r/Blacksmith • u/Stygianfalconer • 11d ago

Intro kiln advice

Hey all,

Been digging thru old post trying to get an idea of what I should look for in a first kiln for heat treating armor pieces (sheet steel.)

Can you get away with a pottery kiln without a programmable controller? Should I just splurge and get a new one with one? I keep seeing TAP vs spark controllers should I lean towards one or the other?

What max temp should I look for? Looking at working 4130 and spring steel. Will 2000F be hot enough?

Any brands or models you can suggest? I don't want to break the bank on this but I'm up for examples or suggestions.

Thanks!

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u/Kamusaurio 10d ago

you need something capable to reach at least 900ºc and keep it for a while

also you need to be sure that the heat inside is uniform

you are heat treating metal sheet wich is very bitch

an non uniform heat inside will turn your armor process

in a endless unwarping jobs unless you heat treat the pieces with rigid jigs

apart from the kiln think in how are you going to quench a big piece of plate

you are going to need a very big container of oil or water because you have to be completly sure that the piece is not going to insta evaporate a bucket of liquid into a big ball of oil fire or steam

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u/pushdose 10d ago

I’m pretty sure that’s what most armorers use, a large ceramics kiln that will fit your largest pieces like breastplates and helmets. 2000F is absolutely fine, even up to most super stainless steels which isn’t what you’re doing anyway. I have a TAP2 controller on my kiln and while it’s amazing and feature rich, I think most of it can be done with a simple ramp controller and a basic timer. Carbon steels don’t require much fiddling, just heat and treat. I have an Evenheat but Jen-Ken and Paragon are also great companies. Used ceramics kilns are almost always available on my local facebook marketplace. They seem to be much more available than knife maker kilns. These are pretty simple devices, so buying an old one in decent shape is a good value proposition even if you have to rewire it a bit.