"Having spent years working in industrial maintenance and automation, I'm certain that the process could be even further mechanized and automated, with CNC robots stacking billets or lopins, and computer controlled mills and forging presses doing even more of the work of rolling and twisting ribbands. And I am just as confident that we will never see this sort of mass production of Damascus, because it would still be extremely costly in a time when even fluid steel replacement barrels cost five figures, and there just aren't enough of us who appreciate it, or could afford it. I've read that even a farm implement mostly machine made L.C. Smith shotgun had something like a full month of hand labor involved in its' production. And that explains to me why even they have more "soul" than any modern CNC machined and laser engraved gun ever will."
What do you think of Purdey's work with modern damascus produced by this firm:
https://damasteel.se/https://www.purdey.com/pages/our-bespoke-models-the-damascus-gun
