[Doug Lester]

1) I would go by what Kevin says about anything to do with metallurgy. He may not have a degree in metallurgy but he is well read in the subject and has the capability to test the effects of heat treatment, including a scanning electron microscope. So if he says he has not noted grain growth in 1095 with extended soak times under 1525? it's because he's done it and measured the grain.
2) Don't worry about how long you soak so much as long as you keep your austinizing temperature under 1525?.
3) There is no reason not to use anti-scale if that's the way you want to go. As I said, I used an anti-scale compound. I just wasn't all that trilled with it.
4) Nope. 1475? is right on the money.
5) 5-10 minute soak is fine. So's 10-20. One hour wouldn't hurt anything as long as you kept your austinizing temperature down.
6) You can try canola oil. It should be warm because, as counter intuitive as it seems, it cools faster than cold oil. If that doesn't work you can go to one of the rapid heat treating oils or you can grit your teeth and try brine.
7) It's hard to temper to a given HRc without a tester. Most who say that they temper for an HRc of X mean that that's what they read on a chart that they have. The graduated files are crude at best. I do another version of the brass rod test. I try to drive the sharp edge of the blade through a 1/16" brass rod with a wood mallet and see what is any deformation I get in the edge. A sharp indent would indicate that the edge is too hard and chipped. An indent with a curled border would indicate that the edge was too soft. An HRc reading doesn't mean much unless you can correlate it to a certain performance.

Doug