If this is something you're doing, just to do it....... Whew!  Asking for that, and using the words "cheap B@stard" in the same post go together like oil and water!    The costs are just part of paying those dues and the learning curve.  If this is your first effort at a sword, you will learn a ton, and be better with each successive effort.  Maybe try to find a scrapyard somewhere?  If I remember, you're in Alberta, CA. Correct?   Maybe give Jim Clow in Brooks a call and see what he has at this fab shop that might work? 

  If this is an order that has been placed, the thing to do is add the cost of everything, including the quench tank/materials for the tank/quenchant, and whatever else into the quote you give the customer.

  Speaking from my own experience, there's a reason those who make swords.... make swords, and those that don't make swords....don't.  What is it?  Usually the individual's shop.  Building swords and building most knives up to say 12-15" require different shop setups.  The last time I built a high-end sword, I spent about a month overhauling my shops' setups to accommodate making the sword. That included resurrecting an old "sword" forge and quench tank that I had built many years ago for a previous sword project, Changing my grinders' setup, and pretty much "stretching" every space and thing in the finish shop for the project.   Then once that project was done, and with no more swords to build, I spent another month or so getting things back to the place that best accommodates hunters to bowie-sized pieces.

  In the end, there isn't much a Bladesmith does, or can do that equates with "cheap"....so just knuckle up... it's only money, and I've never seen a Hurst with a luggage rack....which means you ain't tak'in it with you. 😉      

lol that is true. and I am living your lesson.  I like the learning experience but you are 100% on the retooling.  Its a custom order for a groom that is doing a druidic wedding.  My understanding is that he brings a sword, and she brings a horn of mead.  Somewhere in the ceremony he dips his sword in the mead.  (not symbolic at all). The cheap remark was maybe off base, but I never in my wildest dreams that 10" x ¼" pipe would go for $100/foot up here.

I am in Alberta, but a good 4hr drive from brooks.  I may just have to bite the bullet.  chalk it up to learning as I already quoted the price and in the end I will have a quench tank. 

But I did see on one movie they quenched the sword in the snow (lol)...  I have plenty of that! was -50C last week kept me out of the shop.

Do you have a local steel supplier? Here in the US, you can pretty often get away with going and asking to look at drop cuts with a wink and cash in hand. What eats up the price for a lot of that stuff is the cost of shipping if you were looking at it that way. However with the dimensions you were describing, it'll be somewhat costly either way. Just less so if you can get away with making friends with the people who work in the steel supplier's warehouse.

Ed- I had to laugh when I read your comment. 15 years ago I was making swords, but found my shop was just too small. I couldn't even turn around holding the sword w/o knocking stuff off the bench. No more swords.

Wendell- I had the fortune of having two retired sheriff armorers as friends, and they each gave me a rifle barrel bluing tank. I found I like a horizontal tank much more than a vertical one. It's a much smoother motion sliding it into the tank. Brownell's wants $100 for a new one, 40" long. But it would not be that hard to make one if you can weld. They hold 4.5 gal, be sure to put a drain plug on it.

Thinking of just welding one up, but my confidence in my welding skills is once that needs a grinder and paint.  I did manage to get in touch with a buddy in the oilfield and he thinks he might be able to get me a 8"x10" square tube from the field for a bottle of whiskey this weekend. 

I do make swords and my shop is set up to do so. we have several tanks sent up with different quenches ,  two are retired Oxygen cylinders acquired from the local welding house.  The others are 4-6" thin wall pipe (no reason for thick wall) purchased as drops. Ammo cases also can work well (though that is a LOT of quench oil for one or two blades)  

MP

Have you considered a horizontal quench tank? I use a 30-inch Galvanized steel tub as i can't fit anything bigger in the kitchen oven.

PS: if you forge in the taper, you will want the tank right next to the heat source, as I recently figured out thin steel cools a lot faster than thick steel.

Horizontal quench for swords is a recipe for problems with warping, especially in double edges blades, it leads to sabering (warping along the hard)

MP

Well I understand now why welders get paid well.  Welding a tank that doesnt leak had me praying to every known god and sacrificing my next born. Many promises were made, but I did end up buying a 10' length of pipe.

Here is a video of me quenching the sword Im doing for a young mans Gaelic wedding. 

You were all correct.  you really need to be setup to make swords.

https://youtu.be/chVaW5rOocI?si=Ax7xw3JN5DoFAyV7

🤣
took me three tries to get mine from no leaks on the bottom.  Bead now looks like a 1/2” fillet weld on 1/4” wall pipe and plate base….

Ryan Lehbauer not sure if can see the bottom of mine, but yup, I need a lot of grinding and paint, but I aint touching it cause its not leaking now.