Which Quenching Oil is Best for Knives? 

This. This is the best thing I’ve found in many years of funneling content into my system. The good stuff tends to be much higher preferred -/ this is the GOOD STUFF. THIS IS QUALITY CONTENT. Thoroughly impressed with your amount of knowledge, your scientific approach, and your demeanor. This is really good content and above par for the course. Thank you.

OUTSTANDING! You answered a lot of questions I had and some I didn't know to ask. I have been using Olive oil and it seems to be faster than canola... but I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy parks. Thanks again Larin!

Yes! Yes! Finally a video where someone used a scientific method with charts on hardness of quenching in different media! Thank you so much! I've been looking for someone to do this for ever! I would have myself, but the $$ and not having the time has been an issue. Great work!!

This is the explanation and information that I've been looking for for 5 years. I've read multiple articles on hardening but you not only explained it and provided specific for common steels. Outstanding.

I would love to see what would happen if you floated a gallon of quenching oil on top of water so that when you went to quench you could insert the steel into the oil only part for the first couple of seconds and then push down further to get to the water if it would help achieve a higher hardness as well as maybe prevent some of the issues from the extremely fast quenching of water.

Thank you so much for doing actual experiments to document the effectiveness of quench options. I started with canola, as many do, but am now convinced that a proper HT oven and Parks 50 are what I need to get the most out of the 1084 I generally use for knives. Sure, I've made some decent knives without proper soak times and without the proper quenching solution, but I don't want to make knives that are only "decent."

Thanks Larrin for your time and for sharing. Regards Davy Thomas

Love that this community has someone like you… as a lover of the scientific model I really appreciate the work you do👍

Saving this to my knife making folder! Thank you for sharing your scientific knowledge and wisdom. I've only made a couple fixed blades from already hardened steel and then tempered them, but I plan on working with 1085 and 1095 to start out from scratch. This helps a lot and will probably help me avoid a lot of costly mistakes in the quenching realm. Well done!

Thank you! The only one explaining this things using science and experimentation... Not just "ive been doing it like this all my life " thanks

As someone who is just starting hobby knife making I am sadened to know this about canola. But man is this an extremely informative and well put togther vedeo! Thank you

Thank you so much for your contribution to the community! 😊

Hank you for putting this together. Every knife maker can benefit from your studies

I have been doing some research on quench oils, and your video by far has been the most helpful of any information out there. Love the chart of metals to preferred quench types.

These videos of yours are a pure gold. Thank you.

Although I feel way out of my league watching this, I thoroughly enjoy scientific results. Thank you for all you do for the community Dr. Thomas.

Wow, a credible, unbiased catalog of knife steel with ratings, all in 1 place. Now I won't have to dig up and parse anecdotal information to make decisons!

Loved every second!!! Please consider making this a weakly or monthly vid! 🙏

You answered a question that was asked so many times! I guess quenching oil demand will go up now. 😁 Thanks for this study! 👏

Absolutely wonderful information as always thank you for all you done for all of us knife makers just starting out your book and videos are absolutely gold in my opinion.

Fantastic video and fantastic work and testing performed! Thank you! Right now I am new to the hobby and have only used 5160 and vegetable oil. I'll be moving to parks 50 soon because I want to use other steels also.

I love what you do. I am learning a LOT. Thank you

You probably just saved my first 1095 knife. I was going to use motor oil.

You have made something which was really needed and precious. God bless you.

My father was a metallurgist and worked for us steel. Unfortunately, he never talked about his work or his discipline. So I know nothing about this. But I am very interested in axe and knife making procedures and learned a lot from this video. Thanks.

Hello; Excellent video. Every knifemaker should at least have your book; I bought it twice (one for on my bookshelf, the other for in the workshop). I mostly use 1.2442 (my favorite steel), 1.2695, niolox and vanax superclean. You can probably tell I'm European and mostly make kitchen knives :D

I was so glad and surprised to see you on this platform! Thanks a lot for your work!❤️🖤

Thank you! I was just googling this last night! Happy to hear from the expert.👍

This type of stuff is why I’m going to school to get a degree in metallurgy!

I am in total agreement that canola is a sub-par quenchant for 1084 (or any fast quenchant steel), but your data seems to indicate that you could only achieve 41 hrc at .003 distance from the surface. This is what is going to set people off and make people question this test. Certainly canola isn't as good, but it can attain higher than 50 hrc on a regular basis. How could it perform so low on your test? It would be interesting to see the left side of that curve from surface hardening all the way to 0.03 depth to see if you're actually attaining the 50 or 55hrc that canola users see when doing tests.

