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Hello, its been a long while since I last posted on here(been super busy with college and what not), and its been just as long since I've made anything on the forge, due to school and my workshop(the garage) is now full of stuff, so there is no room. I am planning on moving my shop out into the "dog run" on the side of my house, and am excited to get back onto forging. But, the one thing I seem to be missing is a quenching bucket. I have a water bucket, but no oil bucket. I want ideas on what to do for a good, long term, quenching tank/container thing. I will be doing projects that will require plenty of length, and others with width. While I will probably use just a 5 gal steel bucket for some of the items with a wider girth, I still don't know what to do for the long container. I've seen some people use a 4-in diameter pvc pipe help upright with some wood, and I've seen people use old long tool boxes. So to the point! I need help/advice for a good(long/tall) container, and I want to see what you guys have. So this is the time for you to show off your ingenuity, or just your quenching tanks. So have fun sharing your stuff, and thanks in advance for any help you provide. (note: I don't have access to a welder, and would prefer to not have to pay someone to weld it together.)

Odd question, an you quench a blade in tea? you know like milk 2 sugars kind

*I realize I accidently posted in the blacksmithing forum instead of the bladesmithing forum...however I am finding it difficult to put this in the appropriate area, my apologies!* So I'm working on my second knife project (posted my first one earlier), and I had some questions with regards to the heat treat (which I am planning to do tomorrow). The piece itself is a dagger I am working on out of 1095 steel. I have the profile and grinding done for it, and am getting ready to heat treat, but a bit nervous about the quench. I am planning on using clay along on the spine of the dagger on both sides, but wasn't certain if there was a certain time to apply the clay, or if you just put it on before you begin heating the blade for the quench? I was thinking this would help keep the spine from getting overly hard and brittle, which would give the dagger more strength and flexibility of movement when thrusting into hard objects (not that this is the intention, just trying to learn and practice things for now.) I also was thinking this might help prevent cracks/breaking of my blade for the quench. The reason for this is because I am going to attempt to quench the blade in water, not oil... I am going to use some hot railroad spikes to heat the water up, which I am hoping will decrease the chance of any serious damage to the blade. My question there is, when I got to quench the dagger, do I plunge it in tip first with the edges perpendicular to the ground, or the flat of the blade? Are there any hints, tricks, or tips that could help me from ruining this piece? (I mean if I did, I would treat it as a lesson learned...but I'd like to avoid a catastrophic damage if possible). Also, any advice on fixes if the blade develops a warp or a crack during the quench? Thank you all for reading this....hope I made sense above haha.

I live in Kitchener ON, and I am wondering what is the best blade quenching oil? Does anyone know where i can go to get some in or around my area?

What are people using as quench buckets? I'm wary of using (and possibly melting) plastic, and I have no clue just how wide or deep a bucket needs to be to be useful for general forging.

Hello everyone! I was/am a long time lurker at anvilfire and a newer lurker here but I have a question and decided to join the board. Loads of good stuff here - thanks to everyone who has made this site such an awesome resource! I have all the bare minimum of required tools, including a gas forge, post vice, angle grinder, 100 lb london pattern anvil, even an oxy-acetylene kit but I dont have any hardy tools, fullers, flatters, awesome hand-made rounding hammers, etc. I did get a smithin magician kit to help myself make all the tools I plan to make. I don't plan on buying a full set of top and bottom fullers, a flatter, etc and so I am going to get to work on that. I guess my question is "What order do I start making these tools in?" Right now I have a bar of 3' x 2" round 4140 stock, a bar of 4' x 1" round W-1 and a small round bar of 5" x 2.5" 4140 I am saving for making a rounding hammer. I was thinking of trying to make a hardy fuller or cutoff hardy first, but I'm stuck as far as how to do that with what I have got. I feel like I kinda need a fuller to make progress with this 2" bar stock but I can't make one out of it without serious wasted effort (I dont think). Probably need a striker or a power hammer to make headway (closest I have to a striker is a wife with a bad back). And I guess I would need a hammer eye punch and hammer eye drift first if I want to make top tool/ bottom tool sets. As far as I can figure, my mistake was buying 2" round bar instead of 1.5" or 1.25" to make top/bottom tools. What are your thoughts? Thanks, Matthew Marting