Quench tank questions

D

DustinHall

Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
687
What do you use for your oil quench tank?
Do you quench tip down or edge down horizontally? Does it matter?
How big should the oil tank be to be able to quench blades up to 10" in length and how much oil is needed?
Oh and how do you go about pre-heating the oil? I always just heat up scrap steel and dunk it in prior to quench.
 
I use a military surplus ammo can, which I have sitting on a hot plate. Works perfectly. And I can close it up tight after use (after it cools) also.
 
v-6 - I don't think I have a PM box.

Andy - How big is your ammo box? I have an ammo box but, it's not big enough. The hot plate thing is a good idea.
 
I don't remember how big it is, But I picked one that was 7" wide (stable) and I can fully quench a 15" knife in it (barely). I know this because I did my first big knife this weekend. It holds 3 gallons of oil, and after ramping up, I keep the hot plate on med-low.
 
My tanks hold five gallons each of two different oils.
On whells to easily relocate.
Double burner to heat for each application.


tool1c-1.jpg


tool1-1.jpg
 
Yeah, your ammo can def. sounds like it's bigger than mine. Do you quench tip down (vertically)?
Hey, while we're talkin, I want to ask you how you like to temper your O1 blades? Thanks for your replies.

Looks good, Karl. Thanks for the pics. I assume you quench edge down then?
 
I think the last questions are best for Kevin Cashen or someone who is more knowledgable to me. But I quench tip down, the entire knife. Temper at 450 for two hours twice. Then hit the spine with a torch.
 
I saw on a video one gentleman was using a large electric coffee pot, looked like it worked fine.
 
Last edited:
Fiddleback said:
I think the last questions are best for Kevin Cashen or someone who is more knowledgable to me. But I quench tip down, the entire knife. Temper at 450 for two hours twice. Then hit the spine with a torch.
Click to expand...

Have you tested Rc Hardness? I just finished my first blade from O1 and tempered at 475, 1 hour, twice. I have read a lot of mixed advice on tempering O1 so I just thought I'd ask you cuz I know you like the O1. Thanks for sharing, Andy.
 
No. I don't have RC equipment. Have you gone to Kevin Cashen's website? He has a section on 01.
 
This is how things work for me according to how I have discovered them over the years-

Direction of quench depends very much upon the blade shape, obviously daggers and other narrow double edged blades with symmetrical cross sections must be quenched vertically. Single edged blades with more complex grind lines can be quenched horizontally. Some narrow single edged blades with simple cross sections, e.g. a full flat ground Scottish dirk or tanto, I only quench spine down to avoid the tip dropping in oil, a problem that will get more pronounced with shallow hardening steel but is possible even with O1.

Tempering is one of those things that you can only get a start with suggestions from elsewhere and then sort of walk it into the temps that will work best for you in your shop, there is no definitive recipe. A given Rockwell for a given tempering temp will be heavily influenced by effects of normalizing, annealing, soak temp, soak time, quench effectiveness, tempering time, tempering heat source, number of tempering cycles etc…

I can offer this as a guideline to start with:

http://www.cashenblades.com/Info/Steel/O1.html

For my quench tank I went to Walmart and picked up, on sale, one of those self warming roaster units you always see at potlucks keeping the beans, barbeque or sloppy Joes warm, it has a cover, plenty of space for a nice volume of oil and a little dial right on the front to allow you to set the preheat temp of oil and then go about your business.
 
I'm not a paying member so I can not send or recieve PMs. What's so private about quench tank questions?
 
DustinHall said:
Yeah, your ammo can def. sounds like it's bigger than mine. Do you quench tip down (vertically)?
Hey, while we're talkin, I want to ask you how you like to temper your O1 blades? Thanks for your replies.

Looks good, Karl. Thanks for the pics. I assume you quench edge down then?
Click to expand...


Yes.
Early on, I could notice a slight difference between the hardness at the pointy end of the blade and the ricasso end.
As you enter the blade in, the blade heats up the oil, and maybe even starts to create a vapor zone between the blade and the oil. Just guessing here.
So, the last portion of the blade to enter the oil is entering an entirely different environment than the point did.
I understand that when I get into daggers and double edged blades I will need to use the vertical tube.
I think so many people use vertical quench tanks simply out of the simplicity and availability of tubes to use!
You can see the tube in my second photograph where I entered an air line to bubble and circulate the oil in an attempt to have the oil moving when I quenched. Don't know if it worked or not. But it did allow me to cool the oil off between blades.
 
Kevin R. Cashen said:
For my quench tank I went to Walmart and picked up, on sale, one of those self warming roaster units you always see at potlucks keeping the beans, barbeque or sloppy Joes warm, it has a cover, plenty of space for a nice volume of oil and a little dial right on the front to allow you to set the preheat temp of oil and then go about your business.
Click to expand...

That's what I use for my quench tank as well. That and one of those food thermometers to hang in the oil and tell me when it's the right temperature. That said i need to get myself some real quenching oil still. I've been using vegetable oil, but that oil spoils and goes bad with time.
 
I can top spoiled veggie oil! One winter the lid on my #50 tank got slid to the side and I didn't notice it for some time. On the next quench the smell was... welll... ummm... very unpleasant and I felt "something" in the bottom of the tank when the blade went in and was agitated. I found 7 dead mice in the bottom of my tank in advanced stages of returning to natures embrace, despite the pickling effects of the oil:barf:

A very nasty reminder to keep your oil covered if you have any openings in your heat treating area:(
 
Mice love wax too. If you wax your sheaths, be sure to keep your parafin or beeswax stored in a mouseproof way.
 
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