I've read about people using foil jackets with a bit of paper to burn off any oxygen for heat treating stainless steel and I was wondering if people have tried things along the same line but bigger?
for instance could you use a pipe with one end caped off and inserted into a gas forge with some newspaper inside to create a reducing indirectly heated environment for heat treating? a little more controlled than the direct blast of a gas furnace. would coal dust or a clean burning charcoal work better than paper? maybe even a short blast of shielding gas and a hinged lid to have a relatively inert environment?
I'm interested because back in the early days I did a little bronze casting in my furnace and after a spill or two it's a pretty contaminated environment once it gets up to heat. it's mostly cleaned out but with out replacing the insulation I can't quite get the last traces out and it scales real bad and interferes with forge welding. I was also hoping indirect heating would make it easier to control temperature for soaks.
for instance could you use a pipe with one end caped off and inserted into a gas forge with some newspaper inside to create a reducing indirectly heated environment for heat treating? a little more controlled than the direct blast of a gas furnace. would coal dust or a clean burning charcoal work better than paper? maybe even a short blast of shielding gas and a hinged lid to have a relatively inert environment?
I'm interested because back in the early days I did a little bronze casting in my furnace and after a spill or two it's a pretty contaminated environment once it gets up to heat. it's mostly cleaned out but with out replacing the insulation I can't quite get the last traces out and it scales real bad and interferes with forge welding. I was also hoping indirect heating would make it easier to control temperature for soaks.
