Quenching O1, 5160 and other medium quench steels

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

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Dec 27, 2013
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Hey guys, I have been looking into upgrading my quench set up with some fast quench oil for steels like 1095, W2 and W1. But what about slower quenching steels like O1? I would think Canola would be a medium speed quench, but i know they sell oil just for these medium speed steels. Does anyone have experience here or want to give advice on quenching O1?
 
Fast oils need to be the fastest and best. Medium speed oils can be much more broad. Most all quenchant suppliers carry a medium speed oil. For O-1, 5160, 1070, etc. these oils all work about the same. Heatbath/Parks AAA and Houghton- G are good ones.
 
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It isn't "bad", but it is usually "best" to match a steel's quench medium to the steel. For example, I use P50 to quench 52100, O1, O7, 15n20, 1095, 1084, W2, Cru Forge V, Blue2, 8670, VToku2. I have never had any issue, but others have had some blades crack using a fast oil like P50 on deeper hardening steels like O1 and CFV. A fast oil may induce some minor unwanted stress on the deeper hardening steels, and this is supported by some testimony given on this forum. So far, I've been lucky I suppose.
 
Lets put it in a simple analogy:

You have a souped up car that will do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. You also have a beat up old chevy truck that burns oil.

The hot rod is great for the drag strip where the speed is needed. If it isn't fast, it won't win.

Going through town go the race track in your hot rod, and stopping at every light, the same rapid burst of speed will get you from corner to corner, but the heavy braking will not be kind to your car. The speed might also get out of the safe range for the area, and cause other problems.

It would be best to put the race car on a trailer, and tow it slowly through town behind your old truck. Each has its best use, and is best used that way.
 
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I've done a few knives from O1 and had great success with canola oil quench.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Hey guys, I have been looking into upgrading my quench set up with some fast quench oil for steels like 1095, W2 and W1. But what about slower quenching steels like O1? I would think Canola would be a medium speed quench, but i know they sell oil just for these medium speed steels. Does anyone have experience here or want to give advice on quenching O1?
Click to expand...

try reading this piece https://www.researchgate.net/public...e_and_Quenching_Performance_of_Vegetable_Oils. here they found canola oil(and other veg oils) were faster than commericial "fast quench oil". time from 1550F to 400F was 30 seconds for canola and 50 seconds for commercial fast oil with the oil at 115F. this study used the newer ASTM and ISO "Quench" test, so it is hard to compare with quench specs from some makers who still quote the old test.
scott
 
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