D2 isn't the best steel for forging. It can be done - but you can also teach a pig to sing... If you're not prepared to address what happens to the microstructure after forging heats, you're probably not going to make a great blade this way.
If you're not prepared to address retained austenite - this is not a good material for a knife blade. Hence it's reputation for taking a lousy edge and holding it forever. A 20% RA blade with big chunks of carbide will have an edge that chips and rolls, yet be difficult to sharpen. Simpler steels will outperform it if you do not address the RA.
Unless you have forged it, or previously heat treated it, D2 will not need to be normalized. This high carbide steel still maintain a grain size around 10, which is considered fine grained (though other knife steels can achieve much finer) all the way up to nearly 2000F. So don't worry about grain growth in this steel during it's first heat. IF, for whatever reason you want to reaustenitize it - watch out, grain can grow to a size 4 or worse during a second heat. HSS is this way also. And annealing and normalizing to repair it takes special equipment and techniques that you're going to want to avoid. So don't multiple quench D2
I believe the best way to heat treat it is to use a moderate temp (1850, this will free up enough carbon for a carbon rich martensite, without overdoing it and creating excessive RA), soak for 30-45 min, plate or slow oil quench (the rapid quench reduce RA and increases free chromium) and continue that quench as an uninterrupted trip all the way down to Mf, which is around -100 F (go get some dry ice for this). Then temper at about 450 for a Rockwell hardness around 62. This steel, with this heat treat, has outperformed anything I have ever tested for a thin slicer with an acute edge angle of about 25 deg included.
Then, it will take a sharp edge and hold it reasonably well, and maintain a working sharpness a very long time in many different material, and it will tolerate abuse such as cutting metal that would ruin a stainless steel edge.