Can you quench a blade in mercury?

In order to quench your sword in mercury, you need to displace more than one and a half times its own weight in mercury - and you need to put a corresponding amount of pressure on the blade. However, quenching is done while the metal is still hot and partially malleable.

What liquid do you quench a blade in?

Motor oils are a common type of quenching oil used in both blacksmithing and bladesmithing applications. New and used motor oils can be used for quenching and are both widely available. New motor oil is typically cheaper to use than commercial quenching oils.

What are blades quenched in?

What is this? Oil quenching works best for knives, blades, and some hand tools because these types of steel are generally rated for oil quenching. Furthermore, it quenches faster than compressed air. While it does not quench as fast as water, it causes fewer cracks than quenching with water.

Can you quench a blade in liquid nitrogen?

In the shallow treatment, the blade steel is brought to approximately -112°F for five hours, while in the deep treatment it is reduced to roughly -321°F for about 35 hours. This is most often accomplished through immersion in liquid nitrogen.

Can you quench steel in acid?

For the so-called shallow-hardening steels, a solution of acid or ammonia will indeed produce more hardness. Look up "severity of quench." (Use the quotes.) This has to do with breaking up the vapor jacket. Look up "stages of quench." (Use the quotes.)

Kenya Miners Part 3: Mercury recovering gold from sluice cons, then burning to get salable gold

Why does a blade warp when quenched?

When these heated parts are quenched, their internal crystal structure changes again, and that volume change is not necessarily sufficient to offset the change upon heating. This change of volume can cause dimensional distortion.

Why do you dip hot metal in oil?

Hot Oils. Hot oils are always used at high temperatures and prevents temperature variations during the quenching process, which protects the metal against defects, cracks, and distortions.

Can you harden steel with liquid nitrogen?

To perform cryogenic hardening, metal is first exposed to heat using a conventional heat treatment process. Next, the metal is slowly cooled using liquid nitrogen. Once the metal is submerged or otherwise exposed to liquid nitrogen, its temperature begins to drop.

What is Sub Zero tempered steel?

Sub-zero treatment is carried out in order to complete the transformation of retained austenite to martensite after hardening and before tempering. It is usually applied to high carbon, high alloy steels such as tool steels but is more-widely applied by aerospace companies to guarantee complete transformation.

What is ice hardened steel?

Ice Hardening is a process where steel is quenched in temperatures below sub zero that helps draw out the hardness of refined steel while infusing it with enough resiliency to perform consistently in the most exacting of conditions.

What did medieval blacksmiths quench their blades in?

The smith then heats the metal so that both the iron and steel are molten and join. The blade is tempered—transformed from soft, workable metal into a hard blade—by holding the blade over a fire and then quenching the blade in a vat of oil or brine.

Which is better to quench in oil or water?

Water-quenched steels will generally be harder than oil-quenched steels. This is mainly because the thermal conductivity of water is higher than the thermal conductivity of most oils (that I know); consequently, the rates of cooling will be less rapid (or lower) in oils compared with water.

Can you reuse quenching oil?

Usually, the post-quench washer is used to recover the quench oil for reuse. This washer must only be used to clean parts after the quench and must not be contaminated with other coolants or other contaminants. In this process, the oil is recovered from the post-quench wash and segregated to a separate tank.

Can water be used for quenching?

Water is used whenever the drastic quench will not cause cracking or excessive distortion. It is widely used for quenching non-ferrous alloys, austenitic stainless steels, and low hardenability carbon steels.

What oil will harden steel?

Mineral oil quenchants are excellent for oil-hardened steels and steels that require a fast quench rate. They tend to be on the expensive side, but they're highly efficient and have greater cooling capacities for steel alloys.

Why Austempering is done?

Austempering is a heat treating process for medium-to-high carbon ferrous metals which produces a metallurgical structure called bainite. It is used to increase strength, toughness, and reduce distortion.

How do you get rid of retained austenite?

By lowering temperatures down to -120°F or below, it is possible to remove the retained austenite from the heat treatment process, while achieving a 100% martensite crystal structure. As many of you know, steel is made up of carbon and iron. Carbon is the element that enhances wear resistance in steels.

What is martensite made of?

Properties. Martensite is formed in carbon steels by the rapid cooling (quenching) of the austenite form of iron at such a high rate that carbon atoms do not have time to diffuse out of the crystal structure in large enough quantities to form cementite (Fe₃C).

How do you cold harden steel?

Cold rolling is the most common method of work hardening. This involves the metal being passed through pairs of rollers to reduce its thickness or to make the thickness uniform. As it moves through the rollers and is compressed, the metal grains are deformed.

What is cryogenic quenching?

Cryogenic hardening is a cryogenic treatment process where the material is slowly cooled to very low temperatures. By using liquid nitrogen, the temperature can go as low as −196 °C. It can have a profound effect on the mechanical properties of certain materials, such as steels or tungsten carbide.

Can you harden steel with motor oil?

Hardening steel with motor oil is a way of performing what is called the case hardening of steel. Pure steel is actually too soft for many applications. In order to put a hard layer on the steel, carbon must be fused at the molecular level into the top centimeter or so of the steel.

Why do blacksmiths quench in water?

In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece in water, oil or air to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, such as phase transformations, from occurring.

Can you quench steel in water?

Water is an effective medium when the goal is to have the steel to reach maximum hardness. However, using water can lead to metal cracking or becoming distorted. If extreme hardness isn't necessary, mineral oil, whale oil, or cottonseed oil may be used in the quenching process instead.