Crisco for quench

Burchtree

Burchtree

KnifeMaker & Moderator
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Any of you use Crisco, or something similar for quenching blades? I'm currently using motor oil, but I think I need something a little lighter.
 
I use canola oil from Sam's Club. At $3.00+/gal. it is dirt cheap, clean and very low viscosity. It is about as light an oil as I have seen. I use it in a wide mouth gallon jar that I dip the blades in for an interrupted oil quench.
It even smells good.
 
Anything has to smell better than burning motor oil! I'm doing 1095 and 01 and the used motor oil isn't cutting it.
 
I sorta use Crisco,I use Goddard Goop, with recipe helpfully provided by XRAYED to give an idea of proportions.

40% shortening
40% parrafin
20% ATF


And if I remembered/made it wrong,t hen that's my version of Goddard Goops, not XRAYED's. :)
 
half crisco half veg oil. The crisco keeps the oil from sloshing and it has no saturated fat:rolleyes:
 
Any kind of cheap vegetable oil works o.k., it's what I use, but I don't know why plain solid shortening shouldn't work too. You mentioned 01 and 1095, are you talking about a damascus mix?
 
Thanks all - I guess I'll raid my pantry.

Silent -- no, just the two different steels I've been working with.
 
The Crisco should work for the O1, but 1095 is technically a water hardening steel that requires a super fast quench to maximize it. The O1 should get hard quenching in just about anything.
 
So, should I use saltwater to quench my 1095 to get the best results?
 
Hey, what do you mean burning motor oil smells like crap?;)

I use a 50/50 mix of 10W30 and ATF. It is cheap, just goto Miejers and buy the lowest cost stuff they have. I usually use my quench oil at room temp, eventhough it is not the best way. You should heat it up to the 110 to 140 range. By heating the oil, you lower the viscosity and it cools the steel quicker.

Now, just remember, with 1095 and other high carbon steels, all you are trying to do is get your temp below the nose of the TTT curve, after that you have around 15 minutes to get the temp down to room. The nose of the TTT curve is about 1000 deg f and .5 seconds.

The small amount of testing that I have done so far was to heat the 1095 to 1550 deg F, quench in 80 deg oil (50/50 mix), set on bench until at room, and then put in the freezer for 9 hours. My three test sample all came out to right around 64 HRC. Then did two 1.5 hour tempers at 350 deg F for a final hardness of 59 HRC.

The one test I did with my molten salt HT, I quenched in room temp water and the initial hardness was about 66 HRC. Eventhough 1095 is technically a water hardening steel, I don't thinck many would recommend that you use water as a quenchant. If you don't have all your forging/grinding, stresses removed, you will most likely get warped or cracked blades.

Just my $0.02, hope it helped.

Edited to add:

This might help you, well, it helps me anyway.:D

http://www.engr.ku.edu/~rhale/ae510/heattreat/sld001.htm
 
Let me clarify my last reply. 1095 is technically a water hardening steel as far as quench speed, but most bladesmiths do not recommend water quenches. Too much chance of cracking blades. There are special quenching oils that are very close to water in quench speed, without the risk of cracking blades. Kevin Cashen, ABS Mastersmith, once told me that the only thing water is used for in his shop is for drinking! :)
 
Automatic Transmission Fluid.

Works great as a component of the goop, or plain. I was using it plain before I went to the goop quench.

Oh yeah,a nd the goop, melt all that crap together, then pour it into pan to cool
 
I feel pretty dumb. I posted that, then went outside to smoke and realized what ATF stood for.

Now, I like to do edge quenching. Do I need to heat the "goop" up before the big dip?
 
I do, and Goddard suggests that. I can dig out the book later if you want his exact words, but he mentioned using a scrap piece of steel or smaller knives first to start warming up the goop before going to bigger knives.

I've only done one heat treating session since I changed to goop, but worked well this way.

Had about a 4" piece of scrap 440C that I heated up first, and slapped in the goop, this melted/warmed it up. Then went on the the 5" wharncliff at an edge quench and then to the bigger camp knife at an edge quench. But yes, you should warm it up first.
 
I use Cool Tool II. Works fantastically! Get the biodegradable version if you can. It's decent stuff, and is probably the finest quenchant I have used thus far.
 
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