- Joined
- Sep 29, 2015
- Messages
- 229
My first photo shows Houghto-Quench® K beside Parks 50 and I find it surprising that two oils that are supposed to have the same quenching characteristics look so different. Im not using Houghto-Quench® K in this test but I thought someone may find that interesting so I included a photo.
Here are my test pieces after quenching and I ground off the layer of scale and I put them here to show where I did my hardness tests. Because I always grip with my needle nose pliers on the end with the punch marks I take a reading in the dead center and then a second one halfway between that and the end that doesnt get gripped. After this photo I ground off another .007 and retested to get through the decarb layer.
The next two photos show I heated to 1475 Fahrenheit and then soaked the two pieces for 10 minutes and they were in the oven during ramp-up in the next photo shows the temperature of the quenchant.
I use 95°F because of these recommendations by Stacy. I actually tried to use 90F but the temp crept up on me but I don't see it making a difference.
Here are the containers being heated holding Parks 50 and Brine. This was pretty much all the Parks 50 I was sent so this is the volume that had to be used. I also did agitate both samples.
And here are the results:
Being told my conclusions previously are overreaching I will be cautious to only state what is strictly proven here. It looks to me like Parks 50 hardens this piece of W-2 almost as well as Brine and if you look at the numbers at the top of my test results those are the old figures for W-2 in Houghto-Quench® K which are below 50. I was actually surprised that agitating the Brine quench didn't give a higher hardness but instead is pretty close to the value when tested without agitation.
Personally if I were hardening W-2 or even 1095 I would use Parks 50 and wouldnt go near Houghto-Quench® K. Although Houghto-Quench® K hardened 1095 to 66 in one of my tests it did have a soft spot in the center and the fact it wont do W-2 (or at least the piece I have) I would feel much safer with Parks for both these steels. I mean why take a chance when you know one will definitely do the job and the other seems iffy on one and terrible on the other? I dont expect others to agree with my conclusions but use the evidence for your own.
Thanks again to kuraki for sending me the Parks 50 to make this test possible who was such a gentleman he wouldnt even allow me to pay for the shipping. Without his generosity I would not know what the problem was and if I should order some Parks 50 or not so it really bailed me out.
Here are my test pieces after quenching and I ground off the layer of scale and I put them here to show where I did my hardness tests. Because I always grip with my needle nose pliers on the end with the punch marks I take a reading in the dead center and then a second one halfway between that and the end that doesnt get gripped. After this photo I ground off another .007 and retested to get through the decarb layer.
The next two photos show I heated to 1475 Fahrenheit and then soaked the two pieces for 10 minutes and they were in the oven during ramp-up in the next photo shows the temperature of the quenchant.
I use 95°F because of these recommendations by Stacy. I actually tried to use 90F but the temp crept up on me but I don't see it making a difference.
Here are the containers being heated holding Parks 50 and Brine. This was pretty much all the Parks 50 I was sent so this is the volume that had to be used. I also did agitate both samples.
And here are the results:
Being told my conclusions previously are overreaching I will be cautious to only state what is strictly proven here. It looks to me like Parks 50 hardens this piece of W-2 almost as well as Brine and if you look at the numbers at the top of my test results those are the old figures for W-2 in Houghto-Quench® K which are below 50. I was actually surprised that agitating the Brine quench didn't give a higher hardness but instead is pretty close to the value when tested without agitation.
Personally if I were hardening W-2 or even 1095 I would use Parks 50 and wouldnt go near Houghto-Quench® K. Although Houghto-Quench® K hardened 1095 to 66 in one of my tests it did have a soft spot in the center and the fact it wont do W-2 (or at least the piece I have) I would feel much safer with Parks for both these steels. I mean why take a chance when you know one will definitely do the job and the other seems iffy on one and terrible on the other? I dont expect others to agree with my conclusions but use the evidence for your own.
Thanks again to kuraki for sending me the Parks 50 to make this test possible who was such a gentleman he wouldnt even allow me to pay for the shipping. Without his generosity I would not know what the problem was and if I should order some Parks 50 or not so it really bailed me out.
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