That is the best 'intro to metallurgy' I've read, he gets some pretty obscure concepts across with a clarity that is lacking in most texts on the subject.
Verhoeven has also done a ton of research on wootz, he is the metallurgist who worked for years with the bladesmith Al Pendray to figure out how to make the stuff and also explain the how & why of it.
Some of his papers on damascus can be found on his page at ISU -
http://www.mse.iastate.edu/who-we-ar...verhoeven.html
All the way at the bottom of the page