Can antifreeze be used as a quenching fluid?

what is its quench speed? how is it going to be better than air/oil/water/salt quenches normally used?  try it and see, what do you hope to get that you are not able to get now?

Check what it is based on first before you try, some are alcohol based, some ethylene, in both cases quite flammable, be prepared for flames at least.

Ethelien glycol is also a neurotoxin to cats and some other animals ( treatment is booze) check out the MSDS to se what the vampires will do to you.

Antifreeze is a quenchant for some metals....When in doubt google the metal you wish to quench and look for the proper quenchant for that use,,,

I hope to get harder quench witout the stress of a water quench. The steel is unknown scrap steel. It is a bearing race forged into a knife

Do you have a piece of the race left?  If so then take it down to about knife thickness and see what will work for a quenchant.  Do a search for testing for the correct quenchant for unknown steels.  This has been covered before (and I don't feel like typing that much).

 

If you don't have a piece left, good luck.

 

ron

bearing race sounds like chome in the matrix, and I already covered what that needs. Hope he reads it before dunking the knife.

I dug the race out of the drive way of a local gin. It could be 50+ years old. I did water quench test. It got very hard, but not brittle.

I think you are confusing polyethylene glycol quenchant with ethylene glycol antifreeze.  These are very different chemicals.  The preferred molecular weight of polyethylene glycol for metal quenching is about 10000l  The molecular weight of ethylene glycol in antifreeze is 62.07.  Polyamory sounds like amory, but they are also very different :)  Also, transforming the latter into the former is difficult.  Synthesis of the polymer is performed with ethylene oxide, which is very different stuff.  This reaction is not for the faint of heart.

 

It is recommended to start with simpler non-toxic polymers that are easier to acquire.  It might be worth experimenting with some easily prepared food based polymers.  I have not heard anything about cornstarch mixtures, but they seem to have interesting properties.  I have heard that psyllium seed extract can succesfully used as the foundation of a polymer quenchant.  Carrying out polymer syntheses in the blacksmith shop is not for the inexperienced, especially reactions that are subject to runaway polymerization.

FYI. I abandoned the idea of anti freeze and used cooking corn oil to quench the knife I'm working on.

Good Morning,

 

3lbhammer, I hope you are paying attention to what the previous replys have said. Blood doesn't care where it runs. :(

 

Neil

Ethylene glycol in the pure form is a FLAMMABLE liquid. Flammable liquids will make a vapor cloud that can explode if over their flash point.

In the winter I put the non-poisonous RV anti-freeze in the slack tub. I don't know how it compares to oil, but it definitely does not cool steel to be as hard as water.  I would be interested in anyones research on using RV anti-freeze. 

If I am not mistaken RV antifreeze is Poly Gylcol, and that is both friendlier to the enviroment, pets but is also not nearly as flammable.

The "non-toxic" antifreeze is propylene glycol.  It's not as bad as ethylene glycol, but can cause problems with repeated exposure.

 

ron

The cooking oil did what I needed.

The knife has some hammer marks, but it will make a good hunter. I raised it to bright red heat and oil quenched. I "soaked" in oven heat of 425 degrees for 1.5 hrs and cooled in water. I then heated the back of blade to blue on electric stove and let the edge remain cool with no color run.

I did water quench I piece of this steel before starting on the knife. It got really brittle hard, but not like a file. It would not scratch with a file, but did not shatter like quenched file steel.