tempering or marquenching oil?

[dustfurn]

I was wondering, what is a good (obtainable in less than 50 gallon increments) tempering or marquenching oil? Should handle temps between 350 - 450F.

Thanks,
Dustin

 

[Sam Salvati]

Will you be marquenching in it straight up, or tempering, or both?

 

[dustfurn]

Will you be marquenching in it straight up, or tempering, or both?

Ideally both. If there are oils that are better for one or the other, though, please let me know.

 

[delbert ealy]

Hot oil is a recipie for disaster unless you are cooking fries.
Del

 

[mete]

You must understand the specific marquenching temperature for the specific steels !! You must know the flash point for the oils !!
A tank of oil very near the flash point is not my idea of safety. You'd be better off with salt.

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

Check Houghton International's website for martempering and tempering oils. Many knifemakers have made the mistake of using oils not designed for this purpose, and if they survived (that thing about Him protecting fools and little children, should also include bladesmiths.. or perhaps it already does) the blades were riddled with fine pearlite and very low levels of hardening. And yet it is very difficult to tell a person with no eyebrows that their blade barely formed martensite at the very edge.

Try with Houghton, and see if you have Friends that will go in together. Sometimes certain industrial process' are out of our reach if we aren't ready to invest the resources necessary. I would love to do my own induction melting to make my own alloys, but I won't be doing it on the cheap if I ever do.

Try Houghton and if you can't make that work find the 400F mark on the cooling curve of a good heat treating oil and interrupt the quench.