Fantastic video mate. I’m so glad people like you exist.

Nice job. A cool follow-up video would be interesting to see how some air quenching steels behave in oil versus plates versus still air.

Breaking canola hearts!

Stunning data presentation. Thank you!

Great vid and that book is amazing, everyone who makes knives should consider giving it a read, IMO.

Mind. Blown. Phenomenal video sir. Thank you much.

In general which is the best oil to get for doing a variety of steel.. I think you should try some of the old quenching methods such as olive oil animal fat coconut oil and a mixture of all of them and maybe even some used vegetable oil from a fryer

Excellent video

Thank you for this. Mental retention is little because of hard tempering of brain, but it's in memory for recollection later, sort of like a primer.

Very useful stuff, as always. Thanks for all the work you do!

Superb video 👌🏻 Thank you for taking the time to do the leg work and share your results - invaluable to a maker such as myself. Perhaps put a drop of any oil on your evenheat door latch 😂

Is peanut oil pretty much the same as canola?

Pure gold! Thanks for making your way to the Tube :)

Wow, so for our beginner statting out with basic carbon steel, humble water is better than you'd expect.

Larrin, Thank You!

I learned alot of new stuff form this video, thank you for all the effort!

Love it. Hope you put out more

Would love to see a similar video that includes salt bath quenching.......

Thoroughly enjoyed you covered all steels I am likely to use thank you

Thanks, man. You are the best! I have to try to fiddle with sunflower oil. Because it's the most common around here

I've heard that many of the old timers use transmission fluid

I would love it if you addressed quenching in blood. I've read a lot of old wives tales and seen a lot of ancient texts about 15th century slave owners plunging hot steel through their slaves in order to quench these 'bloodblades'.

Do you plan to do any tests of "modified oils" such a cutting AAA with kerosene to speed it up to a fast oil or "super quench" brine etc? Would be great to see some of these things "Mythbusted" thanks for the hard work 👍

Thank you for sharing this information, and I look forward to reading your book!

Based on your articles and the video I've now got Parks 50. I would loved to see a brine solution tested as well. I've read some knowledgeable bladesmiths say brine is more controlled that plain water. Perhaps that's the "hard water" you mention? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

How tf do y'all only have 5K subscribers?

Thank you so much for this great video

You are a real boon to the knife-making community. Thank you! I'm curious about different quenching procedures, like quenching in water for two seconds, then sticking it in oil in order to avoid cracking but still being able to get hardness. You know, things like that. Also quenching with agitation and quenching without agitation. Maybe even ideal edge thickness before quenching. There's also water with salt and water without salt. And then there's peanut oil. I'm curious about best quenching procedures when doing a Hamon in order to get hard hardness and contrast without cracking the blade. I mean, you could avoid cracking the blade by keeping it thick, but I it only hardens on the outside, then you have to grind the hardness away. So there's got to be an ideal thickness to avoid cracking but still having a hard edge.

Thank you, Larrin. You’re knowledge is incredible and your website is invaluable. I saw your interview at one of the recent blade shows talking about Magnacut. Congratulations! I’ve only been making knives for a year or so and it’s going really well. I hope to get my hands on some Magnacut one day, lol. I would be very interested in you doing hardening tests on some stainless steels. I’m very fond of AEB-L. I usually plate quench and temper around 365 after a LN2 soak, but I’m not sure if that’s the best way. Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated. I’ll sub on patreon and reach out there. Thank you again!

Man this was great. Unfortunately I've been doing it all wrong apparently lol. Thank you for doing this video! 👊

Very useful information. Thank you.

Is olive oil significantly different than canola oil for hardening?

DUDE! YER FREEKIN AWESOME! Thanks for all you rwork but let me ask a question.....thanks. I see many smiths full temper a knife then toss it in an oven at 400 for 2 hours. WHAT DOES THAT DO TO THE STEEL/ TEMPER???????? Thank you

where dos peanut oil fall on the nickel ball test chart?

My wife got so pissed when she couldn't find her canola oil and saw what I did with it. I didn't think that through.

I have heat-treated thousands of blades that are oil Hardening,most 1/16 th material. A thought which I intend to try is to have 2 quench tanks ,1to emerse for a couple of seconds and the other to cool to handling Temp, I'm curious.

