The quench plates do not contact the entire surface of the blade. That's the reason you shoot some air in between the plates. The contact the plates pull the heat away from the blade pretty fast including the edge or tapers that do not necessarily contact the plate. The pressure on the plates help with any warping but only where they have flat contact with the blade surface. The edge can still warp a bit. I've had this happen but it's usually nothing that can't be ground out easily.
Keep in mind this is generally done on air hardening steels and not necessarily on carbon steels that prefer an oil dunk.
a couple other things:
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Keep in mind this is generally done on air hardening steels and not necessarily on carbon steels that prefer an oil dunk.
a couple other things:
- You don't remove the foil wrap for the quench so put your seams on where they don't create a gap when the plates are pressed on the (burning hot) blade.
- I usually just use some hand pressure to hold the top plate in place. Wear a heavy glove so you don't accidentally get a burn from the foil. The plate will also get fairly warm.
- Some guys have made a quench vice by fastening plates to a large wood vice. I'd like to have one of those but just haven't gotten around to it. Most I think just use hand pressure on the top plate. It takes about a minute and you are shooting air the whole time so it's not a big deal to hand hold it.
- If you have trouble with the foil sticking to the blade, dust your blade with some baby powder.
- some guys put something (paper, cig butt, wood chip) inside the foil pouch to consume any oxygen. I used to this and stopped and the blades seem to have slightly less stubborn patina to remove after quench. I just don't see the tiny bit of oxygen trapped in the foil pouch as causing any significant decarb issues which is why some guys do that.
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