normalizing(i think)

[Keith@kd knifeworks]

hi guys. I'm starting to try to build my first katana. I'm going to use w-2 tool steel and I would like to do a hamon. I've done this on smaller blades with great results. but with a katana being so big I think I need to normalize it first but not sure how. I've found some thing online but not sure what I can trust. Do i just need to bring the steels up to its annealed temp hold it for 10 min then let air cool, repeat 2 more times or so. clay up my blade, let the clay dry then heat treat like I normally would with w2. thanks for any info guys

 

[Jason Fry]

Will be a trick to heat the whole thing evenly, but if it was me I'd bring it up to roughly 1600, air cool, then 1500, air cool, then 1400 or so, air cool. Then 1500 and quench.