Hi,
I don't know a lot about damscus as I've only worked with Indian George a bit for the last two summers. I've gotten tips from Deker, Dan Seaver and Del Ealy via the forum, email and phone. Here's a thread that might give you a few ideas,
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=657715.
Deker's site will give you lots of good tips. You might want to email Kelly Cupples,
octihunter@charter.net, for his metals list. He sells both 15N20 and 1080. Admiral steel has a "box sale" deal on .125"x1.25"x60" 1084 for $7 a piece that works well. You can have Kelly shear the 15N20 to 1.25" to match up with it.
The 15N20 you'll get will likely only be .0625 (1/16th"), whereas the 1084 will likely be .125" (1/8"). You might be best off just layering it up 2 to 1 1084 to 15N20, rather than doubling the 15N20 up to match the 1084. I believe the 15N20 is a bit harder to move than the 1084. Hammering it by hand, you might appreciate having a bit less of it and you can still get nice patterns. You'll probably want to keep your billet on the small side. Perhaps about 4" long and just an inch or two high (maybe something like 8 layers of 1084 and 7 of 15N20?).
Do you have a stick or wire welder of some sort? That helps to run a bead on the ends to keep it all together prior to forge welding. You can also weld a length of rebar, or some such, on one end for a handle. You'll need an angle grinder to clean the scale off the forged billet and cut it in half (almost) to fold over and build up your layer count. You'll also need a couple good size hammers. A straight peen will come in handy for drawing out. The opposite hammer head (rounding) will do well for flattening and straightening. Have a good supply of flux (borax) on hand as you'll need copious amounts of it.
Of course there's probably oodles more. For instance, you likely will want to use your anvil's horn in a fuller like manner along with the straight pein for drawing your billet out. Have a good stiff wire brush to clean the flux and scale off (brush away from you) and a bucket of water handy to cool off your billet handle. Good long leather welding gloves can be handy with all the blasting forge fire and billet thermal mass. Naturally good safety glasses are imperative. If you can put a disposable ceramic or fire brick liner down on the floor of your forge you'll probably appreciate being able to remove it and get the melted flux out after, so you can forge knives later cleanly without getting them covered with flux.
And the adventure begins. How exciting!
All the best, Phil
