ofafeather Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Can boiled linseed oil be used for quenching or if you use linseed does it have to be raw? I know you can use it for finishing. Can you dip "warm" metal in it? Thanks!~Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Personally I would not like to breathe the vapors produced by quenching *hot* metal in boiled linseed oil. Warming metal before coating with oil or wax is a fairly standard process in smithing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
son_of_bluegrass Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 The modern way to "boil" linseed oil it to add chemical driers to it. It generally isn't boiled anymore (some specialty place carry it at quite a mark-up). Frequently the chemicals contain heavy metals (cobalt is common). I try not to breath the fumes and vapors from whatever oil i'm quenching in but to minimize my risk even further, I avoid using oils that may have such additives (motor oil, ATF, anything that says "boiled" etc). Of course, it's your body. You need to decide what risks you are willing to take. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofafeather Posted August 10, 2010 Author Share Posted August 10, 2010 On 8/10/2010 at 5:26 PM, son_of_bluegrass said: The modern way to "boil" linseed oil it to add chemical driers to it. It generally isn't boiled anymore (some specialty place carry it at quite a mark-up). Frequently the chemicals contain heavy metals (cobalt is common). I try not to breath the fumes and vapors from whatever oil i'm quenching in but to minimize my risk even further, I avoid using oils that may have such additives (motor oil, ATF, anything that says "boiled" etc). Of course, it's your body. You need to decide what risks you are willing to take. Is there a good oil that you can safely use as a quench and finish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Sure! You could use any drying oil that way. Raw linseed, walnut, poppyseed, MANY possibilities. None of them make good sense in most cases though. Almost invariably good finishing oils are much more expensive than needed for quenching purposes and the scale and charcoal introduced by the quenching degrades the oils for finishing purposes. Therefore it makes good sense to use different oils for each of these purposes. You will usually need larger quantities of your quenching oil and finishing oils go a very long way when used on metal surfaces. So you could usually buy them in small amounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofafeather Posted August 10, 2010 Author Share Posted August 10, 2010 Sure! You could use any drying oil that way. Raw linseed, walnut, poppyseed, MANY possibilities. None of them make good sense in most cases though. Almost invariably good finishing oils are much more expensive than needed for quenching purposes and the scale and charcoal introduced by the quenching degrades the oils for finishing purposes. Therefore it makes good sense to use different oils for each of these purposes. You will usually need larger quantities of your quenching oil and finishing oils go a very long way when used on metal surfaces. So you could usually buy them in small amounts. Makes sense. Okay, good quenching oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Canola or peanut oil are decent. You can get both for free after thanksgiving from people that fried a turkey, and eat turkey only once a year. Don't ask me though, I never fried a turkey, and I grill, roast, or bbq a bird about once a month. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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