Fast quench in the St. Louis area?

[jwesthurl]

Hi everybody, I know this is a longshot but simply asking has worked for me before...is there a St. Louis area knife maker that would be willing to part with a gallon of fast quench oil? I would pay for it of course, I just can't order 5 gallons at the moment. I've been venturing into heat treating simple carbon steels and I've been using canola oil but I have some 1095 that I want to try myself. I thought about just brine quenching but with my limited shop time I'd like to keep blade loss to a minimum.

If that doesn't pan out would it be dumb to ask a local heat treat shop if they would sell me some?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Normally, canola will be fast enough for 1095. The deal with 1095 HT is mainly in getting a fairly exact austenitization temp and holding it precisely there for ten minutes. 1095 is not a good torch HT steel, and requires a well controlled forge and a good bit of skill to do right without an oven. Many people think they did OK with backyard HT methods, but are amazed when they see how hard 1095 can get when fully austenitized and properly quenched.

Several knife supply companies, as well as places like Brownell's sell HT oil by the gallon.

 

[jwesthurl]

Thanks Stacy, that's good to know. I have a small burn out oven that can get to the appropriate temps and stay there. I guess I'll give canola a try until I can get some quench oil.