What oil to use for 1084

J

jtwodogs

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Feb 1, 2009
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Will be making my first knife out of 1084. Have read several different opinions on which oil to use. Really for my first knife do not want to go all out and buy special quenching oil. Is there anything I can use around the house type oil.ie Canola oil, used motor oil?
Thanks.
 
I use Parks #50 for my 1084. But when the going gets tough and you need something to work, heated canola oil will work. Don't use motor oil...
 
The Weatherman said it best. If you can get Parks 50, get that. If obtaining commercial quenchants is out of reach, canola oil warmed to about 130F will work very very well. Stay the heck away from motor oil, ATF, etc. Canola, peanut, mineral.....they'll work well. Bring the blade up to 1500F and hold for a minute or two just to equalize and quench!
 
Thanks guys, I got 5 gal. of old peanut oil (Not used, just old). I guess I will be using it.
 
Warm the oil to 130F by quenching a red hot bar of mild steel in it. A 24" long by 1" square bar works great. Stir the oil with the bar for a minute at each quench, and check the oil temp with a cooking oil thermometer or laser pyrometer. Checking the oil temp is one of the few things those $9 HF laser pyrometers do well. Repeat the heat up and quench with the bar until the oil is up to 130F. Once the oil gets to 130F-135F, go ahead and heat up your blade in your forge and quench it. The oil will stay warm enough. If it drops below 120F, warm it again. A turkey fryer setup also makes a great oil quench system, as heating the oil is fast and easy. The large fryer pot will hold the three to five gallons of oil you want for quenching. As always with any hot oil and hot metal situation, have a snug fitting lid on hand incase the oil catches fire. Obviously, do all such quenching outside.
 
Thanks Bladesmith. Will do.

I know this off the subject. But did not want to start another thread. Going to use the magnet test to make sure my metal is hot enough when HT.
Do not know what kind of magnet to get. They say rare earth mags. are strong but not to get them hot. They seem to be the only ones that come up when I do an internet search.
Thanks
 
just a normal magnet will work. I use a welders mag just cause that's what I always have handy.
 
Any cheap magnet will work. Some folks use those pick-up magnets on a telescopic wand, but I like a cheap 3" welding magnet from HF. I stick it on the side of the forge near the front port. Pull the blade and touch it to the magnet. You will know when it reaches just above 1400F, as it will stop sticking. Heat about one shade of red brighter, to around 1475F, and quench.
 
One of the great things about Parks #50 is that you do not have to heat it under normal conditions and shouldn't heat it unless the ambient temp in your shop is below 70F.
 
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Parks #50 is unique in that it is designed to use at normal room temperatures. 70-100F is the suggested range. Most other quenchants, commercial or not, should be at 120-130F when used.
 
I have read many threads wear the claim is made to warm your Parks 50 to 130F, and I'm left scratching my head......."why?" I doubt there is any performance gain by warming it up....but I'm no quenchant expert. Canola and such.....yes. Commercial stuf.....leave at room temp as long as it's above 70f.
 
bladsmth said:
Parks #50 is unique in that it is designed to use at normal room temperatures. 70-100F is the suggested range. Most other quenchants, commercial or not, should be at 120-130F when used.
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Stacy knows what he is talking about.... Thumbs up!
 
Stuart, the "kinda fast" 11-13 second oil like Parks AAA or the Houghton, which is apparently what others like Brownell buy and relabel, has a sweet spot between 130 and 150-180, IIRC. At those temps it is 11 second oil. Above or below, it slows down. As far as Parks #50 at 130F, I am surprised that you ar not getting report s about people setting their quench tank ablaze. Stacy is spot on. They actually LOWERED the listed operating range of #50 a few years back. When I first bought the stuff, I recall the range being like 80 or 90 to 120, but I have only heated the stuff in what passes for the sea do of winter here in Florida when the temps were in the high 40's or 50's.
samuraistuart said:
I have read many threads wear the claim is made to warm your Parks 50 to 130F, and I'm left scratching my head......."why?" I doubt there is any performance gain by warming it up....but I'm no quenchant expert. Canola and such.....yes. Commercial stuf.....leave at room temp as long as it's above 70f.
Click to expand...
 
That's good information, Joe. Thanks for that! I've been wondering about the AAA optimum temp range. Does anyone have an educated, or not so educated, guess on how fast 130F canola is compared to Parks 9 second, or AAA 11-13 second? I'm guessing 130F canola would compare to an 11 second oil....but that's fairly "uneducated". Ise a learnin me new stuff evry day!
 
Stuart, the first pro grade quench oil that I ever bought was a couple of quarts of Brownells Tough Quench back in early 2006 and I think that is where I first saw those "sweet spot" numbers. IIRC, below 120-130, the quench speed drops off a fair bit, but it drops off rapidly above 180.
 
Yes, we all used to say, "Warm your Parks #50 to 130F...." But then Parks re-engineered it. Now we say, "No, don't do that." I realize that this is confusing, especially when one might find two posts by me, or even Kevin Cashen, saying both things. One bad thing about the internet is that all the old info is out there and just as available as the new info.
 
Stacy, was the old formula good for 90-120 or 130? I recall that the first numbers that I got said that most people should heat it a little bit for maybe 8 months of the year, but nothing like AAA, etc. Don Hanson is the one that told me he never heated the stuff except in the winter.
 
bladsmth said:
Yes, we all used to say, "Warm your Parks #50 to 130F...." But then Parks re-engineered it. Now we say, "No, don't do that." I realize that this is confusing, especially when one might find two posts by me, or even Kevin Cashen, saying both things. One bad thing about the internet is that all the old info is out there and just as available as the new info.
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Got it. I was wondering what the best approah was to warming quench oil, especially Parks 50. This was a very helpful thread.
 
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