Stephen,
As far as I can see, you have the right idea about the basic annealing/tempering method (what a friend did for me whilst heat treating my multi-leaf skid parts anyway).
I have annealed small parts, but we can usually get can pre-annealed material as the starting point in UK.
Presumably there is no-one to hand near you (another flyer?) who happens to have some kit/experience - especially power fliers who often need to fashion undercarriages/exhaust piping.
I have used a small butane type torch for the small parts - one which has a simple burner head that screws onto a standard gas cylinder roughly 80mm dia. (I used to use it for home plumbing DIY
)
It also helps if you can make a small hearth to reflect heat off bottom & rear to help get more even temperature over the whole part, but this really needs firebrick material ideally, but some solid concrete items may help (don’t use ordinary bricks as the heat is likely to cause then to fly apart as trapped air expands).
It’s a good idea to have the tempering colour chart in your mind when heating, as you can then follow the colour change progression & be ready to stop when the correct colour comes up.
As you say, it’s a lot of trouble for a small part, but there isn’t much alternative unless you can grind a small hole with a conical dremel or a drill which is harder than your strip material.
