Quenching dry run

panch0

panch0

Joined
Jun 16, 2008
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Well I have a pair of long needle nose pliers, and that may be behind the whole dilemma. I have read that you need to get steel from austenized state to under 400 degrees in under one second. I may be remembering wrong. I have a pair of wolf tongs on the way and I will be testing my "moves" with those. So far the welding gloves I have are kind of bulky and it took a bit before I found a way to handle them proficiently enough to pull the blade form the oven and into the quenching oil. These are dry runs with the HT oven off and no oil in the quench container mind you. From the time I open the door to the time I get the blade into the oil is around 2 seconds more or less. Is this fast enough or is it one second from the time you open the oven till you get it into the oil? The temp starts to drop as soon as you open the oven correct? I will be using 1084 to test my new oven btw. Thanks!
 
Are you going to edge quench the steel?

You may want to give vise grips preset to the steel thickness a try. That's what I use and many of the other makers I know also.

Two seconds should be okay from the time you open the door till the blade is in the oil. You won't have much time to fumble with pliers or tongs though.
 
Frank,
You have to get the steel from austinizing to around 900 F (I believe) in one second from the time it enters the quench. You do have a bit of time (but don't dilly dally) to get the hot steel to the quench before it cools too much.
Bruce
 
I had to reread the title I thought it said "Quenching in Dry Rum", my first thought was WTF! :eek::D:D

Don't over think it just have everything ready and go as quick as you can and still be safe and you'll do OK! :thumbup:
 
Dixie isn't that called a Flaming Moe? Hehehe.... Ok so then I am good, I just ordered a pair of tongs and today I saw some vise grips at harbor freight that were about 12" long. I might just go pick those up on monday too.
 
Your time to get below the nose starts when the blade enters the oil, not when you take it from the heat source. How much time you have depends entirely on the steel, shallow hardening steels have the least leeway.

You don't want to delay long between the oven and the quench, but as long as you are not doing laps around the shop on the way, there is no need to be frantic about it. Have the quench container close to the oven but not so close that it gets in your way, and use tongs or pliers that hold the piece securely, this makes it much easier and more repeatable. And don't put your face directly over the container. Fumes are bad enough but if you ever get a good flash you will miss your eyebrows and perhaps part of your face. Over-heated oil is no joke:grumpy: Smooth is better than fast in this business any day.
 
panch0 said:
Ok so then I am good, I just ordered a pair of tongs and today I saw some vise grips at harbor freight that were about 12" long. I might just go pick those up on monday too.
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Frank… I may have mentioned this in one of you other threads, but I use a set of those long HF vise grips for all of my heat treating. They work very well. I also seldom use my thick welding glove because they can be quite unwieldy as you've already noticed. I usually use thinner gardening leather gloves or bare handed.

Erin
 
countryboycansurvive said:
Are you going to edge quench the steel?

You may want to give vise grips preset to the steel thickness a try. That's what I use and many of the other makers I know also.

Two seconds should be okay from the time you open the door till the blade is in the oil. You won't have much time to fumble with pliers or tongs though.
Click to expand...

I would like to try and edge quench. I guess the trick is turning the blade 180 degrees before getting to the quench in a fluid motion so as to not cause the steel to warp. Some ninja quenching moves I must also learn.

Erin I do recall you mentioning the vise grips.

Justin and Bruce, thanks!
 
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Justin King said:
Your time to get below the nose starts when the blade enters the oil, not when you take it from the heat source. How much time you have depends entirely on the steel, shallow hardening steels have the least leeway.

You don't want to delay long between the oven and the quench, but as long as you are not doing laps around the shop on the way, there is no need to be frantic about it. Have the quench container close to the oven but not so close that it gets in your way, and use tongs or pliers that hold the piece securely, this makes it much easier and more repeatable. And don't put your face directly over the container. Fumes are bad enough but if you ever get a good flash you will miss your eyebrows and perhaps part of your face. Over-heated oil is no joke:grumpy: Smooth is better than fast in this business any day.
Click to expand...

Thanks Justin, that's what I was trying to say but you described it much better:thumbup:

Bruce
 
Yeah, you should be fine. Different steels: different speeds of quench, and as has been mentioned, the quench speed is generally from when the blade enters the oil, though if you let it cool too much before quenching, you'll have some pearlite to deal with.

Once you open the door, get a good grip on your blade with whatever you are using, then smoothly go from the oven to the oil, and you'll be just fine. Remember to agitate tip-to-butt or edge-to-spine in the oil until the oil stops boiling and the eddies in the oil from the hot blade calm down a bit. Then I set the blade in the oil (make sure your hotplate is off from heating the oil if you used one...I turn mine off well before quench) and let it cool all the way to oil temp. Take it out and scrub it down with a wire brush and shop rag, maybe do a quick file test, and then pop it in the temper oven.

Remember, smooth is fast. Don't injure yourself or burn down your shop frantically trying to get a blade into oil. :D

--nathan
 
Frank,

If you are planning to do an edge quench, a while back Ed Caffrey described his set up for a limiter plate. If I recall, he basically took a small plate of aluminum, drilled and threaded 4 holes, then put in bolts to make an adjustible plate/table that sat submersed in the warm quench oil. You preset the height of the limiter plate to the size of the blade, that way you only dunk the blade so far into the oil if you want to preserve the soft spine.

Nathan
 
Ok guys I think I got it. " Take your time but hurry up "

Nathan S, I remember that thread. Thanks!
 
Does anybody have a good video that could show how to get the blade from the HT oven to quench? (I'm going on youtube to look for one after I ask this question:-) ) How do you guys quench more than one blade when you HT a batch of blades?
 
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