PSA: The quench oil temp matters way more than I thought

I was going through old blacksmithing notes from a guy named Pete I met at a demo in 2019, and he had a whole log about oil temperatures. Turns out if your quench oil is below 100°F, you can actually crack the steel because it cools too fast. I always just heated the blade and dunked without checking. Last week I finally used a laser thermometer on my bucket, and it was at 85°F. I warmed it up to 130°F with a torch and the difference in how the steel hardened was night and day. Anyone else ever check their quench temps before a heat treat?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessa_clark7411d ago

120 bucks on a laser thermometer just to learn I've been heat-treating wrong for years.

lindab4911d ago

120 bucks is rough but honestly that's cheap for the lesson. I burned through three batches of knife blanks before I finally bought a good thermometer and saw my oil was sitting at 110 instead of 130 like I thought. Feels like you wasted a lot of time and money but at least now you know where you stand. Heat treating is one of those things where guessing just doesn't work out. You probably saved yourself from a lot more failed blades down the road.

joel60311d ago

Same thing happened to me last year. Bought a cheap temp gun on Amazon and realized my oil had been running cold for way too long. Felt like a dummy but hey, at least we know now.