Thread: quenchant question

Hi Guys,
I am predominantly forging two types of steel at the moment. O1 and 5160.
Due to availability and cost where I am, I am planning on using a vegetable oil as a quenchant.
I have olive oil, canola oil and cottonseed oil available to me.
Question, as far as properties of efeecetiveness go, is one any better than the other for these steel types? My quench drum is steel, 10 litres and has a steel lid.
Hoping some of the more experienced smiths will share their opinions on this.
Respectively,
Adam

For the quality you strive for, I assumed you used truffle oil

Where'd you get the steel from Adam?
O1 from bholer I asume and the 5160 ?

It matters diddly squat
The only consideration would be that quenching read hot steel creates fumes and smells, and as such one type of oil might be better, just because of smell alone. For that reason I would hesitate to use olive oil. Because I suspect it will reek. I use maize oil myself, because it is dirt cheap and smells pretty neutral.

Pre-heat your quenching oil by 1 or 2 times quenching a red hot piece of steel and stir it around.

I used for a long time vegetable oil preheated to around 150 °F.

Thanks Guys.
i have some old files i believe are O1 and some Toyota 4WD coil springs i belive are 5160. i will also be purchasing some new, definitely identified O1 and 5160 from Gameco in Australia, so i will have some benchmarks to work with.
the 2nd hand materials are good forging practise for cheap.

Gameco have some nice Smithing porn hey

Originally Posted by Substance

Gameco have some nice Smithing porn hey

Yep, sure do. i visited their stand at the first International Cutler's Expo in Sydney and picked up some new tongs. If i had a spare five grand i could easily have spent it all at their stand.
Great guys to deal with as well. As i was on a tight budget, i told them what i wanted to do and they helped me trim the candy store down to a couple of purchases that would do the job - and they were spot on.

If I was using mystery steel (files) I would use canola from that choice. Better still get some quenchant.
O1 is pretty tolerant so doesn't really matter. Don't know about 5160 so other than quenchant, I would hedge for warm brine with that combination.

JG

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.