Cake,
Thanks for posting this thread as we discussed.
Can you post pics of steps? That would help.
If I can advise on one thing and this is for others to read too, you are probably not going to heat treat CPM 154 to it's full potential with any type of home built furnace/forge/oven on the first try.
The times and temps are too critical and nobody knows what any oven does without first dialing it in (calibration).
You don't know your hot and cool spots or if your thermocouple is right.
Also with any gas oven it may be tough to control and hold temps over the periods of time that is needed with your steel.
A small 1% error in temp reading can cause problems, a 5% error can cause big problems in heat treating air hardening steels like CPM 154.
You will have a lot of hard work at stake by the time you heat treat.
If one used a common high quality oil hardening steel for your set up, this might go better because there are good ways of judging temps without a thermocouple with a steel that gives us a little more latitude in heat treat.
CPM 154 is an exceptional steel, here is the chart:
http://www.crucible.com/PDFs/%5CData...20CMv12010.pdf