Evenheat KF18, KF22.5 or KF27?

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drysideshooter

Joined
Dec 6, 2011
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244
I am picking up my Esteem grinder from Brett in a couple of weeks, and I also want to get a heat treating oven ordered.

Evenheat says the KF18 is their most popular. The 22.5 has a bit larger element and is not very much more, so it almost seems like a no brainer to go with the 22.5. The 27 uses the same wattage element as the 22.5 and is only a little bit more. Does anyone have an idea of how much longer the 27 would take to get to, say 1900 degrees than the 22.5? My 15 year old son and I are getting into knife making as a bit more serious of a hobby, and I doubt we really need anything bigger than the 18, but you never know, and for the price difference it seems like it might make sense?

I am planning to go with the Rampmaster control.

Also, I assume the switch that cuts the power when the door is opened is worth having? The only potential downside I could see would be the oven turning off briefly if you open it to take out one blade, but will be leaving others in for a bit while you quench the one blade.

Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated. Happy Holidays everyone.
 
I have the KH-18. The 'H' stands for 'Home' use I think, meaning 120V vs. the 240V option. I am limited to ~ 18 inch blades, but that's not a problem for me. The 120V is probably slower than the 240V, but it hits the high temps. As I mentioned on a previous thread like this, my D2 ht takes about 2.5 hours from turning the oven on to quench. The door cut out is a good (and standard) option, so you don't accidentally touch an electrified coil when you open the door to add or remove blades...as soon as you close it the circuit is re-energized and the oven will recover the heat just lost from opening the door. I am pretty happy with mine.
 
i have the 18 (i want bigger) i make a lot of kitchen knives and right about the 10 inch blade length is max my next one will be 27 but i ll likly keep the 18 for smaller stuff
i have then setpro but again will opt for the rampmaster on the next kiln for the ability to hold more programs
i dont have the cut off switch and dont feel liek i need it so less you have an OSHO mandated cut off you should be jsut fine
 
Thanks for the information. You aren't saying that a 10" total length is the max for the KF18 are you? If that is the case I will get the 27 for sure. My understanding from reading the info on the Evenheat website is you want to stay 1.5" away from the elements, which would mean 3" less in length, or about 15". Is there something else that limits it to 10".

I am a bit confused on the shut off switch. I have read some places that make it sound like it's a standard, but it's listed as an option on the website. I certainly don't mind turning it off and back on. If you are doing a few knives and turn it off to open it to take out one blade, if you turn it back on once you have closed it will it resume the program or hold the last temp?
 
I would for sure get the 27 with rampmaster control. I loved mine and will get another at some point. Although If did production work I would send everything out for heat treat as it is hard to get the same quality in a home shop.

Brett Mathews
 
Thanks Brett. I totally get that sending to the pros for HT gets better results. I have been struggling with getting an oven and a Rockwell tester or just sending everything out. Maybe I should lean towards sending it to the pro's. I know how anal my son and I are, and especially at first we will have way too much time in to grinding the knives. Would be a bummer to ruin too many or have them not be as good as they could be.

From what I can tell, some heat treaters like Peters will do oil quenched steels like 1084.

Looking forward to meeting you and picking up the grinder Brett.
 
drysideshooter said:
I am a bit confused on the shut off switch. I have read some places that make it sound like it's a standard, but it's listed as an option on the website.
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I should clarify: The site from which I purchased mine gave no option; it was a standard feature. Sorry for the confusion. If I may ask, where in Eastern Washington are you?
 
ggoose said:
I should clarify: The site from which I purchased mine gave no option; it was a standard feature. Sorry for the confusion. If I may ask, where in Eastern Washington are you?
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We live outside of Kennewick in Benton County. We are up in your neck of the woods quite a bit though. Were up there just last weekend to see the Calloway Orchestra at Northern Quest.
 
i have the 18 (i want bigger)
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I knew I would say this as well and went with the high temp (KF I believe) 26". I have no idea what the difference in ramp time is between it and the 22.5" but whatever it is I would buy the 26" again.

The ONLY reason I wouldn't is because I want to make swords; I'd probably buy the 18" knowing I would buy a 48" down the road. However KMGs, bandsaws, drills, etc eats through the budget quick and I had to settle on something in the middle. Plus I may use salts for the swords.

Lastly get the rampmaster, its great and after a run or two you can program it with your eyes closed.

The door switch was not standard on my model but the alarm was, it is a small "PC" type speaker but its loud enough for me.
 
Get the 22.5".
I've had my Evenheat for 11 years now.
There is nothing in the heat treating arena I've wanted to do that I could not do with the Set-Pro control.
The Rampmaster is for people who like lots of buttons. :cool:
 
I have a 27" and wish that I had purchased a 36" or larger for swords.

