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Quenchants and their relative speeds


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By Steve Sells taken from the book Knifemaking 2.0 and the IFI archive

 

Here are a few quenchants and their relative speeds

Brine, 5-6 seconds

Canola oil, 10-11 seconds

Chevron Quenching oil 70, 10.5 seconds

Citgo Quenching Oil 0510, 14.5 seconds

Drasta 119S, 13-16 seconds

Drasta 117S, 8-12 seconds

Duratherm G, 11 seconds

Duratherm Superquench 70, 10 seconds

Gloc Quench A, 11 seconds

Gulf Super Quench 70, 11 seconds

Houghton G quench, 10-11 seconds

Houghton K, 7-9 seconds

HP Metaquench 39 14.6 seconds

HP Metaquench 42 14.2 seconds

HP Metaquench 43 12. seconds

HP Metaquench 44 8.9 seconds

McMaster quench all, 28 seconds

McMaster quench fast, 11 seconds

Parks 50, 7-9 seconds 280°F

Parks AAA; 10-11 seconds 340°F

 

The ideal quenchant is one that exhibits little or no vapor stage, a rapid nucleated boiling stage and a slow rate during convective cooling.  This is why most experienced smiths advocate the use of commercial quenchants over used fryer oils.

Quenchant speeds are a standard measurement based on the time it takes to cool a 7/8 inch (22mm) diameter nickel ball from 1625°F to 670°F (885°C to 355°C).

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  • 3 years later...

Thanks for this info Glenn. Do you have a reference for where this data came from? I know the commercial quenchants typically have that in their tech sheets, but I don't think I've seen it for the cooking oils before.

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