call it scrap and claim it as experience

R

Random Mutant

Joined
Oct 18, 2001
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You can see the results of my first attempt at quenching 1095 here. (warning: large file) On the plus side, it got hard except for a few millimeters in front of the choil, but the downside is the huge crack, about where the water level was. Next time I think I will try oil, and a full immersion.
Does anyone have any tips or reccomendations about quenching 1095? What is the best quenching medium?
 
My first suggestion is to never use water. Not even holy water. Always use brine, and light oil works almost as well. The only time I go with brine now is if I'm doing a japanese heat treat, and it absolutely positively HAS to have zero retained austentite. I break almost as many as not when I do them like that, though.
My second suggestion is to heat the quench medium, no matter what it is. Brine I heat to boiling and let it sit for a few, oil, I heat a bit less because of the flammability factor. Heating them lowers the possibility of thermal shock, and increases the viscosity of oils, giving a faster quench.
Hope this helps.
 
Don't scrap it,just regrind it smaller.It sounds like the water was too cool.For 1095 I use oil warm to 110-120 degrees.Never have cracked one.Dave
 
I'm not an expert here, but from what physics laws are, brine is a harsher quench than water.
Salt increases density of water, so it increases it's heat capacity, and raises it's boiling point, thus reducing the steam jacket that surrounds the blade immediately after it's submerged in water protecting it.
After all superquench is just a saturated solution of salt in water with added tensoactive substances like dishwasher soap to make so the quench wets the blade even better and to totally eliminate the bubbling jacket.
 
I always use room temp. water but make sure you treat only once and if you do try again make sure you anneal first. I also treat before i gring that way if it does crack its not a total loss. Oil suks for 1095. Just my experience,very limited. also did you anneal the file before you tried to harden it?
 
But faster isn't always harsher. I switched to brine from the writings of Hrisoulas and Engnath, and it cut down my number of broken blades by about half for japanese heat treats. I wish I could say why that is, but I don't have my books in front of me at the moment. Engnath addresses it only briefly, but Hrisoulas went into some depth, as I recall. The quench seems much more even with brine.
If I'm not trying to make a pretty yakiba, I go with olive oil.
 
This was done by stock removal on HR 1095, 1/8"x1" stock. I didn't anneal before heat treating, as I only barely have the facilities for even that. I did it with a propane torch and a bed of burning charcoal.
I have some old motor oil, should my next try be with that, brine, or water?
 
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