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Adding argon to any oven is fairly cheap and easy to do. All you need is a regulator and eBay usually has lots of them. Argon could shorten the life of the heating coils unless you break them in first and that too is easy to do. Heck, considering the convenience of not having to use foil or anti-scaling compounds I personally wouldn't care if it did shorten the life of my elements a little.
But, argon does not prevent all scaling and therefore I only recommend it to those willing to do their grinding post heat treat. I prefer post HT grinding because it means I can get a profiled blade into HT very quickly and not have to waste further time on it if for any reason the HT fails (blade warps or cracks or fails to harden properly). Post HT grinding seriously reduces the chance your blade will warp (often caused by uneven grinding). Another benefit is that you will be certain of grinding off any decarbed steel on your way to the final blade shape. Like argon, post HT grinding isn't for everybody but if you can do it , it can streamline and speed up your process to a finished knife ...
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