What about heating the oils to different tempretures? I found that at least with canola the oil temp has a very big impact

What about peanut oil?

Thank you so much!

Hey do any of these oils ever expire or become less effective with time or use?

80crv2 i was told to thermal cycle before hardening

What about quenching 1095 in transmission oil.

OK so W2 failed to harden with Parks 50 but fully hardened with AAA, which is supposed to be a slower oil. That just put my understanding upsidedown.

you ever heard of HOUGHTO-QUENCH® K? Apparently (nearly) as good/fast as Parks 50. Reason I ask is that it is avaialble here in Canada in a 5 gallon pail for $225+- plus shipping and sales tax...hard to find many options in small quantities. Thanks.

Which oil is fast oil? Can you tell me what type is Engine oil like used in electric transformal?

0:02 Hi Larrin.

I watched a video by Black Beard Projects called "Stainless Steel Heat Treatment: Oil vs. Plate Quench" and in that video he showed a reduced hardness resulted from oil quenching an air quench stainless steel (and warping). I can understand the warping, but why did cooling the knife faster cause it to be SOFTER than the air cooled sample?

Dr. Thomas, Alpha has the heat treat temp for 80CrV2 at 1545 to 1615 so the middle temp would be 1580 for five minutes and 1/4 thick I would hold for ten mins. They do instruct to quench in oil. Seems hot to me, but your results are not very good with any oil. It is actually more similar to O1 except a little less Carbon and no tungsten, plus it has .25% Silicon and .20% Vanadium.

I am quite confused on one part of your video. Namely, the hardness scale chart about 12 minutes in regarding 1084 quenching in canola oil and only getting 41 and lower on the scale. I, an admittedly amateur, am regularly using canola on 1084 and getting somewhere between 60-65 hrc according to my Tsubosan hardness files then tempering down to 55-61 depending on knife purpose. What am I missing in your data set?

Love it.....so much 😁

Hmmm, interesting. I did learn water isn't as bad an idea as I thought.

Noob here. Was wondering which steel tested is closest to 5160? Thank you

Could you elaborate slightly on what causes micro cracks? I know normalizing around 1550 (for 1095) gets carbon in solution and around 10 min is what you recommend in your book for a hold time if you’re trying to do it in a forge. What temp/ hold time would create conditions for “too much carbon in solution” and elevate chances of forming micro cracks?

you quench 1084 with water? thought it needs oil?

Man! Great job! But.... I just quenched 7 blades of 1095 in Canola =(

Do any knife guys here do a cryogenic quench step?

Has anyone done tests on the soluble oil with different mix ratios , being a thin oil that mixes with water it would have to work similar to a fast quench and no where near the ridiculous prices of parks 50

Where do you think corn oil would come in?

Question : what would be a good steel to try making a knife at home ?

Wow I guess I need to get parka 50

You gots to use bacon grease

Man, eye opening. Just a home cook that enjoys knives, but love following along. Based on these new experiments, which quenchant would you lean toward for Magna Cut?

Thanks Larrin! Could you test DOT3 brake fluid as a quenchant? I suspect it to be a fast oil, but I'm not sure.

Sorry my english isnt very good, when you said beyond 1/8 inch water hardening did you mean by that thicker or thinner metal 18:00, thanks in advance

Well now I'm just confused. Not sure exactly what the explanation is but I've done several 1084 and 1075 knives quenched in 140degree canola oil and got WAY higher hardness than your test results. Now, to be clear, I was getting my ROUGH hardness results from the hardness testing files so those certainly aren't exact at all but I was skating the 60-65 file. On top of that, I can certainly tell in use that the knives got way harder than 43 rockwell. Would this may have something to do with the difference in you quenching a square flat chunk vs me quenching a ground blade?

Hello. Which one do you recommend for 80Crv2? I don't know English. I use google translation. I will be glad if you answer

Hello again Dr Thomas. I caught your recent interview with Blade HQ (Blade Show) and enjoyed what was discussed. Relating to my first question about D2 relating to O2, and A2. Does the "2" in the three steel types derive the same value in all three?

Great video. Just curious as to whether you heated up the canola oil to 130F or more for the experiment? This is something I have been told to do to get the best results out of canola. Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have.

Ok, so can I quench 1084 in water since it hardened all the way through?

I'm no steel engineer I have no idea about this stuff but for funzies would graphite suspended in oil quenching give any variation to the steel? I just want to see if anything added during the quenching prices can yield favorable results