There are lots of Arduino projects to read temperature with different devices, this is an easy one to measure high temperatures with type K thermocouples (1300ºC).
Skills necessary for this project are basic (buying max IC already mounted) but I have mount an MAX31855 in a printed circuit (thanks to Antonio an specialist in this).
With this hand held instrument, is possible to have an accurate temperature reading and also display cold junction temp (ambient temp) in Celsius an Fahrenheit units by pressing a switch. That is not all, if you connect the Arduino board to a computer or recorder its possible to record CJ, TC and binary fault codes.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Type-K-temperature-indicator/