Excerpted from
Robb Gunter
Robb Gunter's "Super Quench"
5 gal water
5 lb Salt
32 oz Dawn (blue) dishwashing liquid (28 oz if it says "concentrated" on the label)
8oz Shaklee Basic I* or 7oz UNSCENTED Jet-Dry or other surfactant (like Simple Green) of appropriate quantity for 5 gal mix (wetting agents)
The Jet-Dry (or whatever you use for a rinse agent) does something chemically to the surface of the steel. It allows the salt in the mix to start attacking it as soon as it hits the air - make sure you have a LOT of clear water to rinse in ready at hand. These surfacants are wetting agents. They break down the surface tension of water allowing it to make contact with a material. We've all dipped a cold piece of metal in water and seen a bubble-like "skin" form with dry metal under it. This is surface tension trapping a layer of air, it makes a fair heat shield. In a quench, steam will form a similar surface "skin" and prevent full contact with the water, insulating the steel from a proper chill. Wetting agents prevent the "skin" from forming.
Detergents do a somewhat similar job, they're emulsifiers allowing oils and water to mix. This prevents any oily residues from the fire from forming a "heat shield" surface layer. The salt in the water raises the specific heat of the water and draws the heat from the steel faster.
Stir it up to get it moving before you quench. Don't quench anything with more than 45- 50 points of carbon. Will harden mild steel to Rockwell 42-45 (in spite of common wisdom that says you can't harden mild steel). It's color coded - when you've exhausted the usefulness of the quench, it'll shift color from blue to green.
This will get you started...looks like pounds/gallons to me.