My apprentice tried to quench a piece in a bucket of iced tea at the county fair last summer, and now I triple-check every liquid container in the shop.

He grabbed my big insulated jug thinking it was the water bucket, and the piece came out smelling like sweet tea for a week, so has anyone else had a forge mishap that turned out surprisingly harmless but totally ridiculous?

3 comments

3 Comments

henryr451d ago

Honestly that beats my own dumb moment. Once grabbed what I thought was my quenching oil, turned out to be a jug of old motor oil my buddy left. The piece came out fine but had this weird rainbow sheen, like a really grimy soap bubble.

casey2681d ago

Ever wonder what the worst possible quenching medium is? I once saw a guy at a demo try to use a bucket of old fryer grease from a fish and chips shop. The piece didn't just have a sheen, it came out looking like a fossilized corn dog and smelled like a beach parking lot on a hot day. He had to bury the thing in kitty litter for a week just to make it stop stinking up his shop.

ben_fisher1d ago

Oh man, @henryr45, that rainbow sheen is wild. I did something like that but with cooking oil once, the cheap vegetable stuff. Quenched a simple knife and it came out looking like it was coated in sticky, burnt plastic. The smell was awful, like a diner fryer fire. Took forever to sand that gunk off.