heat treating A2 with forge

[JTknives]

i have been saveing my clams to get a forge/heatreating oven. what im wondering is if i can control a forge enought to heat treat A2. im thinking of using a PID connected to a gas valve and putting a schudle 80 steel pipe inside the forge chamber with the temp probe inside the pipe. let it heat up and eaven out, slip blade in the pipe and let soak. i could cut the pipe in half length wise so it will sit on the floor.

 

[Keith_H]

I wonder if you could fill the pipe with high temp salts?

(edit: i think salts would be a bad idea)

 

[AcridSaint]

If you're selling those knives, I think you should either wait for an oven or send them out to be heat treated. It's so inexpensive to have them professionally heat treated by one of the best in the country that it seems foolish to even consider doing it with a forge. Your customers deserve the best heat treatment, especially if it only adds a few dollars to the cost. If you send him 20 blades, it'll only cost $3.50 each to have Paul Bos heat treat them and then you can tell people they were heat treated by the best and not just guessed at in the forge.

 

[mete]

It doesn't make sense to spend the extra money for a high performance steel then HT it and not get optimal properties. Get an oven or send it out.

 

[A C Richards]

There are PID controlled gas HT ovens.. I set my forge up to do this and it worked great. I could keep the temp within 5deg. I have HT'd D2 for fixtures, mostly I used it for Carbon though. If you are going to HT in a PID controlled gas Forge/Oven just get some SS foil wrap and make pouches to put your blades in. This is how I did the blocks for filing jigs. I would make sure the bottom of the cavity is nice and smooth, put in some half bricks or Kiln shelfs. Good luck