Unpopular opinion: I stopped quenching my railroad spike knives in oil after a guy at the Abilene hammer-in showed me his
He pulled out two spikes he'd forged the same day, one quenched in oil and one in water, and the water one held a better edge after he chopped through a 2x4 with both. I ran the same test on 4 spikes in my shop and got the same result, so I've switched to a fast water quench on 1045 and I'm not going back. Anyone else here quench spikes in water, or am I asking for a cracked blade down the road?