PetrifiedWood
Well-Known Member
Ok, I have made perhaps 20-30 knives so far. Not sure the exact number. I have been using O1 exclusively.
I've been quenching in mineral oil at about 130-140 degrees F. This gets the steel hard as verified by a set of hardness testing files. I also made a few "flint and steel" strikers out of O1, and as you may know, they will only throw sparks if they are sufficiently hard. Using the mineral oil quench, they did get hard, as verified by the files, and their ability to throw sparks when striking a sharp flint.
I subbed out some laser cutting and had a bunch of the strikers made, but they were made with 1095 instead of the O1 I'm used to. I ran the same temperature program in my kiln (Evenheat's website suggests the same for O1 and 1095). And, I quenched the 1095 in the same mineral oil. But, the strikers didn't spark! They also didn't harden according to the testing files.
So I tried a water quench and sure enough, the 1095 got nice and hard, and the strikers sparked just fine. I think I read elsewhere on this forum (perhaps even one of you guys pointed me in the right direction) that 1095 needs to quench to below 400 degrees F in about 4 seconds, while O1 is more forgiving with a 12 second time. My experience with the oil and water quenches would seem to support this.
Oddly enough, water quenching the strikers has caused some warping (not an issue given their intended use), but after making approximately 10-15 of the 1095 strikers and water quenching all of them, I've only ever heard the "tink" sound once that indicates a crack, though the striker did not come apart.
Still, I want to find a less violent quenchant that is easily sourced so I can start using steels that require faster quenches, but I don't want to have to special order purpose made quenching oils. A friend of mine who makes knives swears by regular old vegetable oil. It's certainly cheap and readily available, but the smell of rancid oil is nasty. His 1095 knives do get hard though and he has a guy that checks them with a real hardness testing machine.
And if I want to make springs from O1, what temperature do I need to temper them? And, how critical is it to get the blades into the tempering oven before they cool down to room temp?
I've been quenching in mineral oil at about 130-140 degrees F. This gets the steel hard as verified by a set of hardness testing files. I also made a few "flint and steel" strikers out of O1, and as you may know, they will only throw sparks if they are sufficiently hard. Using the mineral oil quench, they did get hard, as verified by the files, and their ability to throw sparks when striking a sharp flint.
I subbed out some laser cutting and had a bunch of the strikers made, but they were made with 1095 instead of the O1 I'm used to. I ran the same temperature program in my kiln (Evenheat's website suggests the same for O1 and 1095). And, I quenched the 1095 in the same mineral oil. But, the strikers didn't spark! They also didn't harden according to the testing files.
So I tried a water quench and sure enough, the 1095 got nice and hard, and the strikers sparked just fine. I think I read elsewhere on this forum (perhaps even one of you guys pointed me in the right direction) that 1095 needs to quench to below 400 degrees F in about 4 seconds, while O1 is more forgiving with a 12 second time. My experience with the oil and water quenches would seem to support this.
Oddly enough, water quenching the strikers has caused some warping (not an issue given their intended use), but after making approximately 10-15 of the 1095 strikers and water quenching all of them, I've only ever heard the "tink" sound once that indicates a crack, though the striker did not come apart.
Still, I want to find a less violent quenchant that is easily sourced so I can start using steels that require faster quenches, but I don't want to have to special order purpose made quenching oils. A friend of mine who makes knives swears by regular old vegetable oil. It's certainly cheap and readily available, but the smell of rancid oil is nasty. His 1095 knives do get hard though and he has a guy that checks them with a real hardness testing machine.
And if I want to make springs from O1, what temperature do I need to temper them? And, how critical is it to get the blades into the tempering oven before they cool down to room temp?
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