Stainless oil quench?

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Apr 2, 2016
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I just read about oil quenching stainless steel (The complete bladesmith) by Jim Hrisoulas. I was thinking about giving it a try with some Aebl. Anybody have any experience with this.
 
Well I just did it! Heated to 1970f and quench with parks 50. No warping. After tempering i'll do some testing.
 
So far it looks good for aebl. I didnt use a pouch in the oven so there is alot of scale. Hopefully it will be ok.
 
Be careful, at the temperatures involved for stainless heat treatment scaling is an issue, but more problematic is decarburation which happens deep and fast.
Decarburation is the loss of carbon from the steel and it is not immediately evident as is scaling because it is pretty much invisible (just a whitish hue to the steel in right light view), but will rob a good layer of carbon from the surface of the steel, which will remain soft.
Carbon steel's temperature range is way lower and the decarb layer is minimal and easily removed with a bit of grinding/sanding. Stainless needs protection or you should allow extra steel volume for grinding away decarb, more than one could think, particulary in the edge area. If removing the piece from the pouch sounds difficult there are products stainless rated which can be painted on the piece and quenched altogether. Those will minimize decarburation and preventing 100% scaleing.

Careful overquenching SS in P#50, but a slow/medium speed oil will be nice.
 
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