what oil should i use?

[Ethan B. A. Jackson]

hi im making a spring steel pig knife and am not sure what oil ishould use to quench it. would clean car oil work?

[Beau Erwin]

It would, but if you're tempering in your household oven, you might be better off using veggie oil as it'll smell less bad.

[Geoff Keyes]

I use Veterinary grade mineral oil. I get it at my local feed store. Dirty 30 works, but it stinks.

 

Geoff

[Ethan B. A. Jackson]

another thing i dont have a oven to temper it in . any help on this front would be a magor help.

[Geoff Keyes]

As an absolute last resort you can use a hot chunk of steel and a color draw, but this take practice and the results are....uncertain.

 

Any oven will do, including the one in your kitchen, since you rarely have to go past 500 degrees to temper a knife. A toaster oven will work, thought temperature calibration is an issue. A couple of cheap oven thermometers takes care of that.

 

Using the kitchen oven is one reason I went to mineral oil, much less stink than 30 weight, and so many less complaints from the other members of the household .

 

I found a giveaway oven on Craigslist, and I keep that in my shop as a tempering oven.

 

Geoff

[Ethan B. A. Jackson]

so what temp and how long should i do it for?

[Geoff Keyes]

Just how long is that string?

 

Are we talking a razor, a sword, an axe? What steel, 1095, 5160, 52100, W1? How is it going to used? Is hard more important than edge wear?

 

These are just some of the questions that need to be answered, before we go on.

 

Geoff

[Ethan B. A. Jackson]

this is a pig hunting knife about 6 inches and will be used to kill wild boars by stabing them throught the heart. made out of 5160. needs to hold a edge well. im going to clay temper it so it has a soft body and a hard edge.

[Geoff Keyes]

Well, whatever you are doing. I like 5160, it was the first steel I had extensive exposure to. I'd do at least 3 normalize steps before the HT, a single HT, and triple draw at 400F. Unless you are doing a dagger, I'd do a differential HT, no clay. I don't think you'll get much added performance out of a clay coat (though some of the clay guys may want to weigh in on that).

 

This is just my .02, but the first several ABS test knives I made for the performance test were 5160. The final knife was 1084, but it's just that I've come to prefer 1084 as an everyday performer.

 

Geoff