Thread: quenchant question

Originally Posted by Atchbo

I would use the canola or cottonseed. Peanut or even coconut should even work, and I think both are low-smoking oils. Olive would be more expensive and a bit more smoky, but I doubt there's any difference for this purpose. I used to work in biodiesel, and played with different oils a bit.

The stench of olives aside there should be no difference.

The issue with using any vegetable oil is flash point. I'm not sure what the various oils flash point is, but you should be able to find that on line. You want the highest temperature flash point you can get, given the kinds of veg oil that are available to you. Having the surface of your quench tank catch fire can cause problems. All that said, I'm using some freebie used deep fryer oil from McDonalds.

use canola on the 5160, d2 I don't use anymore, I have used transmission fluid to quench it though. 5160 is a good blade steel imho usually now I use 1095,1084, 5160. even in my Damascus I use 5160,1n520 and 1095 or 1084 if I am out of 1095.

some light reading
Quenching and Heat Transfer Properties of Aged and Unaged Vegetable Oils
Ester C. de Souza, Luiz F. O. Friedel, George E. Totten, Lauralice C. F. Canale
Abstract | References Full Paper: PDF (Size:367KB), PP.41-47, Pub. Date: 2013-01-24 Downloads: 947

Link here:
Journal of Petroleum Science Research

Thanks Robbie.
i went with what i had available - 20 litres of canola oil.
So far, so good. Works fine. big tank helps as well.

Just makes me think of fish and chips whenever I quench a blade - i'm using canola too. 5 litres, bought in a self contained quenching tank.