Forge/kiln questions

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SteelGhost

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I can never seem to get this quite right...

Are a kiln and a forge are two seperate things ??

Or can I get by with just one or the other ??

I want to do some forging as well as just cutting blades out of flat steel.

Some of the blades I want to make are around 40 inches long and the furnaces ive seen are all under 40 inch.

Im really not sure what I need here.

Thank you for any help :)
 
Personally I think you are better off with a forge ifyou can only have one. You can heattreat with a forge, forging with a kiln is a slow way to turn perfectly good steel to decarbed iron and scale, the recovery time is just way too long.

-Page
 
Forges are generally gas fired and kilns are electric. Kilns unless expensive will most likely not get to forging temperatures. You can use a forge for heat treat since the temp is generally lower than for forging. I just bought a kiln for stainless heat treat due to the temp and soak requirements but I use a forge for all oil quench metals.

That should keep you confused for a while.
 
Haha that made some sense :D Basically a kiln is just an extra cost unless you need it for something specific like stainless steels ??

For a quality forge that heats evenly and is quite deep for forging long blades, 40 inch or longer are there any recommended brands or is it just as good to make one of those homade forges ??
 
I dont have any experience with something that long, for mine I had a 24" long home made forge and I could not get even heat, since I was not doing anything long I cut it to 18" and still had even heat issues. I added a baffle to direct the flame better and this weekend it seems to be pretty good, actually very good. I use a pyrometer to check the temp at various locations. Based on my experience I would go commercial unless you can find a design for a good long kiln.
 
SteelGhost said:
Haha that made some sense :D Basically a kiln is just an extra cost unless you need it for something specific like stainless steels ??

For a quality forge that heats evenly and is quite deep for forging long blades, 40 inch or longer are there any recommended brands or is it just as good to make one of those homade forges ??
Click to expand...

you do not want to be heating the whole blade on a sword when forging it, 6-12 inches is all you want to be wrestling with, believe me!
when you are ready to heat treat you can do that with a smaller forge or make a trough type specifically for the purpose.
At Ashokan one demonstrator heat treated a sword in a trough dug into the ground.

-Page
 
You don't want a forge that long

What you want is a manageable length, say 8 - 12 inches. Maybe as long as 18 (which is really freaking long) if it'll double as a heat treating unit.

The reason is you can only viably work a section of a long blade at a time. You pass the blade through to heat up middle sections. As you are hammering away, the metal is cooling, and it doesn't take long at all to cool too low for forging, and even most pro's won't attempt to hammer 18" at a time (the better you get the longer a section you are capable of managing. Notice I said capable, not willing,).

For heat treating, a short chamber will work nicely, just have soime stovepipe on hand that you can prop up on the ends, thus expanding the length of the chamber you can use for heat treating.

Also, using a long slow stroking action :jerkit: will let you heat a good long length fairly evenly with practice
 
Dan Zawacki said:
dammit Page, you type too quick!
Click to expand...

:p

:D:D:D

not bad for one finger from each hand (still got all of the other ones, just never taught them)

Speaking of swords, I'm trying to pound one out for Ashokan (viking sword) wanna see if you can have one ready too?

:cool:

Page
 
What If I just need to heat treat my blades? I have a kiln capable of reaching 2400 degrees, and intend to wrap my blades in Stainless foil before heating them up. Someone said that you can't heat treat them in a kiln, but I beg to differ, as it seems you can reach the same temp, and have it remain constant, with less worry as to not heating evenly. Is there any logical reason as to why a kiln, that reaches high enough temperature, couldn't be effective in heat treating a stock removal blade? Also, I know this is an old thread.
 
A kiln is used for heat treating. A forge is good for heat treating if you're doing 1084 or have a very fancy forge that can hold temps for long times.
 
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