Good day members

I am contemplating the purchase of a hand held temperature meter...what temperature do I have to be able to measure while forging knifes? What temperature range are we looking at?

Regards

Gert

It depends on the steel, but say 1500 F to 2200 F for forging. Generally, your eyes will be as good as a hand held temperature meter. If you want to maintain your gas forge at a given temperature use a thermistor inside the forge. It will be much more accurate than a hand held at the same price point.

You'll find that the price goes way up as you get into the ability to measure the higher end of what you'll need to measure.  Most of those IR thermometers (I assume that's what you mean) top out well below the HT temps you would need to reach.

If you eventually get one, you'll also get one more surprise:  The temp of the blade-like part you are measuring drops incredibly quickly once you pull the part out of the heat.  You need to hit the quench a LOT faster than many people think.  No dwaddling.

I have a good industrial IR thermometer but it's range tops out at about 1500f so I have never used it for HT temp measuring.  Unless you are getting exotic, I'd personally stick to magnetic and visual cues, saving the IR thermometer (a cheaper one) for measuring stuff which can't really give you those cues like tempering.

Thank you for the reply, so it means keep it simple and practical...It then is an item I really do not need and need to keep to the basics.

Hi Gert, I've sent you an e-mail , we can get IR units that easily read up to 1650 degrees Celsius but you spend about $1200 plus the DHL cost plus duty plus Vat. Ie. Long bucks!

If you want you can 'play' with mine and compare to a 'K' type thermocouple in one of my forges when you next come around.

As you know I'm not really a 'knife maker'  so I'm pretty sure you don't need one(though its a nice to have) also Bowler Udderholm isn't that far from my place there you can buy 'all the exotics ' you may want and they do the heat treat as well.

Type K pyrometer is a lot cheaper, but if you don't know temp range you are looking for, are you ready to take this bladesmithing on?