TIL I was overheating my anvil by quenching too fast on thin stock

I used to dunk small leaf hooks straight from the forge into cold water and wondered why they cracked until a guy at the Ohio meetup said go slow with oil instead, and now after 8 months of that method I haven't had a single break has anyone else ruined a batch of hooks from rushing the quench?

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riverwhite2mo ago

About 40 tiny bottle openers bit the dust before I figured out oil quenches don't turn your work into a pile of confetti.

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emma6841mo ago

Oh man I FEEL your pain! I went through something similar with knife blades until I figured out the oil temp matters just as much as the oil itself. Had about a dozen blades come out looking like potato chips before I learned you gotta preheat the oil to around 130 degrees first. Then I started using canola oil for small stuff like bottle openers and it made a WORLD of difference. The thin pieces just don't warp nearly as bad when the oil is warm and you're not shocking them with a cold bath.

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