What, in your opinion, is the best quenching oil?

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RaiderJameson

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May 23, 2022
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I am looking for the most used quenching oil by bladeforum users and what oil they think is the best to use.
Trying to move on from ATF oil but dont know what to get. What oil do you use, and would you recommend another oil?
 
Depends on what steel you are using. Some steels need a fast quench and some not as fast.
Parks50 is what I use for 1095.
Try asking this in the shop talk section of the forum and list the steel you use.
 
Few of the popular non-stainless knife steels have a slow quench speed requirement. Most of them need a fast quenchant.
In a large shop it is best to have a tank of Parks #50 and a tank of AAA, but a smaller shop is going to get the best bang for the buck from one tank of #50.

I have found Parks #50 (or the equivalents like Houton K) fast oil is the best choice. It will harden hypoeutectoid steels like Hitachi white and blue paper, W2, 52100, and 1095.

I have not had an issue using it for O-1 and 5160, which do not need a fast quenchant. I pull the blade a bit sooner out of the oil with these steels. Sport of IN - 2-3, OUT 2-3-4-5, Back IN for another 15 seconds.

A big plus is it works at room temperature. Anywhere in the 60-90°F/15-30°C range is fine.

Lastly, it is very stable and lasts for years and years under most smith's number of quenches. It is designed to do thousands of quenches with no loss of ability or going bad.

Ways to make it last a LONG time:
Keep it clean by straining every now and then (yearly in my case)
Keep it tightly covered to keep critters and water out.
Use a large enough volume. A 5-gallon pail will last any normal size shop pretty much forever. Five gallons fills a 16"X5"ID quench tank. For big knife and sword folks get 10 gallons.

Note - I have Parks #50 that belonged to Bill Moran and it still works just fine.
 
I have a gallon each of Parks 50 and Parks AAA. Each in its own .50 cal ammo can. That’s big enough for what I do at this point in my journey, and the lids are air tight for storage & preservation when not in use. Makes for nice, tidy little packages, and the two cover the spectrum of HC steels I am using.
 
Thank yall. I am using a big rig leaf spring for now, which, I believe is 5160. I have been using ATF for my blades and I think it cools them too slowly to make the best HT possible. Any recommendations on where I can get some Parks 50 for a good price?
 
RaiderJameson said:
Thank yall. I am using a big rig leaf spring for now, which, I believe is 5160. I have been using ATF for my blades and I think it cools them too slowly to make the best HT possible. Any recommendations on where I can get some Parks 50 for a good price?
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I get mine from usaknifemaker..com. A gallon each of P50 and PAAA, add in some new handle materials (always need more handle material!) and you'll be at the free shipping level in no time.

AAA is still a recommended quench oil for 5160, 8670, CruForge V, O1, O2, & L6. I think P50 is also an acceptable choice, too. But if you had to have only one quench oil, I think that P50 would be my choice. That said, AAA can give you a little more bandwidth if needed. Dr. Larrin Thomas has a nice write up on his blog "Which Quenching Oil is Best for Knives?" where he addresses this exact question. I suggest you give it a read.

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Yeah just another +1 for parks 50.

You can quench a higher hardnenability steel in fast oil, but you can't quench a low hardnenability in slow oil (at least not with optimal results). So it's definitely the best in my opinion for if you're only going to buy one oil.

Of course getting a few different speeds would be the best bet, but thats also expensive.

Also I saw that Mr volcano had parks 50 (or an equivalent for sale on Amazon.) Idk if they still do.
 
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