kilns

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stax

Joined
Jan 6, 2009
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Can anybody tell me what is a good little knife kiln and what they go for? I am heating steel in a wood stove and really have no idea what the temp is getting to. I have only been making knives for a few months and don't have everything I need yet, obviously. I s there a place to find these kilns used or is that hard to do?

Also, is there a particular steel that I should be useing while I heat them up with the stove? Something that has a better tolerance to this method than other steels?

Any info. would be great. Thanx
 
Evenheat-kiln and paragon make great knife kilns. Google them.

They probably run $700.00 and up for a decent kiln.

Unless your wood stove can reach temperatures of 1500'F + i doubt it's really of any use
to heat treat knives with. Not to mention the whole not being able to keep the blade
at a constant temperature throughout.

I think it's almost pointless to try to make a knife with mystery steel and you really have no idea what it's made up of. You can learn to profile and grind the bevels on mystery steel, but again, not the best choice.

Try the 10XX series steels. Or tool steels.
 
If you are forging to modify your wood stove to a charcoal forge with an addition of a tuyere and a blower would be an interesting project. Also it would be cheap. To make charcoal yourself is also fun. I switched to propane after I was tired from the black dust and the smoke smell... If you want to go for stock removal an electrical kiln with a good temp control is the way to go... Stay away from unknown steels at least for the learning stage....
 
A wood stove is useless. I am sitting in front of mine as we speak and it is roaring and only at 475 degrees! Actual coals are probally more but that is the heat at the pipe. Definately far from knife temp. I tried to anneal a rasp in mine and it didn't work. Here is a link to Sugarcreek Knife Kins. They are probally the best bang for your $$. http://www.sugarcreekind.com/kilns-knife-kilns-c-273_312.html
 
http://www.tzknives.com/

Under "Kilns and Salt Bath Furnaces" on the left, goto "Horizontal Kilns".

EvenHeat kilns are cheaper than Paragon kilns. There is no difference in practical function or quality. Tim Zowada sells EvenHeat kilns cheaper than any other place I found. Tim will answer questions but sometimes it takes a little bit...

There are tutorials here and other forums that will teach you to build your own for less $$$, but more time. "rashid 11" has a great tutorial here on BF.

Mike
 
Before a kiln, you should get/build a forge. It will do much of the same work that a kiln will do, plus a lot a kiln won't. Later on, a kiln is a great tool, but at your stage, you don't need one. For the price of a cheap and small kiln you could buy a simple forge and a cheap grinder. If you are handy with tools and building things, you could build a controlled forge, and a NWG ( no weld grinder) for the price of a paragon oven.
Stacy
 
Thanks for the info.. I havn't been using mystery steel though. I have been usin 01 and 1095. I have a belt grinder to get them to shape. Then I get a hot bed of coles going with a good draft in the stove. Each blade will stay in there for about 10 minutes give or take. Once they had been red hot for 5 minutes or so, I quench them in oil. After that I have been putting them in the oven for an hour at 400. The blades are harder than what I started with I know that. If this 01 is getting red hot, it's got to be closer to 1500 then not doesn't it?
 
Two issues you face with your current steel choices are O1 needs a long soak, 20 minutes and 1095 must be quenched in about 1 second. 1080 or 1084 are probably a better choice for your current ht method. You can check the temp with a magnet, when non-magnetic quench.
 
stax said:
Thanks for the info.. I havn't been using mystery steel though. I have been usin 01 and 1095. I have a belt grinder to get them to shape. Then I get a hot bed of coles going with a good draft in the stove. Each blade will stay in there for about 10 minutes give or take. Once they had been red hot for 5 minutes or so, I quench them in oil. After that I have been putting them in the oven for an hour at 400. The blades are harder than what I started with I know that. If this 01 is getting red hot, it's got to be closer to 1500 then not doesn't it?
Click to expand...

For O1, the "red hot" needs to be 1450F to 1500F for 10min. at that amount of "red hot"... evenly... end to end, top to bottom. It would be ideal, prior to heating to quench temp., to have the grain both equalized and refined. If you are doing that, you are "good to go".

Mike
 
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