Quenching in Oil vs Water?

[jgraeff]

i have been reading on here a lot today and see a lot of you mention to not bother with water but quench in oil, i don't know anything about knife making keep in mind just curious because i know that some makers such as murray carter and bob kramar use water to quench, is this just for certain steels, skill level, or what factors?

 

thanks

[bigfootnampa]

Some steels can be water quenched successfully but mostly water quenches are used when quenching clayed blades... this is heat treating well above beginner levels!  Use oil in most cases until you reach semi-expert status.  Air hardening steels are yet another sort of animal.  

[Rich Hale]

Field test for mystery steel is simple. Heat to non magnetic and let air cool, if it hardens then yuo know..if it does not heat the same temp and quench in warm oil. if it hardens you know... if it does not then the same process with water. if it does not harden you know wot it is.

Even more simple is if you have looked in the forums here for any length of time you will see posts about failures in quenching with water. And if that does not steer you clear of water you can look at the data or heat treat specifications on the particular steel you have selected. and see wot the maker of the steel says works the best. We covered all  of this in the blade making 101 sectrion of the knife area on this site. And we continue to toiuch on it as we have moved throuigh the series in each wednesday eve session. All of which are posted.

And if you wish to know even  more abouit heat treat then the stickies are the place.

[ThomasPowers]

Many knifegrade alloys will crack or even shatter in water.  So if you don't know the "proper" heat treat you usually start with trying a quench in warmed oil and going to a faster or slower quench from that depending on the results.  If you do know the proper heattreat *use* *it*!

[Jon Smith]

Many knifegrade alloys will crack or even shatter in water. So if you don't know the "proper" heat treat you usually start with trying a quench in warmed oil and going to a faster or slower quench from that depending on the results. If you do know the proper heattreat *use* *it*!

5160 spring steel cracks badly in a water quench....trust me on that one. Lost a few good blades that way

[thingmaker3]

 i know that some makers such as murray carter and bob kramar use water to quench, is this just for certain steels, skill level, or what factors?

 

Don't know about Bob Kramar, but Murray Carter uses a steel which is very low in manganese. Water is the appropriate quenchant for said steel even in thin sections. Not so for most AISI grades. Even 0.60% Mn increases the hardenability just enough to promote cracking when quenching thin sections in water.

[Frank Turley]

Note, Warm oil quenches faster than room temperature oil because of the viscosity change.

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