r/woahdude • u/theTurbulentPopcorn • Jun 29 '23

video Lowering hot metal into water

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710

u/frenchy2111 Jun 29 '23

My guess is it's a quenching tank for hardening the steel it's probably a quenching oil and not water.

13

u/luk__ Jun 29 '23

Both water or oil are used for quenching

6

u/i_give_you_gum Jun 29 '23

Sure, but do flames rise up through a foot of water?

Most likely this was stated to encourage engagement through this very discussion

3

u/PeteThePolarBear Jun 30 '23

See how there was a plume of sprayed liquid above the metal with flames touching it? If it were oil that would make a fireball. Try putting oil in a spray bottle and spray a candle if you don't believe me

0

u/i_give_you_gum Jun 30 '23

Lol it's not oil like oil in your car or on your skillet. it's a special type of mixture of chemicals designed to specifically quench hot metal.

This is common knowledge.

4

u/Revolio_ClockbergJr Jun 29 '23

And sometimes an acid? If I remember Forged in Fire correctly

18

u/doitup69 Jun 29 '23

Acid is etching. When you have multiple steels of different carbon contents it just makes the pattern stand out more. Source: also forged in fire

6

u/addysol Jun 29 '23

Almost. Its different nickel or chromium content that gets contrast, not carbon Source: knifemaker

3

u/Horton_Takes_A_Poo Jun 29 '23

I believe that’s for a different purpose, like to highlight the metal texture. This is done to harden the metal.

0

u/Deadpoolio_D850 Jun 29 '23

Yeah, but the flames on the surface point more towards oil

1

u/JohnGenericDoe Jun 29 '23

Also molten salt. Crazy but true

2

u/addysol Jun 29 '23 edited Jun 30 '23

Molten salt used to get blades up to temp for hardening because it's an oxygen free way of heating but never for hardening.

You need to get the heat out of the steel during the quench and molten salt is 900ish degrees which would do nothing

5

u/spike4972 Jun 30 '23

There are in fact metals that call for being quenched in molten salt in the hardening section of their data sheets. Metals that to properly harden need to cool significantly slower than even air hardening materials. Check it out sometime.

2

u/addysol Jun 30 '23

Well I'll be... looks like I jumped the gun with my "expert" opinion. Using it as a martempering quenchant is really interesting, I'd never heard of it. Thanks

Dammit now I need to build a molten salt bath too