I may have missed something, so i want to be sure.
Normalization won't leave small grain, it is not supposed to. Hopefully it will give even size grains (quite large) where to start from, plus small evenly dispersed carbides. Then you have to follow up, running the pieces through a series of heats at progressive lower temperatures intervalled by air cooling or quenching to black (to where the magnet sticks again). This will give you a fine, homogeneous grain.
The grain in the pictures looks like very large, even if your control is reading the correct temp you need to place the piece in the electric kiln only when it has stabilized at the intended temperature... or it is likely that it will overshoot before equalizing.
Normalization won't leave small grain, it is not supposed to. Hopefully it will give even size grains (quite large) where to start from, plus small evenly dispersed carbides. Then you have to follow up, running the pieces through a series of heats at progressive lower temperatures intervalled by air cooling or quenching to black (to where the magnet sticks again). This will give you a fine, homogeneous grain.
The grain in the pictures looks like very large, even if your control is reading the correct temp you need to place the piece in the electric kiln only when it has stabilized at the intended temperature... or it is likely that it will overshoot before equalizing.