What to use for quenching oil????

C

combat590

Joined
Aug 19, 2005
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1
I am a fairly new 'smith and am getting into doing my own heat treating... I would like some advice on what to use for quenching oil. I have heard that olive oil works well, and TexasKMSup. said peanut oil. I also read in a post here that transmission oil works. Is there any oil made specifically for this? I have a hard time believing that Texas uses giant vats of peanut oil!!! Thanks,

Michael
 
Spend a little extra money and get some professional quenching oil, designed specifically for the steel you're using. You can get by with olive oil or tranny fluid, but you won't be optimizing your blades(which should be your goal).
 
Danbo's got it right, ( I converted him some time ago ;) ) They do indeed make many oils specifically for quenching and they even make oils specifically for certain groups of steel, and it is not as hard to find as many would have you believe. In the 4 seconds it takes to type "quenching oil" into your search engine you will have around 250,000 sources of information on it, with many being suppliers.

Some have spoken of the trouble they had trying to obtain some of my favorites, but I am happy to say that I have refreshed my supplies and will have a limited ammount of Parks/Heatbath #50 to bring with me to the ABS hammer-in in Ohio next week, for those who are interested. If you work with 10XX series, W1, W2 etc... I guarantee after trying that #50 you will have no other use for cooking oil than cooking, and the other stuff will be able to stay in your truck engine. ;)
 
I just received 5 gal. of "standard" quenching oil from McMaster Carr. I was using peanut oil so we'll see what happens. I am excited about it!!!
Preheat the oil to around 140 degrees.
 
I've been using automatic tranmisson fluid with excellent results. Experiment to see what works best for you. That's what makes it fun. :D
Scott
 
Razorback - Knives said:
I've been using automatic tranmisson fluid with excellent results. Experiment to see what works best for you. That's what makes it fun. :D
Scott
Click to expand...

Ignore that man behind the curtain! :p :p :D
 
Brian,

The McMaster stuff works fine. I have used that for the last year with good results. I was using Junelle Quench before that. I definitely want to try the Parks stuff soon though.
 
Kevin R. Cashen said:
Some have spoken of the trouble they had trying to obtain some of my favorites, but I am happy to say that I have refreshed my supplies and will have a limited ammount of Parks/Heatbath #50 to bring with me to the ABS hammer-in in Ohio next week, for those who are interested.
Click to expand...

After following directions in posts by you and others, I found someone at Heatbath whose actually willing to sell to individuals: Tom Walen <tom@heatbath.com>. It took a few emails and some patience but went pretty smoothly. The bad news is that the new minimum order is $150, but don't worry -- with the oils now $7+/gallon, it's still a 20 gallon minimum :eek: 10 gallons each of AAA and #50 came to $214, shipping included. They now put the 5 gallon buckets in cardboard cubes for UPS.

Dan Pierson
 
He's saying that us ATF huffers are barking up the wrong tree. Certainly, if you can use the real deal without going into debt, that's the way to go. ATF seems to work well for me, and in my personal testing of the steels I'm currently using I certainly have zero gripes with it, but in the spirit of always trying to improve, using the real deal if you can get it is probably worth it. Because I'm so caveman, I think using real quenching oils without using a heat controlled forge, salts or a HT oven, would be money poorly spent. Putting the cart before the horse, as it were. My next big investment in knifemaking will be a big boy HT setup. Til then, it's all ATF for me! $1.76 a quart! Yeehawww! :D
 
blgoode said:
I just received 5 gal. of "standard" quenching oil from McMaster Carr. I was using peanut oil so we'll see what happens. I am excited about it!!!
Preheat the oil to around 140 degrees.
Click to expand...

That is good news about the new availability of Heatbath products, the price increase is a good heads up as well. Out of curiosity, if I may ask, how much is the McMaster Carr stuff in comnparison?
 
It was about 40 bucks. I think alittle less.

added: www.mcmaster.com
product No. 3202K1
this is not ment for 10XX steel or W type steels. I use 0-1 so this is what I needed. You want the high speed oil for the 10XX series.
 
I dont know Chiro....
the blade still needs to be at a certain temp be it torch, forge, oven, or salt bath. My thoughts are that a quality quench can be the most afordable way to increase the quality of your inhouse heat treating.
Why chance the performance if switching fluids can help?
 
OK, for the newer folks out there (and myself), let's start a list.

What do you use for -

5160
52100
L6
O1
1084
1095
L6/O1
L6/1084
So on and so forth...

Craig
 
From that list here are the steels that I would use in Heatbaths #50:

1084
1095

I would also include- W1, W2, 1075, 1080 and any other steel that needs speeds approaching water.

The steels I would use for Heatbaths AAA, or my low temp salts are:

5160
O1
L6
52100
O1/L6 and any other steel that can be quenched in oil for full hardness.
 
Peanut oil works great....does not leave as much scale to remove as the others....a number of guys here in South GA are switching to it because of that fact.

Best of luck!
 
Steve,you may consider it the cart before the horse,but the quench is the wheels that make the cart efficient.The quench is where pointed steel becomes knife blades.While it is all related,a poor quench makes a waste of a $1000 HT oven,and the most high tech salt baths.
 
blgoode said:
I dont know Chiro....
the blade still needs to be at a certain temp be it torch, forge, oven, or salt bath. My thoughts are that a quality quench can be the most afordable way to increase the quality of your inhouse heat treating.
Why chance the performance if switching fluids can help?
Click to expand...
my thoughts too
 
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