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when I heat treat I would never start the secondary bevel....99% of the time I don't even do the bevels I just profile the knife and HT bevels come later. it stops the chance of warping almost to 0% Another thing if your going to plate quench think about it if you do the bevels that part of the knife wont touch the plates it will only come into contact with the flats so it wont suck out the heat as quickly yes spraying air will help but if you don't do the bevels the whole thing will be in contact...like I said tho I never used d2 so I am not sure is it shallow hardening? I have heard some shallow hardening steels that its better to grind before hand but again the steels I use are fine doing everything after heat treat.
As to your question about the size of the rod I always used 3/16th and 1/4 rod but I don't see any reason you cant use bigger AS LONG AS YOU SEE DEFLECTION IN THE EDGE when you press down you should be good....a larger bar is going to have more surface area in contact with the edge so it might take a lil more pressure to get the edge to deflect but as long as you see that edge deflect as you roll down the edge you should get results.....
I doubt you will find a tester used maybe but it might take some hunting I got mine from grizzly. Also when ever I use a new steel I will make few different coupons and do a oil quench on some plate on others and different tempering temps then I will test the hardness then i will HT a quick simple blade and do things like things like cutting cardboard rope even paracord I have used if its a big enough I will chop threw some 2x4's and see what comes out the best.....every now and then I will test one at random see how long it takes to get dull. I don't use a lot of different steels just a few
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