Is anyone around or available to certify me on the propane forge and quenching. I have a blade that I am working on and this is the next step. If someone could help me out and tell me what materials I need to provide I would really appreciate it.
Someone from @Team_Blacksmithing might be able to help out.
Timing
You’ll need to do the quenching outside. Doing multiple knives is more efficient.
I recommend doing it late in the day (7pm? Later?) so you can see the colors more clearly.
Quench Plan
Do you know the steel/have a plan for quenching? Do you know the quench temperature or just plan on “swagging it?”
Do you have special quench oil (like Parks 50) or just plan on using canola (new/used motor oil has a bunch of additives and is not recommended).
There is a steel pipe for oil quenching, and I think there is canola already in it. A steel non-leaky, oil-tight ammo can and canola oil is what I use.
Do you plan to preheat the oil?
To you need to normalize the blade before quenching? If it was forged or got discolored during stock removal the answer is likely “yes”. You can do this the evening of, or well ahead of time.
Default Plan
For a simple (non-alloy) steel (or mystery higher carbon steel) like 1080 you could try:
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plan for disaster: have an oil-rated fire extinguisher on hand
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preheat oil to 150 (too hot to comfortably touch) by heating a block of steel and dunking it in the oil to heat it. A railroad spike will do if you’ve nothing larger. Repeat if needed until temp reached. Does not need to be quench temp for heating the oil.
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heat knife to non-magnetic + 30 seconds Heating it inside a pipe In the forge will make for a more mellow/even heating and less oxygen/scale formation. Watch the tip/edge for overheating. - Edge down will heat the spine more.
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plunge the knife blade (but probably not the tang) into the oil. Move it up and down a little to widen the quench line, and move the blade back and forth (from edge to spine, not side to side) to keep fresh oil in contact with the blade.
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quench it longer than you think: keeping the blade in to oil too long won’t hurt it, but too short can prevent a good quench.
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have a plan B already set up in case the blade warps: a three point clamp in the post vise or metal slabs to clamp the blade between can minimize/correct warps (assuming the hardened blade doesn’t snap). The latter can help with twists, too.
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don’t drop the knife. It’ll be brittle and will likely break once quenched. .
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THanks for this. I will definitely incorporate all of this into my plan. But I won’t even attempt this without assistance and supervision. I am not accident prone and I don’t want to start now.
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Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that on Forged in Fire. 
I can help you out. I’ll be up there this weekend. I may have talked to you last Sunday.
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Yep. I was there Sunday. Thanks so much!
I was the one with the leather apron. My name is Tim
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