Stainless Heat Treat for Beginners

[SLC_Blades]

Hey everyone. As the title suggests, I’d really love to start working with stainless and am wondering what the most effective heat treat options (for me) are.
Here are the options available to me:
-Adding a PID temp control to the forge I built (refrigerant tank forge with forced air propane burner, kaowool + satanite + ITC 100 insulation)

-Building an evenheat-type oven

-outsourcing my heat treating to a designated company

I’d love to be able to buy an evenheat but I just pulled the trigger on a pheer 454 so that isn’t an option currently.

Thanks!

 

[Ken H>]

#1: -outsourcing my heat treating to a designated company

#2: -Building an evenheat-type oven

#3: -Adding a PID temp control to the forge is where I think most folks will say this isn't a good idea at all.

 

[Larrin]

Choose between a heat treating furnace and sending it out. The choice is between:
1) having complete control over heat treatment and the primary costs being upfront, or
2) having relatively high costs per heat treatment (depending on the total number of knives you have heat treated in your life) but also having some knowledge that the heat treatment is being done "correctly."

 

[skillgannon]

If it's a number of knives it is far less expensive to send them out than do them yourself even if you have a oven. I just bought a oven but now I'm working through a blackstock of blades that I had planned to send out. Especially if you consider time sending out 20 or so blades is very inexpensive. If you use AEB-L that makes using stainless really inexpensive.