quenching high carbon steel in a water/charcoal slurry

scott.livesey

Dealer - Purveyor
Good morning,
while looking at hand made knives from Japan, several different makers say they use a water/charcoal slurry for their heat treat quench. the steels they are heat treating are 1084/1095 equivalents. does anyone have any experience with this or should I file it with SUPER QUENCH made from used fry oil, ATF, and hydraulic fluid.
the old sailor
 
Seems like it could be comparable to a "brine" quench, where salt in used to reduce air/steam pockets in the water. I wouldn't expect there to be much advantage in using charcoal over salt, but I would expect you get a very aggressive quench in either case, where you're using water instead of oil.

Definitely curious to hear if anyone has experience with brine vs. charcoal.
 
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