Super Quench
Contents
What is a Super Quench?
SQ was the invention of Rob Gunter and the folks at Sandia Nat. Labs.
An OSHA inspector came one day, pointed at a barrel and asked "what is that?" Rob replied that it was lye. Inspector asked what it was for. Rob told him they used it for quenching steel forgings. Inspector goes ash while and nearly falls into seizures. Lye has to go.
So they experimented for a while on a nontoxic quench for hardening mild steel and SQ was the result. It is very good stuff.
Recipes
Made from Cascade Dishwasher Detergant
"Super quench" is a solution of water, and Cascade Dishwasher Detergent.
One half cup of Cascade to two gallons water.
Cascade bottle says ingredients include sodium hydroxides, sodium silcates and chlorine bleach.
Info from Home Shop Machinist, in an article by Otto Bacon called "Make Mild Steel Behave Like High-Carbon Steel" (Nov/Dec 2004
issue p 32-33).
He used his hardness tester on untreated mild steel.It had a hardness of 39(Rockwell C scale) Water-only quenched was about Rockwell C 43. Water-Cascade quench gave he highest hardness, 50.5 to 51 Rockwell C.
When he cut the test bars in half, he found Rockwell C 48.5 to 50 throughout the bar.
He tried work hardening the mild-steel by hammering. It was Rockwell C 40 to 42.
The amount of Cascade is not critical and he found 1/4 cup of Cascade in two gallons of water was just as good as a whole cup in the same amount of water.
He also added salt (brine) and it did not change the results.
Made from Dawn dish soap
The recipe is
- 5 gallons of water
- 24 ounces of Dawn dish soap
- 5 lbs of table salt
- 8 ounces of Shaklee Basic I.
Made from Blue Dawn dish detergant
- 5 gallons water
- 5 pounds table salt
- 28 ounces BLUE Dawn dish detergent
- 8 ounces of Jet Dry or equivalent.
This will harden otherwise unhardenable mild steels to the point they can be used as striking tools, such as chasing punches. This is very handy, especially when you need tools into which you do not wish to invest a lot of time and money. $0.30 worth of steel beats the pants off of $5 worth for a punch that doesn't require top drawer materials.
It's also a lot easier on your hammer arm.
