The day I stopped quenching in water was the day my blades stopped cracking

Spent 5 years doing it the "traditional" way, water quench on everything. Last spring I had 3 outta 4 knives split at the edge after heat treat. A guy in Ohio at a regional meetup said try canola oil at 130F, I called him crazy. First knife after switching, zero cracks and the grain looked way better. Anyone else stubborn about their quench medium for too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_webb1mo ago

Wait till you hit a bad batch of canola and see how fast that theory flips.

brian_smith629d ago

I hear you on that. Bad oil is another kind of headache and it makes you second guess everything you just switched to. But I'd still take a bad canola batch over the days I spent with water cracked blades and a pile of ruined steel. Both will make you want to pull your hair out, just in different ways. Hope you find a steady supplier and don't have to deal with that too often.