whats better to quench a sword in?

[geofthesmith]

whats better to quench a blade in? water brine or oil, or if theres another method to harden let me know as ill be guessing as i go along

[Finnr]

The blood of a virgin musk ox . But only under the second full moon in Feb.
All kidding aside ask ten swordsmiths and you will probably get fifteen answers.
Finnr

[ThomasPowers]

It totally depends on what alloy you are using! Quench an oil hardening steel in water you may shatter it. Quench a water hardening steel in oil and it may not harden!

Other methods include: air quench on air hardening steels, low temp salts for marquenching or bainite production.

All the various patent nostrums of several centuries: Urine, (suggested by Theophilus in 1120 AD, radish juice or worm water---some suggestions from a long list of Renaissance ones that can be found in "Sources for the history of the science of steel, 1532-1786"

Most of them come down to: water, brine or oil though.

[steve sells]

Oil is safe for water and oil hardening steels, How hard to you think a sword should be? IF you make, and leave it, as hard as a knife made from the same materials, it most likely will be too brittle, remember a sword isn't for filleting fish, its poke or slash. and will be under more duress in actual use than a small blade would be.

[TarAlderion]

Like has been said before. The apropriate quenchant will be determined by the speicific steel used in the blade, as well as the type of blade and its intended use. The heat treat on a long blade like a sword will be much different than that of a knife as Steve touched on. You most certanily do not want a sword as hard as a knife as it will surely fail under the stresses of its usage. A bit more info on what type of steel you are using and the type/size of the blade would make it a bit easier to give you a better answer.

I notice that you are from Colorado Springs, I am as well, if you are serious about things, drop me an email (can get it off my website) or a pm and I might be able to show you a few things.

Graham

[irnsrgn]

Politician blood, it will give the sword many different qualities, it will avoid direct contact with other swords during conflicting accusations, it will be drawn to money of any kind, it will do its best work under the table, it may demand higher user fees if asked to actually do any work, it will be almost impossible to get it to do any specific task where it must follow rules and regulations designed for all, and no matter what you try to quench in it, it will come out crooked as a dogs hind leg.

best way to go about collecting it is to drain as many politicians as possible and use only a drop from each one till you have obtained 55 gallons of useful drops. don't expect to find any blue colored stuff tho, it will be mostly brown in color and possess an offensive odor.

[geofthesmith]

ty for the info, not intending to make a sword for a wile but just wanted some base knowledge and clarification on previously known knowledge

[wolfy9005]

A sword should have a perfect balance of hardness and flexibility. Im a complete n00b at blacksmithing, but i'd say salt water. It's more dense then oil and water, so it can absorb a fair amount of heat and disperse it well. Or politician blood :P

[ThomasPowers]

Saltwater will of course result in some alloys shattering when quenched.

It's boiling point is higher than water which is what makes it useful, not it's density.

[Brian Carlson]

I wonder if there would be any benefit to quenching in a combination of oil and water? Since oil floats on top of water. Maybe you could combine the benefits of each.