Aluminum Quench Blocks, Will This Work?

MTBob

MTBob

Well-Known Member
I'm setting up to heat treat stainless steel. I dug around in my junk pile and found 2 blocks that seem like they would work for most of my knife sizes.
Rather than building some kind of vice clamp arrangement, I'm thinking that the weight of the blocks should be adequate for heat transfer.
I"ll add a handle to the small block and put the knife / pouch between the two blocks.
Will that be sufficient heat transfer for stainless?
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those are really great looking pieces of aluminum......i use 1 inch thick with good results........if you have a good size bench vice stand the aluminum lenghtwise in the jaws and slip your foil wrapped blades in between and tighten a bit......it will suck the heat out real fast......i also use these plates to clamp all my high carbon knives into as soon as i remove from the oil quench......especially fillet knives.....no warped blades....if you dont have a large bench vice i am sure quick clamps will work
 
Those will work just fine, but I would use a set of clamps like this item Accessbuy Toggle Clamp
#B0756FRWSM on Amazon. Mount the clamps on the edge of the 7" wide block, lay blade on bottom, lay 6" wide on top of blade and clamp with clamps. The clamping is more to prevent warp than for faster heat transfer.
 
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Absolutely. I was really fortunate to come across some 1" thick stock. And a lot of it. When I'm bulk heat treating I still have to dip in ice water to bring it down in temps when doing alot of repeated SS heat treats. Aluminum sucks the heat out but retains that heat.
 
Those will work just fine. I would use some sort of clamp. Perhaps a weight source. You do not want to give the knife blank any reason to warp. Forced air/compressed air helps speed the cooling process.
 
I bought a cheap woodworking vice drilled and tapped the aluminum plates and attached a 2x4 to it so I could clamp the vice and plates in a bench vice horizontally then clamp away!! Works GREAT!!
 
Those blocks look great. I have some large 1" blocks in a wood workers vise. The large flat sides are positioned one above the other. The vise has a quick release so I can lay the blades on one block and then drop "slowly" the other block on top of the blades...
 
Here is my set-up. It's bolted to my work bench. The last picture shows how it has to be mounted inside the bench to function properly. There are other ways to do this, but this worked great for me...

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It seems there are 2 approaches to quenching with aluminum - 1) apply little to no added pressure than the block weight, or 2) apply added pressure with some kind of clamping. In both methods compressed air helps the heat transfer.
Tracy has a long video on quenching stainless blades in which he uses simply the weight of the aluminum plate plus hand pressure coupled with compressed air to quench. His comments: "In use, place your knife from the oven, still in the pouch between the plates. Press flat with your hand. You don't need much pressure at all. Shoot compressed air all around in between the cracks. Your knife should be cool to the touch in just a minute or so."
See: https://usaknifemaker.com/quench-plates-pair-aluminum-1-x6-x8.html (jump to min 2:58)
I can't find the reference right now, but I think Larrin Thomas, in one of his videos, said that he did not use any clamping.
I can see one reason for clamping may be to minimize warping during cooling.
 
MTBob said:
It seems there are 2 approaches to quenching with aluminum - 1) apply little to no added pressure than the block weight, or 2) apply added pressure with some kind of clamping. In both methods compressed air helps the heat transfer.
Tracy has a long video on quenching stainless blades in which he uses simply the weight of the aluminum plate plus hand pressure coupled with compressed air to quench. His comments: "In use, place your knife from the oven, still in the pouch between the plates. Press flat with your hand. You don't need much pressure at all. Shoot compressed air all around in between the cracks. Your knife should be cool to the touch in just a minute or so."
See: https://usaknifemaker.com/quench-plates-pair-aluminum-1-x6-x8.html (jump to min 2:58)
I can't find the reference right now, but I think Larrin Thomas, in one of his videos, said that he did not use any clamping.
I can see one reason for clamping may be to minimize warping during cooling.
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Having the plates in the vise makes it much easier to use for me. There is no need to actually tighten the vise. I do, but you can just drop the plates and let the weight do the job. The vise has a quick release. Once I get the blade in the pouch on the bottom plate, I can very quickly drop the top plate. Then I can shoot compressed air if needed. With the first blade in a batch the plates don't really require compressed air. However, subsequent blades do because of the heat left in the plates from the first blade.

I also have a smaller set of plates I use without a vise. I just lay the pouch on one and lay the other on top. Occasionally I'll stand on them for a minute or put a 10-pound weight on the top.

I've never had an issue with either method. My AEB-L blades come out at a consistent 60-62 HRC after tempering 2 cycles for 2 hours each at 300F.

My small plates are 1x6x10 and my large plates are 1x8x18
 
CDHumiston said:
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I've never had an issue with either method. My AEB-L blades come out at a consistent 60-62 HRC after tempering 2 cycles for 2 hours each at 300F.
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Did you cyro the AEB-L. Seems like I read that it's not necessary but always wanting to learn from others.
 
This is my setup very similar to CD setup! Works very good. Out of oven in foil between plates, compressed air to cool as quick as possible, out of foil, file test quick and into RV Antifreeze and Dry-Ice for Cryo overnight. Read that this Cryo works by some and doesn't work by others?? Better way would be Liquid Nitrogen but I can't justify cost for container and fill ups! I usually get my Dry-Ice from people that have ordered food for delivery. If I have a batch to do I buy it about an hour away from me.
 

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Gliden07 said:
This is my setup very similar to CD setup! Works very good. Out of oven in foil between plates, compressed air to cool as quick as possible, out of foil, file test quick and into RV Antifreeze and Dry-Ice for Cryo overnight. Read that this Cryo works by some and doesn't work by others?? Better way would be Liquid Nitrogen but I can't justify cost for container and fill ups! I usually get my Dry-Ice from people that have ordered food for delivery. If I have a batch to do I buy it about an hour away from me.
Click to expand...
I've got a dewar but I haven't used it. I need to check the availability in my area.
 
opaul said:
Did you cyro the AEB-L. Seems like I read that it's not necessary but always wanting to learn from others.
Click to expand...

I do not Cryo my blades. I tried the dry ice and RV antifreeze method, and it was a mess. Cost me some cash and didn't improve my HRC or grain structure in the least. I do sometimes put my blades in the freezer when I'm backed up for space in my small tempering oven. I plan to buy a 1/2 size oven soon, but I have to get the wife to release $500...
 
I use a vise with aluminum plates, and clamp the blade in, still in foil if I’m using it. I don’t use a lot of pressure, probably about 50 lbs, and they come out nice. One thing that you need to do is make sure you use foil or a purge. I run nitrogen purge gas in mine, so I rarely use foil anymore. The high temps and long soaks that stainless needs will really scale up bad if you don’t.
 
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