- Joined
- Jun 11, 2006
- Messages
- 8,651
One aspect of my knife making that i have been working on is Quality of Repeatability or Repeatability of Quality how ever you want to look at it. I hate the guessing game, what is this material? how fast do i need to quench it, what to temper it at. it just really sucks if you ask me. now if your just having fun and playing around then thats one thing, but my time is very important. and for this reason is why i only use steel that i know what it is.I don't really care where it came from as long as i know what it is, be it a leaf spring or rail road track or a block of A2. I know others have there opinions about this and thats just fine by me, its just how i like to do things. So i have been going over my shop and trying to adjust things so i can get good repeated Quality. you know i have a sweet KMG clone, a PID controlled horizontal and vertical forge, a small hydraulic forging press and other tools that allows me to recreate the quality i want. but then i notices a huge gaping hole in my quest for Quality control and i hate to say it but i must. its my quenching liquid, 
:foot:. I have some mineral oil and some real thin oil thats like transformer oil. and you know it worked but at what cost. All the screwing around with well did this harden all the way or is the quench to slow. I'm just fed up with it all and need to fix the quality hole in my shop. bad quenching oil is like a hole you throw your money in and hope works. I have been feeling this way for awhile and recently just got a check from aflac for my broken wrist. so i am wanting to pony up and do it for real because it all comes down to the quench. now my first though was well thats easy i need parks 50 and AAA but then i started to think. if I'm really shooting for long term quality control then i need something that i know will be around for a long time. if i had the cash to buy a drum of each then there would not be a problem but i cant. so then whats the answer, do i go with parks and just hope that in 1-2 or 5 years down the road i can still get it. or do i go with something that has a stronger track record like Houghton or even the McMaster stuff. price is not the deciding factor, reliability and quality is. so as the saying goes do i put all my eggs in one basket hopping for the best. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give me.
:foot:. I have some mineral oil and some real thin oil thats like transformer oil. and you know it worked but at what cost. All the screwing around with well did this harden all the way or is the quench to slow. I'm just fed up with it all and need to fix the quality hole in my shop. bad quenching oil is like a hole you throw your money in and hope works. I have been feeling this way for awhile and recently just got a check from aflac for my broken wrist. so i am wanting to pony up and do it for real because it all comes down to the quench. now my first though was well thats easy i need parks 50 and AAA but then i started to think. if I'm really shooting for long term quality control then i need something that i know will be around for a long time. if i had the cash to buy a drum of each then there would not be a problem but i cant. so then whats the answer, do i go with parks and just hope that in 1-2 or 5 years down the road i can still get it. or do i go with something that has a stronger track record like Houghton or even the McMaster stuff. price is not the deciding factor, reliability and quality is. so as the saying goes do i put all my eggs in one basket hopping for the best. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give me.
