The one that I recommend that is probably the most reasonable to find and the most economical, but unfortunately not cheap, is Manfred Sachse "Damascus Steel", ISBN 3-514-00522-2. Double check to make sure it is the English version. What is great about the book is he covers all the varieties of damascus steel from pattern welds to wootz and he has lots of pictures to illustrate the type and he offers his own categorization of wootz. Should be easy to find and with a bit of shopping around you can probably find a copy for under $100. I think this would be a great starting point.
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