*Safely* tempering in oil?

[kuraki]

So marquenching in a low temp salt pot would be considered a very fast quench medium i take it? Would it be appropriate to quench steels that only require an 11 second oil in this setup?

No, I don't think I would call it "very fast." It's not fast enough for the steels that require Parks 50 for example. It should be just find for something you quench in 11 second or slower oil.

 

[joedhiggins]

So marquenching in a low temp salt pot would be considered a very fast quench medium i take it? Would it be appropriate to quench steels that only require an 11 second oil in this setup?

I am unaware of a salt (that is molten at quench temperatures) that has a thermal conductivity in the neighborhood water. So you are basically fighting thermodynamics here.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

The advantage of the salt is it is a liquid that does not form a vapor jacket. The instant the hot blade enters it, the heat from the blade starts transferring to the salt. I don't know the coefficient of heat of molten salt, but I suspect it is good for most all steels but the very shallow hardening ones. If the salt pot experiment gets going, it would be nice to test steels like W2, 1095, and Hitachi white.