I've used both, honestly I like gas better but coal works good too. You just have to learn some fire management. Gas is fast and easy. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Coal is just a bit messy.
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You don't even need a kiln to temper, a regular oven or toaster oven will work fine. Now normalizing, annealing, austentizing is a different story, you either need a forge or kiln for that, depending on what steel you're using. Anything 1095 and below can be done fairly easily with good results in a forge.
The kiln is fully programmable. I can bring the temp up or down and hold at different temperatures for whatever times I want. Not sure what type of temps are needed for blade making but I know I can get up to 2000 degrees. It might go higher. I can't remember.
Not real big but big enough for just about any reasonable knife blade. Couldn't do a sword or anything.
Attachment 65931
Attachment 65932
Ruana Grand Bowie B9
Pretty snazzy looking toothpick. The sheath... Not so much. If you really like the knife you might consider having HBARLeatherneck make you a nicer sheath for it.
Picked this up today. Sharpened up very nicely and with little effort on my part.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Uo...=w1632-h918-no
I need to acquire a meat cleaver. Nice find Stu.