In article , John
wrote:

At the American Bladesmith Society school in Old Washington, AR I was
taught by MasterSmith's Joe Flornoy and Mike Smith to use Peanut oil
heated to aprox 140 degrees for quenching blades.

This is correct. I use peanut or canola oil heated to about 125 for my
O1 knives. You can get all fancy with various quenching mediums but the
main point is to get the steel cold fast. No reason to stink up the
place doing it.

For my purposes I've purchased an electric roasting pan and use it for
oil quenching purposes. It will heat to 400 degrees or so, and it's
plenty big enough for even large blades. You can get them at WalMart,
Target or other places for between $20-40.

I documented the two week long experience at Bladesmithing school on
my web site, including video and other information related to
hardening if you would like to check it out:
http://www.pozadzides.com/bladesmithing/

Nice site. I bookmarked it for future reference.

-Frank

--
fwarner1-at-franksknives-dot-com
Here's some of my work:
http://www.franksknives.com/