Took me 4 hours to figure out I was quenching in the wrong oil

I kept getting tiny cracks on my chef knives and blamed my heat treat. Turns out I was using canola oil when I should have been using warm fast oil for that 1095 steel. Has anyone else wasted a whole weekend on a dumb rookie mistake like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

butler.shane9d ago

Man, that's a rough one. I gotta ask though, what made you finally check the oil temp? Was it a random thought or did you actually see something in the steel that tipped you off? Because I've been there where you just keep repeating the same steps hoping for a different result. Like with me, I was grinding bevels too thin before quench on some W2 and ended up with warped blades for a month before I realized it was my stock prep. It's crazy how one little detail like oil weight or temp can screw everything up when you think you've got it dialed in.

eva_lewis9d ago

Check your oil temp every single time.