Wait, are you saying used motor oil actually has less of the nasty fumes than fresh stuff? Because that matches my experience too, I've quenched a few blades in both and the fresh stuff smoked way worse right out of the jug. The real problem I ran into was getting consistent results, the metal particles and sludge from the engine would settle in the bottom of my quench tank and then the next blade would come out with a weird patchy hardness. I started filtering it through a coffee filter and a old t-shirt before using it, and it helped a ton. Still got that burnt smell though, that never goes away no matter how much you filter it. It's a pain to deal with but when you're on a budget it works good enough for practice pieces.

Ha, yeah. I guess we're all just spinning our wheels trying to keep the eggs from cracking while the whole store burns down around us.

Man that's kinda like when I spent half a day chasing a short on a job last summer. Turned out a wire nut had a tiny bit of copper poking through the tape, barely visible. My boss just smiled and said welcome to the club. Frustrating but now I always double check those damn wire nuts before moving on to the big stuff. Funny how the little things humble you in this trade huh.

My neighbor actually had the exact same problem last month when she tried freezing butter for pie crust. She put the butter in the freezer overnight and it turned into a hard block, just like what you described. She ended up with shredded knuckles and the pie crust came out tough and greasy at the same time. I remember @olivia_murphy mentioned that story about her friend Sarah and the dog eating the butter shavings, which matches what I saw happen to my neighbor. The trick I learned from watching cooking videos is to freeze the butter for about 15 minutes, maybe 20 if your fridge is warm. That gets it firm enough to grate without turning it into a dangerous ice cube.

Hmm, I mean you said "Swing-A-Way from the 70s" but I think that brand actually started making those in the 40s or 50s. The one you got might be older than you think, which is even cooler honestly. I grabbed a similar one at a thrift store a few years back, like a 60s model with the red handle, and it still works like a dream. Those old ones just have this solid metal gear system that doesn't strip out like the plastic modern ones do. It's wild how a $3 find can make a $30 gadget feel like a toy.