Canola should work for CruforgeV. Parks #50 is better, but canola is fast enough.
Wood ash/vermiculite should get a reasonable anneal, but an oven anneal would be better.
About 15 years ago (I thought it was more like 20 years ago, but looking at Larrin's info, it had to be around 1997-98.), I was given some of this steel by my crucible rep when they were developing it. It had some sort of odd company use designation, which I don't remember. It was described as 1084 with extra stuff to keep the grain fine with repeated heats in forging. It seemed to forge well, but was hard to get really hard. IIRC, I couldn't get it past Rc58. I was given more later on after they made some changes. It was better, but I had started using Hitachi Blue steel and found the Blue steel better for my needs. I think there is still a bar of the test steel in the shop.
They used to give me some neat stuff that was still in R&D. I remember CPM D-2 as one of them. IIRC, I also got some CPM-S35-V in the early testing period. She would also giver me Crucible note pads, pens, and rulers.
When Crucible was going under, my rep (a very nice young lady) was let go and the gravy train stopped running to my shop.