Quote:
Originally Posted by KevBooth
From a completely metallurgical stand point, safety issues aside, why would a guy buy an oven over a salt bath? I get the tempering thing that could be done in a conventional oven, but besides that? Is there any other advantages of an oven over a salt bath?
Thanks
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I had many differences immediately come to mind, but when I include your qualifier of from a completely metallurgical standpoint, the list of differences narrows quite a bit. The steel only knows heat, it doesn?t care what the source is. Atmospheric shielding is one metallurgical factor, but it can be taken off the table if the oven has an argon purge. The main factor left on the table is speed and evenness of heating. Liquid salts are highly conductive and will transfer heat much more quickly than an oven, this will have various metallurgical effects. And, of course, evenness of heating, accomplished by the convective and conductive salts can be a distinct advantage.
Setting the metallurgical effects aside, for the average knifemaker the cost, expense, upkeep and safety considerations makes ovens very attractive compared to salts. With the aforementioned argon purge, a good oven could hold its own against salts at typical knifemaking tasks, when compared to the hassles and complications of salts.