Learned the hard way about quenching oil temperature last Thursday

I had a batch of railroad spike knives come out all brittle and cracked. Turns out my canola oil was sitting at 70 degrees instead of the 120-130 range I thought it was at. Picked up a cheap infrared thermometer from Harbor Freight for $25 and now I check every time before I dip. Anyone else run into issues when their oil gets too cold?

2 comments

2 Comments

perez.cole11d ago

Honestly I never even check my oil temp and I've been doing this for years. Cold oil makes a cleaner quench if you ask me, less shock but still gets hard enough for everyday use. That cheap thermometer is just another thing to overthink.

joel28010d ago

Is it really that deep though? I mean we're just dunking hot metal, not doing brain surgery.