Dang! I'm frustrated!!!

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
5,786
Okay, so I think I know what the problem is, but I'd like some input. I recently started using O1, I don't think I hardened it fully in my quench. It got tempered, then I etched and found it was a mess. I brought to critical then air-cooled to black a few times, tried again, again didn't get it hard (haha). Did it a third time, same thing. Can I not normalize like on 10xx steels to "erase" the old heat treat? I also quenched a 1095 blade over the weekend and it, too, didn't harden. I was running low on the oil I've been using for years with good success, so I added a couple big globs of Crisco. I think what's happening is that I'm not getting my oil/goop mix hot enough to quench fast enough. Will that make or break the quench? I assume so. This is really frustrating. Now that I have my forge to help bring my heat up, I can't actually get anything to quench right. :grumpy:
 
The lower the temperature, the higher the viscosity, good for bearings, bad for quenching. you probably need to bite the bullet and buy more quench oil, or prepare to heat what you have a little hotter than you have.

There are 2 reasons to pre-heat a quenchant:

1 Thermal shock... less thermal shock is better

2. To reduce the viscosity of the quenchant to improve quench times, the law of diminishing returns comes into play here (like most things in life) but you can heat a little hotter than is "recomended" as long as it doesn't reduce the quench time too significantly.

And remember that different oils do different things at temperature!

Tony
 
Chiro,
Forget the crisco!!! Go get a couple of quarts of transmission fluid. Its fast enough to harden the O-1 and the 1095 although you may notice a "temper line" in blades over 3/16 in the 1095. If you're still having trouble I can do them for $5 a blade plus ship.
Del
www.ealyknives.com
 
I've always used vegetable oil and it's always worked for me. The only thing I've done differently is add the crisco, which is just hydogenated vegetable oil. I must not be getting it hot enough. I like it because when it cooks off in the oven it doesn't stink! I'm going to give it one more shot with my junk and get it good and hot, and if it doesn't work this time then I'll switch to transmission fluid and have a go at it. Thanks for the tip! I also doubled my volume of oil that I'm using, so I think I'm just not used to how much heat it takes to get it up to speed. Every time I change something in my process I go back a step. That's why I just stick with what I do and try not to mess with my formula too much! :rolleyes:
 
First, take one of those little blue pills for yourself, then add the tranny fluid to your oil. Seriously, the tranny fluid has a high % of detergent in it and works pretty good. I saw a sludge mix that was used for a differential quench that consisted partly of bacon grease, believe it or not. I'm not sure which knife publication it was in, but the stuff worked really good for the guy. Your idea of adding the Crisco actually wasn't that far off base, Chiro. Good luck, I got faith in ya.
 
Wayne mixed up a bunch of different stuff that would solidify when cool so when he travelled to do a demo he wouldn't have to worry about his quench tank spilling, especially if he was driving his wifes car.

Preheating to 130-150 is good and having a large enough volume of oil to absorb the heat from the blade....Take Care...Ed
 
First, are you getting the blade hot enough? Remember critical temp for most high carbon steels is just a little above non-magnetic.
 
I think I'm getting it there, Will. It's non-magnetic all through the blade, and then I move it around in the forge for a long 10- count, then quench right away.
 
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