304L/316L stainless damascus difficulty

[jdm61]

Someone asked earlier this week about damascus for jewelry purposes and a number of folks said that the combination of 316L and 304L is a good one to check out if you don't require hardened material. I understand that even getting stainless to weld up is quite difficult and requires techniques that you don't really have to use with carbon steel. My question is once you figure out how to get the stuff to even stick together, how difficult is it to work the billets. I am talking about for higher layers once and manipulating patterns using both basic techniques like laddering, raindrop, twist, etc and more complex ways like crushed W's, tiling/flipping, 4 way, etc? Can you even restock the stuff or should you try to use thin shim stock to get your initial "final" layer count with one welding pass?
Also, once you actually get your final raw material, how much can you manipulate the steel? How much "sizing" can you do on a ring? Can you forge it a big on a mandrel like with carbon damascus or do you have to machine it from a solid disc that is larger in diameter than the finished ring??