Parks #50 smell question

[PMARTINKNIVES]

Hi Kevin, I have a question and I'm looking for your opinion. My normal HT setup is high and low temp salt but I use Parks 50 for quenching steel for temper lines, the first time I used it(parks 50), the fumes coming off smelled just like mineral oil and kerosene. I'm sure that mixture would work just fine, do they add some kind of anti-flare chemical to parks 50? Thanks in advance,




Peter

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

Hello Peter, how have you been? I didn't know you visited us here at this forum. Forgive me but I moved your question to a thread of its own from the Art of heat treating thread to keep things on topic there. Yes there are additives to Parks #50 that give it its own character to be sure, but Heatbath/Park metallurgical are rather tight lipped about it. I have been a consultant on efforts by other quench oil makers to duplicate the properties of the #50 and was given samples to test based on viscosity levels and I could have sworn it was pure kerosene, and still the Parks #50 beat it in outpacing pearlite. So I had to tell my clients that there was something going on there that was more than just viscosity, some pretty good chemical engineering seems to be at play. I personally always found Parks #50 to smell more like a very fine grade of machine oil. To me it is nostalgic to use the stuff because the smell reminds me of my favorite aunts sewing machine when I was a child, my aunt Julia was a fine seamstress and always kept her machine oiled with the finest oil.

 

[Romey]

Now Kevin , 14 knifmakers just quenched their blades in their wives sewing machine oil based on your post...:3:

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

Now Kevin , 14 knifmakers just quenched their blades in their wives sewing machine oil based on your post...:3:

:biggrin:Hehe... I hadn't thought of that, but your point is more valid that you may have intended Romey. I once just jokingly said that I found the quenching properties of Alberto V05 to be superior in many ways to other improvised quenchants to illustrate the absurdity of some home brews, but I then got a couple of e-mails wondering exactly what hair product would work best:31: You just never know what folks will take from something.

 

[One]

It would still need accelerators to shorten the duration a the vapor phase and maybe lengthen the boiling phase too. I think those types of accelerators are available commercially, but have no idea what's in them.