Brine for heat treat

I'm going to try treating a blade in brine.I have plenty of salt used for saltwater fish tanks.Would this work in a high enough concentration?

------------------
Failures are only Failures if we Fail to learn from them.
 
M

mikeS

Joined
Apr 7, 1999
Messages
1,015
What steel? Brine is faster than water, if you will not want to quench an oil hardening steel in it, ( warp,crack,Ping) I think salt is salt, dissolve the salt until it will not take anymore salt. Keep it in a covred plastic pail, and if I were you keep it outside the shop. I tried it, kept an uncovred bucket in the shop for a month,cleaned rust off of every tool in the shop for a year.

------------------
Why am I good enough to fix my mistakes, but not good enough to keep from making them in the first place?
 
I am not a knifemaker. However, it seems to me that the way that salt would affect the rate of cooling of a blade quenched in it is plain chemistry.

When you add a solute to a solvent, you get freezing point depression and boiling point elevation. Thus, adding salt to water would raise the solution's boiling point. I believe that heat would be removed from the blade more rapidly, as more heat from the blade would be required to boil the solution in contact with the blade.

You may wish to experiment with various concentrations of salt. This may yield different rates of heat transfer.

Walt
 
REBOS, I don't think sea water has as high of a concentration as some might like for brine quench. I usually measure out "a lot" to be scientific about it, kosher salt. I've heard Epson salts suggested as well, but I haven't used them. I use just enough so that there's a little bit on the bottom of the container. Make sure you heat it to around 150f before you quench, though. Thermal shock is a bad thing. It also holds more salt when it's warm.

------------------
Oz

"This is your life, and it's ending; One minute at a time."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 
I use a brine quench for H/T O-1 in my blades, It's worked quite well.
I have only cracked 2 or 3 blades, But I think that was because I was using a torch for heating... Has not happened sinceI got my H/T oven
smile.gif


My .o2$....canadian

Eric
cool.gif
 
Oh ya !! I know I've got enough in the soloution when a large Egg will float in it.
I use the salt that is used in the winter for clearing ice in my brine...

Eric
cool.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top