Canola oil advantages

Tai Goo

Tai Goo

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As it pertains to a quenching medium for steel.

#1. Low price
#2. Great availability
#3. High flash point
#4. High smoke point
#5. No vapor jacket or vapor stage
#6. High speed at the onset of the quench
#7. Finishes slow
#8. High stability compared to other common vegetable oils
#9. Less sensitive to temperature variation than are the parrafinic oils
#10. Non toxic and relatively safe to use

Can you think of any others?

Quote:
“Overall, the cooling properties of the vegetable oils were comparable to each other and it is notable that only convective cooling was obtained with no extended vapor blanket cooling (film-boiling). This cooling profile shows that vegetable oils would not require a cooling rate accelerator and would be acceptable even for difficult to harden, crack-sensitive carbon steels.” VEGETABLE OIL QUENCHANTS: CALCULATION AND COMPARISON OF THE COOLING PROPERTIES OF A SERIES
OF VEGETABLE OILS
 
As a current canola oil user (since I work in 1080) I'll add that if you keep some extra around it's handy for the kitchen when you realize you're out of your usual cooking oil. That works in reverse too, if you usually use a small tank and needed more on short notice it's a common kitchen item, keeping an extra gallon around is not a waste.

I'm still planning to try that commercial quench oil that got discussed recently, just have to wait till it's in the knife budget. From the sounds of it there's a significant performance improvement and that's always worth exploring if the cost is practical.
 
11. It works

This is a picture of my my set up (taken off my website):

IMG_1314.jpg
 
Thanks Tai

I tried some this weekend. Now I gonna build one of those Weed Burner Forges :)
 
Remyrw said:
I'm still planning to try that commercial quench oil that got discussed recently, just have to wait till it's in the knife budget. From the sounds of it there's a significant performance improvement and that's always worth exploring if the cost is practical.
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced that there is a "significant" improvement in “performance” with other commercial fluids... or any improvements at all.

For one thing, there are variety of ways to evaluate performance based on personal preferences, ideals and parameters. As an example: long term performance vs. short term performance.

Try the commercial fluid, just out of pure curiosity,... or don't.

I keep wanting to say,... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You might break it trying to fix it...
 
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Sage Advice: "I keep wanting to say,... if it ain't broke don't fix it."

12. Buy hype free
 
GOOD POINT!

"14. I think it smells better than most.

Reminds me of diner time..."
 
I'm having a hard time believing the "no vapor jacket" bit. I used canola oil for a long time and had no problems with it. I will say that when I switched to an engineered oil, my "as quenched" HRC went up and became much more consistant.... I also experienced less warpage.

Adding vitamin E to your canola oil will prolong its lifespan by reducing oxidation. You can buy those gelcaps and squeeze 20-30 into 5gal of oil.

Peanut oil smells much better, too......... yum yum.


Rick
 
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Rick here's a quote from the same article:

"Cooling curve analysis showed that similar cooling profiles were obtained for the different vegetable oils. Interestingly, no film boiling or transition nucleate boiling was observed with any of the vegetable oils and heat transfer occurs only by pure nucleate boiling and convection. High-temperature cooling properties of vegetable oils are considerable faster than that observed for petroleum oil-based quenchants"

... No vapors,.. just a little smoke.
 
Rick Marchand said:
I'm having a hard time believing the "no vapor jacket" bit. I used canola oil for a long time and had no problems with it. I will say that when I switched to an engineered oil, my "as quenched" HRC went up and became much more consistant.... I also experienced less warpage.

Adding vitamin D to your canola oil will prolong its lifespan by reducing oxidation. You can buy those gelcaps and squeeze 20-30 into 5gal of oil.

Peanut oil smells much better, too......... yum yum.


Rick
Click to expand...

Vitamin D or Vitamin E ???
 
I think there are some natural oil stabilizers, like sandalwood oil and a few others. Sandalwood is also known for it's aroma.
 
It is important to differentiate between vapor (boiling) and smoke. Apparently vegetable oil doesn't boil, any more than wood melts. It will smoke a little though. According to the literature, the vegetable oil has a higher heat transfer during the initial portion of the quench because the paraffinitic oil is still boiling and has a vapor jacket.

I'm not saying one is a better quench than the other, just clarifying the vapor jacket thing as I read it.
 
The particular commercial oil in question was giving folks a few extra hardness points without chipping or other brittleness issues. You had to adjust your temper of course, but it was harder without any apparent penalty. It wasn't hard enough you got into the realm of difficult to sharpen or requiring special tools, just a little harder than canola oil would achieve with 1080 and 1084. Personally I don't think this shows that canola oil isn't a GOOD quench medium for these steels, just that another option could do a better job. I still put the improvement behind things like proper edge geometry, not over or under heating during the thermal cycles, appropriate blade and handle design...

Back to canola, +1 for the smell, it's a fairly nice smell.
Another +1 for environmentally friendly and easy recycling. A big advantage over many other options in my book.
 
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