Hank in Tulsa told me I was ruining my welds by quenching too fast, 8 years of bad habit gone

Lisa Murray · 2026-09-21T02:30:03.153109+00:00

Back when I first got into forge welding, I used to dunk everything straight in the quench tank the second it came out of the fire. Hank, an old smith I met at a hammer-in down in Tulsa around 2016, watched me do it once and just shook his head. He said to let the piece cool in still air for a slow count of 10 before it hits the oil, and my tong welds stopped cracking on the second heat. Curious if anyone else picked up a trick like that from a random meetup that stuck with you for years?

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Hank in Tulsa told me I was ruining my welds by quenching too fast, 8 years of bad habit gone | Blacksmiths - HW Forums