Heat Treat Furnace

N

Norseman

Joined
Apr 12, 1999
Messages
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I am looking to buy a heat treat furnace in the near future and was wondering if any one had any suggestions on the brand, size, type etc.... I have looked at Paragon & Evenheat does anyone know of any other brands and their cost.
 
Norseman: I can recommend Paragon. I own two of them. The controller is excellent, and I have checked the temperature control for accuracy. If you buy thru a ceramics place, you can usually get a discount.

RJ Martin
 
Ok, this is pretty much a total novice question but please bear with me! Are there any furnaces that are really practical for home use? I've been toying with trying my hand at making my own knives for awhile now but heat treating has always brought me up short. I just discovered this forum today so consider this my plea for help
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Any info on models, sources, general cost and availibility would be greatly appreciated!

Tim
 
I don't know if this will help or not but I use my propane forge to heat for the quench and my kitchen oven for the draw. I can adjust the amount of both the air and propane so I can adjust the forge to heat at about mid-critical range (I run it very rich to reduce scale and it works well). My forge cost me around $100.00 to build and was not hard to construct. I use the 20lb propane tanks for it and have never had one freeze up on me. If you are interested in building a forge check out this site: http://www.dfoggknives.com/forge.htm. Don Fogg has a lot of useful information there including building a forge and salt pot. Hope this helps.
Ravenclaw
 
I've been looking at the propane forge concept for awhile and may very well end up going that route. I was hoping to get something a little more precise though.

I suppose what I'd like is a furnace where I can set the temperature, plunk in whatever project I'm working on, and time it so that I have a good idea of the Rockwell hardness for the particular steel type. The propane forge, while quite functional, is just a little to imprecise for me. I suspect there's a lot of trial and error learning involved with getting a good product out of one.

I'd like to be able to work from pretty firm parameters. Check out a metalurgy text and find the steel I'm working with, find the proper temerature and duration neccesary to reach the Rockwell hardness I'm looking, set the furnace and go from there. Maybe that's an overly simplistic approach though. As I said I'm a novice to this area so what I'd like to do and what's acctually feasable may be two different things.

Tim
 
You are quite right on the trial and error part for the propane forge. It took me a while to figure out how to get mine at the tempature I was after. Here is an excerpt from Don Fogg's site about his heat treating furnace:
"This whole furnace can be built from off the shelf parts for under $350 and the controller also is used to run a smaller high temp salt pot that I use for my smaller blades. With the controller and the spark plug ignition, I am able to control the temperature accurately from 200F to 1900F holding a 20 degree margin".
Here is the link if you are interested:
http://www.dfoggknives.com/furnace.htm

Once I can come up with the money, I am going to build one like his.
 
Norsman,TStetz


If you want to do higher alloy steels you need a furnace,soak times are just to long to use a forge to heat with.
and steels like ATS34 420v A2 3v ect have to be protected (IE tool wrap foil) or they will just burn up.
I use a Evenheat unit and am very happy with it.The only thing is that it is a ceramic furnace and the controller is for ceramics but it still works fine for knives.
any of the above mentioned units will work fine in a home shop, thats what they are made for.
ED
 
There's an outfit in Canada that makes grinders and ovens and with the exchange rate as it is you might be able to pick one up at a reasonable price.
http/members.tripod.com/~Dendany
 
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