Plain water makes larger steam pockets, which is an insulator. It's also a reason why thin items warp in the quench - because some areas are cooling and others are being insulated so stresses develop.
Agitation is the key - a falling column of water works well so if you had, for example, a six inch pipe coming out of a large cistern, you could get a piece quenched pretty quickly if you could dump the water on the item.
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