??poor mans quench??

bodfish, Good job, it appears that you have a good understanding of the process.
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Also, soak times at the correct temperature are in fact important, as you need to give the steel time to fully transform to martensite before you quench it. It you have the ability to maintain your forge temperature accurately, a ten minute soak seems to be adequate for the transformation to complete (at least with the carbon steels I use).
 
Wow guys i really wanna thank all of you for all the advise i got a books worth of info to sift thru. no better people then the people here on this forum. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!
 
Pupa, thank you!
The Battelle Memorail Institute published a book in 1941 "Prevention of the Failure of Metals Under Repeated Stress".
It is still occasionally available in used book outfits.
The information is very enlightening. The refferences in the back of the book provide enough reading and experiments for a livetime.
You will readilly observe that what is accepted knowledge always excludes a lot of learning.
 
While it may appear that there are many obvious answers, I assure there are very few absolute rules. If you chose to follow absolute rules you limit your future learning. There are probable consequences, but do not be afraid to question.
In 1941 the Battelle Memorial Institute wrote a book. "Prevention of the Failure of Metals Under Repeated Stress". It was written for the US Naval air command in hopes of saving some pilots from planes falling apart.

The material in the book points out the failure of what was and some of what still is 'accepted knowledge'.

The last of the book is filled with refferences and data that will leave you with enough reading material for a life time.
sorry for the double post, got lost for a time!
 
This question comes up far too often and always degrades into a mess. Might I suggust someone (who knows more than I) condense the various oils, what is known and unknown, the pros and cons and include a bit on alternate quenches then sticky the result so when someone asks we can say "go here" and not get into this mess every other month?


Just for the record, I use veggie oil and I doubt spending lots of money I don't have on quench oil will improve my blades. Before you get your undies in a bunch let me say the I heat treat using a charcoal (or sometimes coal) forge with a hand crank blower judging critical by eye and magnet and testing with a file for hardness. With this many hard to repeat consistantly variables, ONE known controlled variable just isn't likely to make a hill of beans difference. And since my knifes outperform anything I've used with the exception of some old (as in handmade before the age of specific quench oils), for now I'm happy. One day I do want to try quench oils but I don't forsee haveing the money to spare for a few years.

ron
 
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