Can we talk about quenching a big knife in my backyard forge last summer

I was hardening a 10-inch chef's blade in my shop in Boise, and the oil bath caught fire when I quenched it (scary, right). I dropped the tongs and smothered the flames with a welding blanket I keep nearby, but the blade warped pretty bad. What's your go-to move when a quench goes wrong like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

victorb513d ago

That exact thing happened to me with a camp knife in my Portland garage. I see this pattern all the time where people, myself included, focus so hard on the main task we forget the backup plan. You had the blanket, which is smart, but the warping shows the heat was still wrong. My go-to now is to always check the oil temp with a cheap thermometer before the steel even goes in the forge. It stops most of these surprises before they start.

victorb513d ago

Oh perfect, my backup plan was to ruin it slightly slower.

the_fiona2d ago

That thermometer trick is a total game changer. I started using one after a similar disaster with a small hatchet. It's wild how much just a few degrees off in the oil can completely wreck the temper. A cheap digital one from the kitchen section works fine.