a striker to be able to excert maximum power into the stock, does this seem like a good idea? Suggestions?