I finally saw the light on quenching oil after a blade cracked in half

I was using the same canola oil mix for everything for like 3 years, thinking it was fine. Then a chef's knife I made from 1084 steel snapped during tempering, and a guy at the Seattle guild meetup asked if I ever tried Parks 50 for that steel. It got me thinking, is it better to have one general purpose quenchant you know well, or to match the specific oil to the steel every single time? What's your take on this?

3 comments

3 Comments

david_rivera41mo ago

Heard Parks 50 is the gold standard for 1084.

brian_ramirez1mo ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my buddy's whole saga with it. He finally got his hands on a tiny jug after months of waiting, right, and then he knocked the whole thing over in his shop. The floor got a crazy good quench, but his blade didn't. He was just staring at this puddle of "gold standard" for like ten minutes straight.

the_pat28d ago

That bit about the puddle getting a "crazy good quench" cracked me up. I used to be in the same boat, thinking one oil for everything was just fine and dandy. I figured if I knew my canola mix inside and out, that was better than having to fiddle with different oils for different steels. But after a 1095 blade came out way too soft and a buddy let me try his Parks 50 on the exact same batch, I totally changed my mind. The difference was night and day, like the steel woke up or something. Now I keep two jugs around and it's a pain but the results speak for themselves.