The twisting of red hot iron or steel is a commonly employed blacksmithing technique. This link I provided yesterday documented the fact that even that twisting process was mechanized when it came to twisting the rods that were incorporated into the ribbands.
https://www.theexplora.com/the-making-of-best-damascus-barrels/I would tend to think that the localities where Damascus barrels were produced tended to be similar to the areas where steel mill sprung up most anywhere. Some of the larger mills would have specialized in rolling larger orders for larger customers, and smaller producers would have incorporated numerous smaller processes into their operations. And it has always been quite common in the iron and steel industry for smaller producers to buy and refurbish outdated equipment to run small scale operations.
One of those smaller operations could easily have been the production of billets or lopins, and rods and ribbands to the local barrel making trade. It would have been as natural and sensible for the Barrel Makers to outsource and make use of more mechanized methods to increase production while reducing costs as it is for companies to do the same today. If Damascus barrelmaking had not been rendered obsolete by much cheaper fluid steel and a shortage of skilled labor after WW I, it isn't a stretch to imagine a highly automated and CNC controlled method of producing Damascus components and tubes being developed over time. But the monotonous uniformity of a highly mechanized process would not be able to produce the unique works of art we admire today.
