RodneyJ
Well-Known Member
Do you still have a contact number for the Houghton dealer? I went on line and tried to find a dealer but have not gotten a response yet may need to try again
Eye opening quench test results.
- Thread starter Kevin R. Cashen
- Start date
Do you still have a contact number for the Houghton dealer? I went on line and tried to find a dealer but have not gotten a response yet may need to try again
Seth Howard
Active Member
I used the contact number on the Houghton webpage. They put me in touch with a local dealer. They very nice and helpfull.
Seth
Seth
Leatherface
Well-Known Member
gnique
Member
This thread seems like an appropriate place to ask a question that I have wanted to ask for a very long time. I bought five gallons of CLC Quench K 186. I bought it because I really didn't know any thing at all about quenchants (I still don't). All I knew was that I thought that I wanted a fast oil. I called and talked to the guy who OWNS the cotton pickin' company and explained what I wanted. He sent me this stuff. It seems to me like it works just fine but I really don't know. The technical data sheet that I received with the oil said that its quench speed is 190 ft/sec. How does that equate to 9 seconds? I have read a lot of material about quenchants so I know a lot of stuff about what is supposed to go on down at the atomic level and all of that but I can't see them liddle buggers. My O1, 15n20 and 1095 blades skate a file, they take and hold an edge, they flex over a brass rod. I looked at Kevin's micro-graphs on this thread and I have just got to wonder how do you ever really KNOW if what you are doing is the best that can be done. I can tell you one thing - the guy at CLC is a nice guy who was very helpful to some fool out in Oregon wanting to buy five gallons of oil that he normally sold by the tanker truck load. Thanks guys. Nicholas
Kevin R. Cashen
Super Moderator
This is a pretty important thing that should not be overlooked, this attitude is rare in industry which has always made it difficult for knifemakers. The ft/sec. vs seconds in cooling time is one such example of different tests and concepts of speed used by industry and making it hard to compare products. Some oil guys base it on viscosity and not cooling rate, and although the two are connected they are not synonymous. O-1 requires a different speed oil than 15n20 or 1095, the later two are the ones that need fast oils.
How do you ever really know if what you are doing is the best that can be done? It is easier than it sounds, and it doesn't require microscopes. Set your own goals and standards and relentlessly work toward them. Do not get hung up on perfection or 100% levels that really cannot be obtained. See if your knives hold the edge you are happy with, that is really ultimate test and goal after all. The brass rod test thing would require a thread unto itself but in short it is more affected by the edge geometry than by heat treat and thus can tell you nothing about how much pearlite you have mixed into the martensite that is skating a file.
One test that is an industry standard, works rather well at detecting that nasty stuff as you can see from my image, and is fairly available to most knifemakers is a Rockwell tester; if a knifemaker doesn't own one the chances are very good they know somebody who does. If you don't have a tester in your shop you don't need to Rockwell every single blade, if your heat treat is consistent just a test sample every now and then will tell you that you are still on track. However it is that little caveat of "consistent" that makes things like quenchants designed to be very stable over the long haul so critical.
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SteelSlaver
Well-Known Member
One of the greatest tools I have gotten for my knife making is an Ames portable RC tester. Small easy to use with a little practice and amazingly accurate once I got the hang of it. I got mine off Ebay for about $150. Make sure it comes with the diamond penetrator. Mine did not, but luckly the seller got it for me. I have learned a few lessons with it.