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Recommendation? Refined Or regular Canola Oil?

M

Mstrick96

Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
28
Hello, I've just joined the forum and have a question I hope you can help with. I've tried to use the search function to find an answer but no luck.

I am making a knife of O1 tool steel and plan to use heated Canola Oil for the quench. My question is simple... can I use grocery store Canola Oil (cheap) or do I need to go with the (expensive) Refined Canola Oil?

The reason for my question is that I have seen that refined canola has higher smoke, flash and flame temperature ratings than regular Canola Oil. Is this enough reason to use the more expensive refined oil?
 
I just heat treated an o1 blade and quenched in store bought canola oil. I left it in my kiln at 1475f for 23 minutes and quenched in 130f canola. It tested at 62 hrc. I then did 2 temper cycles at 400f for an hour each. This resulted in 59hrc final hardness. I did get a slight warp but corrected it during tempering. Check out my instagram stang_bladeworks to see the hardness results.
 
I don’t see any need for the refined oil. Pretty sure the vast majority of people using canola are just using the cheapest jugs they could find at Walmart or whatever store they went to.
 
Since you are not cooking with it, the regular type is fine. Refined is more for baking and such.
 
Stang Bladeworks said:
I just heat treated an o1 blade and quenched in store bought canola oil. I left it in my kiln at 1475f for 23 minutes and quenched in 130f canola. It tested at 62 hrc. I then did 2 temper cycles at 400f for an hour each. This resulted in 59hrc final hardness. I did get a slight warp but corrected it during tempering. Check out my instagram stang_bladeworks to see the hardness results.
Click to expand...
Your hardness numbers are a few points too low for 01.
 
Don Hanson III said:
Your hardness numbers are a few points too low for 01.
Click to expand...
I would agree based on the numbers gathered from datasheets. I did test my hardness tester for accuracy before and after. I also cleaned the minimal decarb off the steel prior to testing. I performed 4 tests in different areas all indicating a final 59hrc. This is just my data from my setup. I would conclude that the canola oil does not harden quite as well as parks AAA. Hopefully this can help someone out. Note: i have been wrong before and will be wrong again im sure...
 
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