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That old timer was right about quenching oil temperature
Overheard a greybeard at the scrapyard telling some kid that room temp canola oil is why his chisels keep cracking. Took like 3 ruined blades before I actually heated my quench to 130 degrees and my hardening issues went away. Anyone else found a specific oil temp that works best for 1080 steel?
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fionafoster8d agoTop Commenter
Read an old knife forum post that said preheating oil to 130-140 stops the vapor jacket from forming... that's when the oil boils around the steel and slows the quench. Makes sense once you think about it, cold oil just creates a steam barrier that messes with the hardening. I switched to warmed up canola and my 1080 stopped cracking too.
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morgan.jason13d ago
130 degrees? That's wild, I always thought you wanted it cold to shock the steel. I've been using room temp vegetable oil for years on my 1084 and never had cracking issues, maybe I'm just lucky or something. But now you got me wondering if I'm leaving performance on the table, like maybe I could get harder edges without the brittleness. I might have to try heating my bucket up next time, even if it feels wrong to put hot oil on hot steel.
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abby_cooper12d ago
@morgan.jason you're not wrong. Preheating to 130-140F stops the vapor jacket and gives a cleaner quench.
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