You're welcome, guys.
C, you can weld a billet of laminate damascus with nothing more than a hammer just fine. Pop it down the center with overlapping blows rapidly, then work the outside edges. Truly, on welding heats, you don't want to hammer the heck out of it, as it will sideslip and break your weld. Weld, then draw on subsequent heats. You can learn to look at the billet and read the welds. A vise with large jaws is just as effective for welding. Heat it, squeeze it hard as you can. After welding, heat it back up, pull it out and watch the edges. If the lines where the steel meets seems to go black more rapidly than the rest, it isn't welded. As my bud Bowie says, "Get the conditions right (temp, steels, and cleanliness), make 'em 'meet' each other, and they can't really do anything BUT weld".
Where the power tools really come in handy is for drawing those puppies out to fold them, and for large billets. By starting with higher layer counts (thin stock), a man with some stamina can make a hellacious piece of damascus by hand in a day. (Not for me anymore)
As far as can damascus goes, my honest opinion is that a powered hydraulic press is pretty necessary. The problem with a bottle jack manual setup is that, while the tonnage may be rated at, say, 20 tons, actually achieving that rapidly enough, if one can even crank it that much by arm, would cool the billet too much and there wouldn't be sufficient compression in a heat. you'd never get to where you want to be.
Don't let me totally discourage you, because determination counts for a lot; but, I would go to a hammer-in or visit a bladesmith making mosaics and see it made before I invested any money at home on non-power presses. Just my opinion, mind you. Another fine option with only hand tools (for laminate, not can) is to find a striker willing to wield a 12-16 pound sledge for a couple hours. I had a 400 pound student prior to getting a press, and, man, could he move some steel...LOL
