Warm oil?

[Fishnamedfrog]

I am a new knife maker and starting heat treating my 1095 blades. I hear of some people using warm oil, and some not. What will work best for 1095 with peanut oil?

 

[jdm61]

For 1095? What will work best is not using peanut oil.

 

[Fishnamedfrog]

Than what will jdm61

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

The quench oil is normally warmed to about 120-130F. This decreases viscosity and increases convection ... which increases the quench speed. The same goes for brine/water quenches. They are warmed to 120F.

Canola oil and peanut oil are suitable for quenching most oil quench steels. 5160, 1084, O-1, etc. They work, but not quite as well as a commercial quench oil. Commercial oils are rated for the quench speed, and are usually referred to as fast and medium quench oils.

Fast quench steels, like 1095, Hitachi white/blue blade steels, and W2, need a fast oil. Canola and peanut oil will come close, but really are a bit shy of what you want. The preferred oil for these is Parks #50. You can order it from Maxim oil and a few of the knife supply companies. Parks #50 is a special oil, and is used at room temp ( 70-90F)

52100 is sort of riding the line between the regular and fast quench steels. Some use regular speed commercial oil ( Parks AAA or equivalent.) and others use Parks #50 of equivalent.

 

[Fishnamedfrog]

Thank-you, Stacy E. Apelt-Bladesmith

 

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http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...pring-knife-or-knives?p=16304578#post16304578

 

[scott.livesey]

for you first knives, i would suggest 1084 as it is much more forgiving in heat treat than 1095.
Scott

 

[kuraki]

5 gallons of Parks 50 was $134 shipped UPS to me earlier this summer, FWIW.

I've heat treated 12 blades of 1095 so far using it. It works great, and is very low smoke compared to the Citgo Quenchol we use at work. Also, 1095 is very unforgiving about austenization temperature range. I was doing a lot of head scratching getting hardness variation from 40 to 55 after quench before I figured out there was a 50F difference of chamber temperature in my heat treat oven from where I was placing my knives to where the thermocouple was located. Putting my blades up 6" higher on a couple fire bricks and they came out at 65 RC every time.