Unpopular opinion: I was quenching too cold for 2 years and my file told me before my eyes did
For about two years I ran my quench tank at room temp and figured a fast quench was a fast quench. Then last month I was test filing a 1084 hunter I'd just pulled out and the file bit in way too easy near the tip, which never happens to me on that steel. I checked my tank with the thermometer I use for tempering and it was sitting at 58 degrees in my shop in Springfield because the heat was off overnight. Did some reading and it turns out a lot of guys run their oil at 120 to 130 so it flows better and cools the steel at a saner rate, and I'd been shocking the daylights out of everything with cold oil. I warmed the tank up to 125 with a chunk of scrap steel and the next blade went into the file like it should. Guess I always wrote off the guys who cared about oil temp as overthinking it. Curious what temp the rest of you run yours at, and does it change with the steel type or do you just stick to one number?