This is not going to be what you want to hear, but if your seeking "cheap" damascus, thats exactly what you'll wind up getting. Stuff that has cold shuts, voids, cracks, and/or it will be made of materials that will not harden...meaning that you'll end up with blades that will be nothing more than "wall hangers" that will very likely have visible defects.
I suppose it all depends on what you classify as "cheap"......for several years there has been damascus coming out of overseas locations that is "cheap" when compared to domestic sources. After receiving many emails and phone calls from folks asking me to assist them due to problems with this steel, I investigated, and found that much of it is made from whatever those outfits could scrounge up....mostly old vehicle parts, so there is just no way short of a spectrograph to know what steels are contained in it. It boils down to if the product is made of unknown "junkl", then its a safe bet that whatever you produce from it will in turn be the same. Honestly, there isn't a reputable damascus maker that I know of who would not cringe at the words "cheap" and "damascus" in the same sentence.
). Drop me a PM or an email and we can talk about what your needs are. I'm not a full time maker so my schedule moves a bit slower, but I'll make you good steel at a reasonable price.
