About to score a ceramic kiln

[smartanimal]

So i just found out my mom had an old kiln laying around that she used to use for ceramics. It's electric but that's about all i know. From my research so far, it seems like it might be usable for heat treating knives as long as i can control the temperature precisely enough (via a thermocouple control rig or something).

Has anyone had any luck converting a kiln used for ceramics into something serviceable for heat treat? I work mostly in O1 and although I made a soup can forge, it creates really bad hot spots and I'd just like something a little more dependable.

 

[Cox Workshop]

I converted one. It was a top open kiln. Worked ok for a while. Kind of dangerous to use though. The heat coming out when you open the top is intense to say the least. That wasn't what made me switch though. I kept breaking coils. I'm not sure why. I wonder if it being a top open kiln caused greater swings in temperature when I was opening and closing the lid. Not sure, hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

I had a chance to buy an evenheat kiln from a guy for a good price and jumped on that. I wouldn't say I regret the ceramic kiln though.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It is better than a soup can forge for HT by far. It is not ideal, but if the chamber is deep enough, you can suspend the blades through a hole you cut in the top. Put a fire brick over the hole while doing HT.

It is not a good idea to lay the blades inside and try to put in and take out of a hot kiln. Best thing is to sell it and put the money toward a knife HT kiln.