Forge / Heat treat combo

[scott kozub]

I'm just getting to this hobby and just bought what I need to make a dual burner forge. I was going to order some kaowool and start chopping up an old air pig. I was considering adding a thermocouple so that temperature could be monitored and loosely controlled. I'm going to eventually going to be building a heat treat oven as per http://dcknives.blogspot.ca/p/electric-forge.html as well. I'm one of those guys who enjoys building tools as much as I enjoying what I'm working on.

Then it dawned me, why can't I build the oven and add a set of burners in the oven for forging. I'd need to make a secondary set of access doors for the front and rear for forging but it's seems doable. I'm a little concerned that the insulating fire bricks won't stand up to the abuse and there's a risk with damaging the coils while forging but I don't think its a deal breaker. I'd likely make baffles on the burners to keep the heat in while heat treating.

The goal would be to focus on the heat treating side of things and the forge be secondary in design.

I haven't come across anyone who has tried this yet but maybe I didn't search hard enough.

Anyone thoughts on why this would be a terrible idea?

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

My guess would be that the kanthal wire wouldn't stand up to the propane atmosphere.

 

[Rick Marchand]

I agree with the above. There is only so much life in those coils. They would be pulling double duty, if not more. I forge way more often than I heat treat. Another point you've already touched on is the abuse a forge gets compared to a kiln. I treat my kiln like a Princess... well, that ain't exactly true... you'd get put in jail for most of the acts perpetrated, aside from turning her on and letting her cool down. All the in betweens are quite vulgar.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You can't make a boat and a sports car on the same chassis. Same goes for a forge and a HT oven. They are two different animals.
Make a good forge, and you can do the HT on most carbon steels. When, and if, you need more HT control ( or do stainless) then buy or build a HT oven.