heatbath corp.

John - I contacted them and went round and round with them for weeks. The owner does not like to deal with small timers (like us). He hit me with a $100.00 minumum order + shipping - said I should take a gamble on the oil that was easiest for him to procur (what he had on hand)- not the oil that would be best for me. I decided that the oil he wanted me to buy (what he had in stock in Springfield, MA) would not work for me. It turns out to be a fast oil used for 1095 (Ontario uses it on their 1095 knives).

As you can see from their products list:

http://www.heatbath.com/productt.htm

They have a very interesting line of products. The AAA is the oil Ontario uses for 1095. The 50 and 100 are slower. The Vacuum quench is also a possibility. The good news is that their tech person "tony" in Detroit is very nice and moe than happy to help. (The owner is the only one to stay away from). We worked for some time finding a match for Texaco Type "A". He also gave me a number of a rep who may be more helpful. I am going to contact him in the near future. My original game plan was to have some Type "A" by spring (by then I will be also forging some 1084 and 5160). I as also going to try and get some of the heatbath products and do some tests.

I believe they are mineral oil based and with the variety of oils and techical inforthey have, I suspect there may be a chance for substitute for Tex Type "A".

John - since we live close together, we should see about us and some others getting a variety of their oils , sharing the expense and doing some testing. I was going to post these findings a couple weeks ago, but got sidetraked.

Bob
 
Bob,

I'm all about sharing. At Ashokan, Dan Maragni and a few others said Heatbath in Springfield would deal in small quantities. Dan is the one who set up both Ontario and Cold Steel's heat treating for carbon steels. I think the 50 is what is used on 1095 because it approaches the speed of water without the thermal shock. The AAA is likely to be closer to Texaco A, i.e., a bit slower and more suitable to steels like 5160 and 52100, which have higher hardenability and can thus harden with a slower oil. I'd like to buy a five gallon container of each. We'll see.

John
 
John - You may want to check first with Tony (the tech guy) in Detroit (313-895-7215). He said he set up Ontario with AAA, but also that AAA semed to be popular with knifemakers. I called Ontario to confirm this. He gave me three oils based on quenching speed from slowest to fastest as: 50, Vacuum and then AAA. Then again - I'm trying to decipher my notes!

The AAA is about $6.00 a galllon and they have it in Springfield. Like I said, the minumum order is $100.00. I would be willing to take 5 gallons. The other oils have to come from Detriot & would incur shipping costs. Springfield deals mostly in coating, while the Detroit office is where the oils come from.

Another guy to talk to is an outside rep that Tony gave me - said he would be a good guy to deal with. His name is Michael Holland. His # is 781-710-5055 (which I think is a cell phone #). I think testing all their applicable oils on 10x and 5 series would be interesting

Bob
 
Thanks Bob,

$6.00 a gallon sounds great, especially compared to $12.00 for mineral oil and $19.00 for Brownell's Tough Quench.

On the 50 vs. AAA, I'm just going with what I remember from Ashokan and the info. on their website. Really doesn't matter since I want some of both:)

John
 
Hey John - Yer right, 50 is the fast stuff. I think Tony (if I read my notes right) had 100 and Vaccum as slower. We used the Texaco spec sheet for A, B an C to do the comparison.

Anyway I got a proposal I'm e-mailing to you. I did try e-mailing you once before though and it didn't go through - let me know

Bob
 
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