Fast and slow quench list?

[John L]

Could someone please make a short list of the most commonly used oil quenched steels and tell me whether they are slow or fast and the appropriate quenchants. After the past few days reading this board I am confused. Thanks

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You will get a lot of opinions on this subject.The best way for a moderate level maker to go is to have two quenchants.A fast quench like Parks#50 and a medium quench like Parks AAA.You should have a large enough volume of oil to properly conduct the heat away from the steel,This is a minimum of 1 gallon,3-5 gal. is a real good size tank.The knife steels use in oil quenching are mostly medium quench .They would be O-1,5160,1080,1070,and most all non-stainless damascus. 1095,and the W series steels (for knives the "water quench" steels should be oil quenched) are candidates for the fast quench.
Stacy

 

[grease-man]

Be sure to pre-heat your oil to gain maximum performance though. I've noticed that if I don't pre heat it to about 140 degrees, or hot enough to stick my finger in for about 2 seconds, my oil can be a bit sluggish.

 

[Fox]

Here is a brief list I made up from data I had available or could readily find. Note that these are average quenching speeds based upon the GM Quenchometer tests. These come straight from the data sheets and are in order of speed from fastest to slowest. These are commonly available quenchants with speeds shown in seconds. Brownell's is the only product sheet I have detailing the speeds based upon oil temperature. The others showed a single speed. I did not have the data sheets for Parks products, so I placed them based upon commentary from others and similar physical properties, such as viscosity. If someone has the speeds for the Parks or other products, please post them and I will edit the post.


Parks/Heatbath #50 = Unknown
Exxon Fenso 90 = 8.6
Exxon Fenso 150 = 9.0
McMaster-Carr High Speed = 10.0
Brownell's Tough Quench @ 150 F - 10.0
Chevron/Texaco Quenchtex C = 10.5
Shell Voluta H302 = 10.7
Parks/Heatbath "AAA" = Unknown
Exxon Fenso M200A = 11.0
Brownell's Tough Quench @ 200 F - 11.0
Brownell's Tough Quench @ 100 F - 11.5
Parks/Heatbath #400 = Unknown
Shell Voluta H301 = 13.5
Chevron/Texaco Quenchtex B = 16.0
Exxon Fenso 250 = 17.2
Chevron/Texaco Quenchtex A = 20.0
McMaster-Carr Standard = 28.0
Shell Voluta H201 = 28.0
Shell Voluta VH401 = 34