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

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.

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

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?

 

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.

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?

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