Today I heat treated the Damascus - wootz composite blade. I can happily report that everything stayed together and I didn't get a visit from the 'tink' fairy. I normalized the blade a couple of times before quenching. My hypothesis on the heat treatment for O2 Damascus and wootz composite blades turned out to be correct. This is the blade after the second tempering cycle.
I didn't see anything that might indicate a problem. But just for the sake of sleeping well tonight, I polished the hollows with a 240 grit belt and was happy to discover that the hollows are whole and devoid of the telltale lines and specks that could indicate a bad weld.
So yaay.
The most critical parts of the process are out of the way now. From here on it is a matter of careful grinding to get the blade to the point where it can be etched.
http://imgur.com/CPdCG4E.jpg