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Tried quenching in warm oil instead of cold and got way less cracking
I've been heat treating knives for about 2 years and always used room temp canola oil. Last week I tried heating it to 130 degrees before quenching a 1084 blade and I swear I had zero cracks compared to my usual 1 in 3 rate. Has anyone else noticed a big difference with oil temp or am I just getting lucky?
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davidshah14d ago
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. I started preheating my oil to 140 degrees after reading a post from a guy who did 50 quenches in a row without a single failure. Warm oil moves way faster than cold oil, so the vapor blanket breaks sooner and you get a more even cool down. The difference was night and day for me especially with 1095 which cracks if you look at it wrong. Have you tried different steels yet or just sticking with 1084 for now?
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hannahj496d agoProlific Poster
Wait, have you noticed the same thing with 5160 or O1? I've been messing with both and warm oil is honestly a game changer for them too, but 5160 is way more forgiving than 1095 even with colder oil. For me, preheating to around 130-140 worked best for 1095 too, but I found that if I go any higher than that it actually starts to make the vapor blanket worse for some reason. Also, I tried 1084 for a while but switched to 1075 for most of my stuff since it's cheaper and still hardens in warm oil without being so picky about temps. What's your setup like for keeping the oil at a consistent temp, just a thermometer and a hot plate or something else?
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