1084 Quench Oil Question

I use the full five gallons. There's no such thing as too much quenchant. 😀

I have, in fact, drained my oil on occasion and gotten the garbage that collects out of the bottom, but certainly not with any regularity. When I did drain it, I used one of those paper funnels with the mesh strainer in the bottom - worked great. The oil looks exactly the way it did when I first bought it.
Should I state unequivocally that it's not altered in some way by the PBC and satanite? I guess not, as I've never had it tested, however my results from beginning to now are unchanged...

If I end up roaching the oil, I'd gladly, willingly, IMMEDIATELY order a replacement five gallons and would pay whatever it cost to replace it. I've never managed to understand why people hesitate to spend the money on something that simply can't be replicated any other way. We chase windmills looking for comparable alternatives, wasting time and energy, when the correct answer is only a few dollars away. Makes more sense to me to use a steel that doesn't need this oil than to use steels that need it and try to find a way to avoid the proper tool to heat treat it!
 
Matt, thanks for the insight on filtering the Parks 50. That has been on my mind lately. What were we just talking about the other day...on the same page...? I agree, when I bought and started using the Parks oil....I wondered what in the world I was doing without it. $95 plus shipping? Any time, baby.

About the concern of the amount of time it takes to move the knife from the forge/heat treat oven to the quench medium. You should do it as fast as you can, but when you read heat treat data that says (let's use 1095) 1095 has less than one second to be quenched....what that means is the quenching medium you have chosen has less than one second to go from austenitized steel to under the pearlite nose. That "less than one second" refers to the oil's job in cooling the steel...not the time it takes to go from forge to quench in movement. How much time do you actually have to go from heat to oil....that is going to be the same for any oil/water quench steel.....as fast as you can. But it's not like you have only one second...or two seconds. How long is too long probably depends on initial aust temperature, geometry of steel, ambient temp, humidity, elevation, the rotation of the Earth, which side of the bed you woke up on, you get the idea. Just in case...to clarify that.
 
I'm going to pick up a bucket but I plan on putting about 2.5 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket and putting some bricks or something as filler to bring the level up to the top but leave the center of the bucket clear of said debris so I can quench a knife as deep as the bucket is tall and still have an extra 2.5 gallons left. This until I get my welders online and make a vertical pipe that will allow for longer blades.

You guys see any issues with that? I imagine 2.5 gallons is enough volume to get the job done on several knives in succession without heating up to much.
 
I use 2.5 gallons myself. The other 2.5 is saved for future use. Not an issue doing a few blades. Any more than 3-4 chef's size knives might need more volume, because the temperature of the oil will be higher after a few quenches. I really couldn't tell you how many quenches is too many for 2.5 gallons....but I would think maybe 5 chef's knives max could be quenched fairly rapidly after each other before raising the temp of the oil too much to start messing with your heat treat parameters. Maybe someone with more experience with multiple quenching can chime in as to how many is too many. Size of knife being quenched being one variable.
 
Thanks for the additional info and thoughts. I agree that using something designed for the purpose makes a lot of sense.

I appreciate the explanation on the 1 second timeframe. Will keep me from potentially trying to go too quickly and bungling it.
 
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