A 27" will handle any knife, and most machetes/short swords.
 
In that case I would just plan to send them out to Peters then. Not that you cant do it in the home shop but to get great result theres a bit of a learning. To me this time and effort is best spent learning the rest of the process. In order to make sending the blades out really not so expensive it takes some planning as far as sending out batches for heat treatment. But if you add up the cost of a rockwell tester and heat treat oven you can have all your blades done by Peters for a long time.

cuv
drysideshooter said:
Thanks Brett. I totally get that sending to the pros for HT gets better results. I have been struggling with getting an oven and a Rockwell tester or just sending everything out. Maybe I should lean towards sending it to the pro's. I know how anal my son and I are, and especially at first we will have way too much time in to grinding the knives. Would be a bummer to ruin too many or have them not be as good as they could be.

From what I can tell, some heat treaters like Peters will do oil quenched steels like 1084.

Looking forward to meeting you and picking up the grinder Brett.
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18 does about 80 of what i want to do and the 22 woudl do about 95% the 27 would be more like 99%
as far as sending out vs in house HT if you both have nearly the saem gear the home HTer can if they want have a better HT for the steel they use for the user it is tuned for. this is why i HT in my own shop. dont get me wrong peters and bos im sure are great (never ysed them so i cant compare) but if you have one batch of steel and you can tune your HT to the needs of the knife design and you can do the blades on yout time line what advantage is there in sending it out ? do your homework learn the skils and get all the needed gear or dont. this is really a doo or do not game there is no good half messures
 
I have to agree with Butch on this. I think everything in knifemaking is difficult and heat treating is no exception. But personally I'd rather get good at grinding bevels, sanding handles and heat treating as I progress as a knifemaker. You can also fix mistakes. If you do ever ruin the heat treat grinding an edge or trying to soften a tang you can fix it in a matter of hours rather than waiting on shipping it off.

I understand on the hardness tester. I want one but at the moment I'm not making perfect knives so I don't mind if I am a few RC points off target.

Additionally I can harden anything from custom chisels to clay pots on the side!

No wrong way to turn a piece of steel into the perfect knife so go with what you think will make you happy. You can always buy one down the road if you decide not to now.
 
If you and your son are doing it for fun, and have the funds definitely get the oven. I started by sending out to Peters and of course the results were great, but the 3 week wait between grinding and getting back for finishing was a pain. Not to mention if you are going one to three at a time like I was the cost added up really quickly. I am really enjoying learning to perfect heat treating technique for each steel I use, and there is pretty much a perfect starting technique posted here by generous people for any steel you can imagine. Kind of like "hours to learn, years to master" stuff! After a lot of back and forth worrying I decided to build mine to 18" and it is working out fine- anything up to large chef knives and Bowies work so unless you are getting into "swords" territory the smaller one may prove more practical to work with? The distance from coil things is mostly referring to the side coils I think so you do have a good 17 inches to work with realistically. 220 volts is nice to have, the process is long enough with the tempering that you don't want to have to wait around too long for the oven to come up to temp if you can avoid it.
Good luck and have fun on the journey with your son!
Stuart
 
StuNY said:
If you and your son are doing it for fun, and have the funds definitely get the oven. I started by sending out to Peters and of course the results were great, but the 3 week wait between grinding and getting back for finishing was a pain. Not to mention if you are going one to three at a time like I was the cost added up really quickly. I am really enjoying learning to perfect heat treating technique for each steel I use, and there is pretty much a perfect starting technique posted here by generous people for any steel you can imagine. Kind of like "hours to learn, years to master" stuff! After a lot of back and forth worrying I decided to build mine to 18" and it is working out fine- anything up to large chef knives and Bowies work so unless you are getting into "swords" territory the smaller one may prove more practical to work with? The distance from coil things is mostly referring to the side coils I think so you do have a good 17 inches to work with realistically. 220 volts is nice to have, the process is long enough with the tempering that you don't want to have to wait around too long for the oven to come up to temp if you can avoid it.
Good luck and have fun on the journey with your son!
Stuart
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Thanks Stuart! I have to admit that being able to do a couple blades at a time and learn about proper heat treating has a lot of appeal. I think getting a Rockwell tester like the one from Grizzly would help our learning curve by letting us seen the results of what we are doing, like between HT and tempering and after tempering. We have 220 available.

I think maybe we will start with some of Aldo's 1084 and some Parks 50 before trying more complex steels and plate/cryo treating. I do have some 1" aluminum plates to use eventually and have verified getting liquid nitrogen locally isn't a problem. There is so much for us to learn but it will be a lot of fun. You are right about the tremendous amount of knowledge in the forums and elsewhere that will help the steep learning curve a lot.
 
I ordered the KH 418 with the Rampmaster controller. It should be here by next Friday.
 
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