[samuraistuart]

David, you've helped me come to a firm conclusion on how much more time I am going to take to offer advice on these forums.

I will say this, most every single question you posted, they mirrored my own when I started heat treating knives. My goal was the best heat treat possible with the equipment I have, and immediately got in touch with Kevin Cashen. When I put forth the exact same questions to him.....his reply was, "You are overthinking this."

Just reading now a reply Kevin gave some time ago, slow ramp to heat is only needed in instances where 1. the piece is of complex shape (not a knife) or 2. the piece is large (not a knife)....from "Tool Steel Simplified" by Palmer and Luerssen.

Ask just about ANY knife maker who does their own heat treating, no name guys like me all the way up to Bob Kramer or Murray Carter, and on simple alloys like 1095, it is BEST to pre heat the kiln. In addition to excess decarb, as well as the best microstructure (no I am not talking grain "growth"), you may have a problem with the kiln over heating when it hits 1475 on the readout. Some kiln will overshoot that by 100F or more. Then what? It is BEST to place the blade in a kiln that has been pre heated at your target temp....and even let the kiln sit at that temp for a few minutes in order for it to stabilize the internal temp.

The ONLY "low alloy" carbon tool steel that I would recommend a slower ramp would be A2. In that case, due to the alloying of Cr especially, pre heat kiln to 1400, equalize insert blade, ramp up to 1750 AFAP, soak 20-30 minutes, quench. Even then....we don't put the blade in the cold kiln. We're putting it in at 1400.
I wish you good luck with your 1095 heat treat.