The answers are yes and yes!
The alloy and cooling history of the ingot determine in a fundamental way the clarity, contrast and scale of the pattern, but then it is up to the smith to manipulate the metal & influence the pattern. So only some ingots could become AA-style blades, and then only if manipulated correctly.
I did some experimenting this past spring to see how many different effects I could get out of one ingot; the first photo is the pattern that all the ingots start out with, more or less, the second is an attempt to mimic Figel’s figure 8a. They are in different states of polish and degrees of etch, so they look more different thean they are - they are from the same ingot, just forged differently.
But many ingots would not be able to look Persian, the banding can be muddy, too small, the waters choppy.
