If you look at the bar that was patterned for the ladder. All the bumps that alternate from side to side. My jig is set to leave 14" down the center. All of those bumps have to be ground off! that is 50% of that bar. That is not including all the loss due to oxidation, grinding between re-stacking, sawing the billet etc. So it can be a very wasteful process. But in order to develop the pattern it has to be done. When people see that they begin to understand why it cost so much to have a damascus knife made.