Just throw the whole chunk into the woodstove or burn pile--and let it
cool
down back down with the ashes, pick it out the next day.

Wish I had a woodstove. But this is Central California desert.

I do have a kiln though..small one..big enough for heat treating. What
temp should I get it up to?

Go to www.mcmaster.com and put 3460 in the search box to go to that
page, then click the link at the top for additional info. This gives
composition and physical properties for most common steels, and heat
treating data on the tool steels (but not 4014, big sigh ;-)). Then put
3464 in the search box and repeat to get data on stainless steels.
Again, they give annealing data for most alloys but not for 17-4 and
17-5 PH, again, big sigh. Anyway, a useful grab for the future. Hold
times at temperature seem to be 1 hour per inch of thickness. This
assumes good heat circulation and if you stack your plates directly on
each other they will look like one really thick plate. Put some little
spacers in between each plate so the air can circulate.

--
Regards,
Carl Ijames carl.ijames at verizon.net