Big change pending at my shop

[Bob Warner]

I've been cleaning out the shop and getting it ready to be used again. It turned into a convenient place to put things over the last 10 month that it was not used. It is taking forever but I am almost done.

I decided to try playing with the forge. I fired it up and started forging but very quickly I learned that it was a bad idea. It took only a couple of minutes before my leg decided to make me stop. After ten months, I still can?t stand in one place more than a couple minutes before it starts to hurt. I could not even get the steel forged into any kind of shape before I had to quit.

After thinking about it for a few days now I think I am going to make a big change in how I do things. I think I will have better luck and get more done if I change to stock removal stainless and stop forging.

I put all my forging equipment and steel up for sale and hope to get enough to buy a heat treat oven. Already got a guy coming to look at my anvil tomorrow for $200 (it's a start).

Can anyone advise me on what oven to look for? It will need digital controls. Cash will be a major factor. Hate to get rid of my forges, anvil and the other stuff but sometimes the path to where we want to be needs to be redefined.

If I can make this happen I'll be back on the road to knifemaking, if not I may have to take a break for a pretty long time.