1075 quench...

bladegrinder

Well-Known Member
I just built a new quench tank for doing 1075, I'm going for hamons. I was quenching Damascus folder blades and small Damascus blades in a 4" vertical pipe with canola oil and haven't had any problems.

My new tank is 4" steel pipe also, 18" tall and will hold right about one gallon of Maxim 50.
my question is will there be enough volume of oil to get a proper quench on 1075?
my blades probably won't be over 10" in length with tang.
 
Quench oil is like hard drives and anvils- you can't have too much, but you can have too little. The oil will perform better and last much longer in a larger volume. 5 gallons is ideal, 2 gallons is about the lest I would go with for best results.
 
Dang it!, Thanks Kevin. I had a guy at work weld a base to this pipe the other day, then I checked how much water it would hold, and I just kept looking at it second guessing if that was going to be enough oil.

Well, back to the drawing board in search for a bigger metal container. I'm glad you told me this, I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve on anything that could go wrong because of second guesses.
 
Dang it!, Thanks Kevin. I had a guy at work weld a base to this pipe the other day, then I checked how much water it would hold, and I just kept looking at it second guessing if that was going to be enough oil.

Well, back to the drawing board in search for a bigger metal container. I'm glad you told me this, I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve on anything that could go wrong because of second guesses.

I just saw USA knifemaker has some nice quench tanks for a reasonable price. Don't know if you want to necessarily buy anything but……
 
I have access to 8" steel pipe, I just have to twist my welders arm to put a base on it.
the 8" is epoxy coated but I don't ever plan on heating it up.
I'm thinking maybe an old BIG fire extinguisher with the top cut off and some kind of band with arms coming off it on the bottom to keep it from getting knocked over..........the wheels are spinning.
 
I have access to 8" steel pipe, I just have to twist my welders arm to put a base on it.
the 8" is epoxy coated but I don't ever plan on heating it up.
I'm thinking maybe an old BIG fire extinguisher with the top cut off and some kind of band with arms coming off it on the bottom to keep it from getting knocked over..........the wheels are spinning.

I have an old stainless class "A" extinguisher that I cut the top off of, pinched a pour spout on one side and put a handle on the top, that I use for all my "on the road" quenching for demos. I love that thing! I used to have two of them but found out what happens if you put FeCl in a stainless vessel for a minute and then forget about it until the next day :(. It is not ideal for large amounts of quenching but for demos with around 2 gallons it is great!
 
I use an old fire extinguisher as well. 20 inches deep x 7 in dia, it holds more than enough to do a number of blades without overheating. I have a plate on a stem that sits on the bottom inside it and lift that to stir the contents after every quench to equalise the temp in the tank while I am doing a batch of blades.
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I haven't used mine except to help others lately (I've been A-2 air quenching...) But like Doug..a turkey roaster works great...$35 on sale at walmart. I have a thermometer mounted to the lid that goes deep in the oil...heat to the temp desired and quench away...
 
Well, I went to work today with a plan, 8" steel pipe. unfortunately the only 8" I was offered was in a stack of about 30 pipes
each 42' long. and on top of that it's epoxy coated with a top coat of powercrete, this pipe is designed for being installed under ground with a directional drill, the powercrete lets it get pulled thru buried cars, rocks and what have you without getting damaged. this stuff was an over run from a job but just looking at that stack kind of made be want to go another direction.

So we found a 5' piece of 6" regular epoxy coated steel. were going to weld a base plate to the bottom, fill it with 2.5 gallons of water, cut it about 4" above the water line and call it the new quench tank. :D

I should have it by the weekend, I'll post a pic. Thanks for all the replies guy's, hopefully this will be my answer to a good quench tank.
 
Well, here she is....6" steel pipe, 23" tall, it will hold 2.5 gallons at about 2" below the top.
it's pictured next to the 4" I originally had made and had me second guessing.
that one only held a gallon, so I feel much better about this one. :D

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I think you did the right thing. They both look nice and I'm sure you can use the small one for something - maybe fill it with vermiculite and use it for tempering after forging or something?
 
Thanks Cliff, no I'm not the welder but yea this is from my welder at work, we have a lot of 2"- 4" and 6" steel in the ground so he has a lot of experience welding on pipe.
I heat treated the blade last weekend and while it did come out with a nice hamon, it's been driving me nuts trying to get just the right finish on it.
when I did decide at one point "there it is"... I put the handles on, shortly after that I somehow scratched the blade.
so now I'm back to trying to refinish the blade with the handle on, my saving grace may be that I used G10 bolsters so I shouldn't have to worry too much about messing them up.

I knew this hamon gig was going to have a strong learning curve as to the polish and finish, and it's testing me now.
 
Well, here's my first knife with a hamon. I think it came out ok considering I had to bring the blade back to 1500 grit with the handle on it and re-etch it. while putting the handles on the blade got a bad scratch. I think it's ok for a first one. the G10 bolsters did help, ferric chloride doesn't do anything to it, so the re-etch was a success. anyway, here it is........

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Thanks Jason and Sean !
I'm looking forward to the next one but hunting season is still on here and the woods are calling me again. :D
 
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