Oil or Brine

S

sph0772

Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
33
:)Hey Folks,

New guy here I have a good question. Should I quench the knives I make from 1095 in oil or should I use the brine method? I have heard both. I tried two in the brine solution and they both cracked. It was sickening because they were gonna be cool knives.
 
Generally always go with oil between the two, if a preheated lightweight quench oil won't get your steel hard, then explore your options. Brine is faster than plain water! Also, are you forging or grinding your blanks? When forging, if you at least normalize to relieve internal stresses before rough grinding, cracks are less likely to happen. Sorry to hear about those two blades, that can be SO frustrating.
 
You need fast oil, if you don't have a good quench oil I would use brine. You don't have to quench after you grind.
 
Plain old room temperature canola oil works well for 1095.
 
Try using olive oil. Olive oil does a nice quench, and leaves your shop smelling like a good restaurant afterwards.
 
Fast, professional oil is what you want if you're trying to get a proper oil quench on 1095. It is a true water quench steel, brine works fine for us because of the thickness of our knives.

If you want to crack fewer blades and still use brine or water, you can through harden your blanks. 1095 will through harden with an un-ground blade blank.

An even easier solution is to use a deeper hardening, lower carbon 10xx series steel.

Don't take my word for it, do more research on the steel and see what comes up.
 
I have used brine on a few blades and it worked just find for me .
What i did was heat water to boiling and add salt until it would not dissolve any more then i added some more.
I heated to 1500 then held for 5 minutes then i plunged into the hot brine and out very fast then in to stay until cool and it got real hard.
P S this was 1095 hope this helps
 
Update.
I quenched in very hot water and when i said in and out and in that was done as fast as i could go but i am new to all of this and i don't have a good place to use oil because of fire good luck.
 
I have used Brine for years. Oil will not get the steel hard enough IMO. I put water on the stove with a thermometer. When it gets to a boil I add salt. I reduce the temperature until it gets to 190 degrees and remove it. It's ready to use. I can't explain why but it works better at that temp. Never had one crack yet. I have heared that agitating it helps as well but I have never tried this so I don't know.
Make sure you are using 1095. If you didn't buy it, but rather went to the junk yard to pick up material listed on junk yard steels chart, you may not have 1095 and that could be why it is cracking. Make sure you don't have edges where stress risers can form as well.
 
1095 will get hard enough to shatter like glass in canola oil! If your blades are not getting hard, then you aren't getting them hot enough.
 
Of those who say the various vege oils work, and those who use high temp water, or brine, how many of you have had a sample of your 1095 fully tested to see what it's condition acually is. Don't bother to tell me a file skipped over it, or it breaks like glass. Who among thee, have acually had it tested by a reliable tester? Just curious. Used to use it, but gave it up for 01, which when properly HTed gives noticably better performance.
 
In response to several of the replies. I know the steel is 1095HR because I ordered it from Admiral Steel and I forge my knives. I have used veg. oil with O1 and I am tempted on trying the veg oil with the 1095. Or maybe a combination of the oil and the brine. Need more insight.
 
1095 is also susceptible to grain growth from overheating. Just because the steel will shatter does not mean it's in an optimal form. Once again, take my advice however you see fit, but 1095 is not meant to be hardened in just any old oil.
 
AcridSaint said:
1095 is also susceptible to grain growth from overheating. Just because the steel will shatter does not mean it's in an optimal form. Once again, take my advice however you see fit, but 1095 is not meant to be hardened in just any old oil.
Click to expand...

I concur. This particular topic is about as travel-worn as they come. Please do a search in this forum, and you'll come up with countless threads with EXTREMELY well informed positions explaining the why's and how-to's, as well as the do's-and-dont's of quenching 1095.

With so many posts in this thread including ill-informed anecdotal evidence, I fear that much of the work put into Shoptalk during the last several years is being forgone for sloppy practice and tedious myths that just won't die.
 
If you, for some reason, don't want to go with Parks 50, Joe Szilaski uses Ford (Motorcraft) ATF for his 10xx steel.
 
Please remember that not all 10xx steel has the same quenching properties. There are indeed many good posts on this subject.
 
Teksec, AcridSaint, LRB and Matt... Thank you! I see no need to take up much of my time typing with your excellent points here. For this I am especially grateful since I simply had enough of Michigan winter and need to get on a boat soon for a second half of the day SCUBA diving the reefs here in Key Largo. I am not certain if the only reason I posted at all was to encourage the the sound advice or rub it in to any poor slobs who will be lighting the forge just to stay warm today:D!
 
..I was under the impression that each manufacturer of the steel has its own quenching guidelines and temp guides, no?
 
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