Hello All,
Yes indeed.
Mechanical damask is better called pattern-welded and is made from several pieces of material forge welded together. This can be bars or steel or a consolidated bloom. the billet (stack of welded pieces) can be manipulated in may ways to alter the pattern..twisting, folding, drilling etc to show the underlying layers. The material in this process does not become liquid, though slag and flux can be liquid and are forced away from the steel with hammer blows.
Crucible steel (like wootz) is made liquid (melted) in a container of some sort and the resulting cooled mixture is called an ingot and is then forged into a blade with no welding.
The surface pattern seen is the result of the chemistry within the solidified ingot.
Ric
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