A plate quench question...

[galadduin]

I've made a batch of knives out of my 5 mm and 3 mm RWL32 stock. Some have very significant distal tapers which are full tangs: 4.5 mm at ricasso 1 mm at the tip and butt. I put them in foil and heat them to 1060 C and soak at least 20 mins, quench between Al plates with pressured air flow. Do I have to worry about the parts that are not in contact with the plates?

As this is originally oil quenching steel is there a method to quench them in oil with SS foil??

 

[AcridSaint]

RWL-34 will air harden, you don't have to worry about the plates not touching all of the blade as far as hardening is concerned. Since they are already ground, you may want to check for warping before the plates have cooled the steel beyond plastic phase.

I don't know about oil quenching it, I've never done that.