[Doug Lester]

I don't know if there is any equivalent data for canola oil. There may be for water an brine but I don't have the data for that if it exists. Be aware that not all 1095 out there is made equal. Some of it has less manganese that others and will require a faster quench. Ideally, you would have an HRc tester to test the as quenched steel. Baring that, you could check hardness by seeing if a sharp file will bite into the steel. If you tried to quench with canola, for instance, and it came out too soft on the tester or the file bit into the edge of the blade then you will have to step things up a notch. You could either suck it up and buy about five gallons of a fast quench commercial oil or go to brine. I wouldn't recommend water as it forms a bad vapor jacket around the cooling steel that can lead to warping or breaking. Still even with brine you will need to reduce all the stress raisers that you can.

Doug

Instead of retyping this whole thing I'll just post a correction to the above. If you have an HRc tester you will probably not be able to test 1095 at the ricasso on all but the thinnest blades, 1/8" thickness or less. You will have to make a coupon no thicker than that, and a little thinner won't hurt, and run it through the hardening procedure and test it on the machine. A piece of steel over around 1/8" may be too thick to harden depending on the size of the grain. A file on the edge of the blade should just about always work.