Alchemy and Formulas

You hear a lot of talk about using brine for quinching but seldom anyone can tell you how to make it. I was looking at a sheet on hardening and tempering different steels. Many of them called for a 5-10% brine solution. In a little footnote at the back there were directions. A 5% brine solution is made using 1 pint of raw salt (rock salt) to 9.5 qts of water. A 10% brine solution is made using 1 qt of raw salt to 9 qt of water. They made a warning not to use table salt as there are additives that can cause unwanted reactions in the steel.

I keep a covered bucket of this stuff in the shop, adding water or other elements as needed for proper consistancy. 4 parts "yellow" Iowa Bank clay or any kind of clean clay that you can find. 2 parts sifted clean wood ash 1 part powdered charcoal ( crush with Mortar & pestle ) 1 part powdered soft firebrick ( crush with Mortar & pestle ) Add water to and let slake ( soak ) for at least 1 hour then remix and adjust water as necessacary to get a consistancy like a thick milk shake. To apply: Take a small amount of clay slurry in a mixing cup add a splash of water to thin it out and mix using a brush. Clean the freshly sa…

I asked my local fried seafood place if I could get some of their discarded frying oil. That's not a problem for them, but the owner said that he uses an animal/vegetable oil. Would that present any problems as a quenchant? I'm most concerned with the oil going bad over time. Does the animal part of it get "ripe"? I'll only be using this on occasional junkyard steels, like 4140 and 5160 (or whatever crosses my path), for hammers, treadle hammer tools, etc. --Marc

5 parts copper 2 parts silver 3 parts zinc Melt the copper first, add the silver, and lastly the zinc. Stir rapidly when you add the zinc, to spread the zinc through out. Pour into a mold, cool, and then roll out into a sheet to about 18 ga. Cut strips to your needs. Avoid breathing fumes at all times. Zinc fumes are deadly! Remember to take the proper precautions when working with chemicals. *

When laying out a right-angle square 3 + 4 = 5 or 9" on one side, 12" on the other with 15" on the long side will make a perfect right angle Thanks to Pyhtorgas' theorem of right-angle triangles (AxA) + (BxB) = (CxC) . When calculating flat iron to go around in a circle: Length of iron = Circumference plus one and one-half times the thickness of the flat iron.

to clean the residue build up on circular saw blades also works on years of built up grease on old power tools, spray with spray oven cleaner, let set and then wash off with water hose.