Small Forge For Heat Treating Carbon Steel

Hawk45

Hawk45

Joined
Jan 28, 2005
Messages
2,154
Hey everyone, long time no post. Took a few years off from the hobby, but getting back into things. I have about 30 profiles in 1095 I want to heat treat. In the past I used Peter's Heat Treating, which are awesome to deal with, but for best pricing I've had to send in bulk knives. Then there is the planning, shipping, waiting.

I'm trying to get more into working one knife at a time and want to start doing my own heat treats, so if I have the flow going I want to be able to knock an idea out maybe in a day, instead of having to wait months to get back to it. Being it's carbon (1095) and I don't want to sink $1500+ into an oven, I was going to do a propane forge. Now I'm on the fence of doing a DIY or buying one ready to go. Most of my knives are under 6" blade length (11" overall), but I do like to do some choppers that are up to 11" blade length (17" overall). I've been thinking just a horizontal round forge w/ wool that is 12" in length should be sufficient. Again, not doing any true forging or forge welding, just heat treating.

As mentioned the DIY option is on the table. Have a list of parts to build the burner, get the wool, etc, but stuck on what to use for the shell. Most of the smaller forges seem to have 5" interiors. I'm planning on using 2" of wool, so I'd need a 9" dia pipe or tube of some sort. What would you recommend?
* I suck at welding but have a buddy that is pretty good.

If I go the purchase option, what do you recommend? Most of the ones I see have the burners pointing straight down instead of sideways to create a swirl. Is this a concern for heat treating? Would putting a secondary pipe/tube in the forge as a "hot spot" insulator be recommended?

Would a single burner be enough for just HT needs in a 12" x 5" chamber?

Thanks for answering all my questions. Good to be back getting dirty.
Cheers all.
Hawk.
 
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A single burner will work fine.

You can use a piece of stove pipe or ductwork for the shell if you can't get a piece of 9-10" pipe. Many other round things will work. It does not need to be heavy or thick. You can roll up a piece of 20 gauge sheet metal and rivet it together. There will be someone who will caution you not to use galvanized metal, but as a sheelit will be fine (and the stories about it being deadly/poisonous are not true). Even aluminum will work.

Another option is to weld together four pieces of 1/8" plate to make a square or rectangle shell. Pit a 3" wide piece of wool in each corner before putting in the rolled up piece for the lining. That will give you a more-or-less round or oval chamber. A little extra satanite will make it smoother.

Places like High Temp Tools and Refractory sell all the needed materials and pipe shells.

For a ready made unit check out Atlas Forges.
http://www.atlasknife.com/
 
I have a Atlas style propane forge I hand built that's maybe 80% completed before I switched gears and built an oven. I would get rid of it dirt cheap if someone could put it to good use

After realizing that I would need to add a muffle pipe and for some accuracy a thermacouple/ temp display . I just pulled the trigger on a DIY heat treat oven and have about $350-$400 invested and not one regret.
 
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Hawk45 said:
@Jax knives , what DIY plans did you follow for your oven build? Tried to PM you but wasn't able. Thanks
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No plans I just modeled it from a Atlas style forge. It's built/welded from 3/16" plate steel and lined with high temp ciao wool and coated with imperial high temp morter.

The chamber dimentions are 4"×4"×10". I built the burner from one of the hundreds of YouTube instructionals. It has a 2" rear opening with a flip plate/closer. A removable front plate with 3" front opening with a flip plate.

My intention was to make a removable muffle tube that would slide in the front and stick through the rear hole and bolt in with a thermacople in the end of the muffle tube. I was going to use an inexpensive Automotive EGT sensor and digital gauge for simplicity.

The more I learned/read I wanted to have better control and accuracy and be able to heat treat tool steel/stainless. I decided to abort the project and build a DIY pid controlled oven.

my cell is 417 489 3201 you can call and I will txt you some pics if interested.
 
Thanks J Jax knives I may take you up on that. I just started looking at DIY PID oven builds too. I'm a glutton for never ending projects. I'll have to think about the options out there. Cheers!
 
Hawk45 said:
Thanks J Jax knives I may take you up on that. I just started looking at DIY PID oven builds too. I'm a glutton for never ending projects. I'll have to think about the options out there. Cheers!
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I built a forge using a 5 gallon air tank as a shell which gives me a 5” diameter chamber after the wool was put in about 12” long, you can buy them new for like $25 at menards or harbor freight. Not sure what part of Ohio you are in but my shop is in northern Kentucky if you ever wanted to drive down to see how the forge is setup you would be more than welcome. I want to say it cost me $150 to build with ordering the wool and refractory from high temp tools.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
I built a forge using a 5 gallon air tank as a shell which gives me a 5” diameter chamber after the wool was put in about 12” long, you can buy them new for like $25 at menards or harbor freight. Not sure what part of Ohio you are in but my shop is in northern Kentucky if you ever wanted to drive down to see how the forge is setup you would be more than welcome. I want to say it cost me $150 to build with ordering the wool and refractory from high temp tools.
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Thanks Joshua. I'm just across the river in Cincinnati. I'll take you up on that offer when I get some free time.
 
Hawk45 said:
Thanks Joshua. I'm just across the river in Cincinnati. I'll take you up on that offer when I get some free time.
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Awesome, your quite a bit closer than I though I’m only 15 minutes from Cincinnati. Let me know when you have some free time and if you wanted to bring some blanks with you we could heat treat them. I have parks 50 setup to be able to ht 1095.
 
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