I am looking for an alternative to cool a small amount of hot metal quickly other than compressed air.

Question

What other source besides compressed air can i use?

Answer 1

Commonly,

Water or Oil

Answer 2

How about immersing it in water or oil?

Depending on the metal and the application, you might be changing the properties of the metal during the heating/cooling process.

Heat treatment is a method used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are also used in the manufacture of many other materials, such as glass. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result such as hardening or softening of a material. Heat treatment techniques include annealing, case hardening, precipitation strengthening, tempering and quenching

Answer 3

Throw some dry ice (solid CO2) on top of hot metal that you want to cool it quickly.  Dry ice has -100 C melt point. It is cold enough and it is very clean.....turn into air CO2.