Old timer at the scrapyard told me to use straight canola oil for quenching, called me crazy for using commercial quench oil

I was picking up some leaf springs at Evans Scrap in Detroit and this guy, must have been 80, said he's been using canola oil for 40 years and never had a crack. I figured hey, $8 a gallon vs $50, so I tried it on a 1075 chef knife last week and it hardened perfectly. Anyone else tried vegetable oils or am I just asking for trouble down the road?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_butler5028d ago

Yo @lilimurphy I bet that smell beat the burnt toast alarm my neighbor's wife set off when he tried quenching in old motor oil lol

lilymurphy28d ago

Oh man, my buddy tried that with some old truck leaf springs in his garage. Used canola oil and said it worked great for like a year until one day he went to quench and the whole kitchen smelled like burning popcorn for a week. His wife was not happy.