From what I’ve seen when browsing around at one point looking for knife blanks, handmade Damascus is actually cheaper.
You can order the forged blades online from companies in India or Pakistan, which are reselling it from workshops there, which are likely paying their workers pennies an hour to forge it (many of them probably kids.) A lot of the disposable surgical tools used in Western hospitals come from the same kind of workshops.
Just google “damascus knife blanks” and poke around. I haven’t actually tried ordering any yet, so I have no idea of the quality but they look like the standard pattern-welded nickel steel/carbon steel combination.
