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I used to quench every blade in water until I tried canola oil last Tuesday
Always thought water was the way to go for hardening 1080 steel, but a guy at the regional hammer-in said I was asking for cracks. Swapped to canola oil at 130 degrees and didn't lose a single blade out of my last batch of 8. Anyone else made the switch and noticed a difference in edge retention?
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anna9832mo ago
Right? Water's like playing roulette with your steel... @morgan.mary nailed it about the micro-cracks, I bet half the failed blades I see online are from people too stubborn to ditch the water bucket. Canola at 130 is the move, and I swear my edges hold up better on the strop too. Makes you wonder how many good knives got snapped over the years just 'cause grandpa said "quench in water or go home"...
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Swore by water for years myself, thought anyone using oil was just being fancy. Then I snapped a chef knife on the third quench and that was the end of that. Switched to canola at 135 and my blades come out way more consistent. Edge retention seems a little better too, like the steel keeps a finer edge without the micro-cracks water can cause. Makes a real difference in how the blade feels on the stones later.
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ericb661mo ago
Is it just me or does this same kind of stubbornness show up everywhere, not just in the forge? I think about how my dad still insists on using a rusty old wrench instead of just buying a new one, or how people refuse to try a different route to work even though the usual one is always backed up. We get so locked into what we know (water quenching, grandpa's tools, the same old commute) that we miss out on something that works way better (canola oil, a 10 dollar wrench, a shortcut that saves 15 minutes). It's like we're all just scared of being wrong about the little things. But hey, I'll take a consistent batch of blades over being right about water any day.
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