annealling carbon damascus ?

[SVanderkolff]

I have a bar of carbon damascus O1 L6 that was not annealled properly. I did manage to cut it but took a bunch of teeth off my bandsaw blade. Then I tried to drill it with HSS bits and they would go in about 1/16 then simply stop. I tried a couple of spots and they were the same. I have a kiln for heat treating and was wondering what I can do to anneal the billet. I was thinking that if I took it to 1400 then just left them in the kiln to cool they should anneal. Would that work or is there something else I should do?
Thanks for the help.
Steve