The KnifeDogs™ Knife Makers Oven with Sentinal TouchXpress

 

We partnered with Paragon to design and produce a low-cost, good-quality knife makers oven built in the USA.

• Paragon Sentinel touch XPRESS controller (Genesis Mini)
  
• This oven has a chamber 14” deep, 8” wide, and 4” tall.
• The overall size of the oven is 14” wide, 25” deep, and 15.5” tall.
• The maximum Temperature on this oven is 2200F. A typical K thermocouple is located on the center back wall of the chamber.
• Side swing door on a heavy-duty hinge.
• NEMA 6-15P 15amp 250v plug. You may need to change this plug to match your 240-volt outlet.
•  Electrical requirements are 1 phase, 240-volt, at 9amps.
• Coils are standard Paragon and we will carry replacements.
• Fused circuit.
• Weight is 70lbs

 This is ramp speed (how fast a temperature should climb- usually wide open), a short equalizing soak( somewhere around 1450F for a few minutes), and then up to austenitizing temperature. It is held there for a few minutes to maybe 30 minutes, then the knife is taken from the oven and quenched. This controller is all you need. It has an audible alarm when you hit your quench temperature so you can watch it to pull the knife out for the quench. The controller shows you the oven temperature and time in the recipe during your heat treatment.

Don’t think we skimped on quality though. The oven has a heavy gauge steel wrapper around 2.5” thick firebricks. We minimized the electronics, not the quality of the unit. A powder coating provides a long-lasting and resilient finish.

Shipping weight is 70-80lbs, shipped FedEx. Currently, we are shipping only to the USA. (International customers, if you have a freight forwarder that you have experience with we can work with you.)

If you're a knife maker on a budget, this affordable unit is the perfect solution for heat-treating almost any type of steel.

Why not just use a toaster oven for tempering? You can and many guys do. The issue with toaster ovens is there is no mass to hold the heat to moderate the temperature changes as it heats and cools around your target temperature. The size also is an issue. You want to be a couple of inches away from the heat source. The elements are going to be a couple of thousand degrees as they heat up. Heat-treating ovens work by heating "full blast" until the target temperature is reached and then they cycle off. (some high-end digital controller ovens operate differently). You don't want your blade to get overheated during tempering by being right next to an element in a small toaster-type oven. The heavy mass of a firebrick oven help minimizes the temperature cycles and exposure to overheating.

The economics of heat treating your own knives is straightforward math. If you are producing 20 knives a year and send them out for heat treating at $15 a knife, your annual cost is $300. The straight math doesn’t tell the whole story though. When you have your own oven, your production will go up and your turnaround time will drop by several weeks. Caution: This oven, like nearly all heat-treating ovens, has exposed heating elements. Turn off the oven before adding or removing any material. It's important to take care when handling metal knives near electrically charged oven elements. Accidental contact can be extremely dangerous and may even result in a potentially fatal electrical shock. Please be cautious and stay safe.