If you make a stainless piece of channel 1" on each side, and a smaller, 1/4" x 1" channel to fit on top, you can encapsulate your billet. Stack it in the deep channel, place the narrower channel on top, compress it with clamps so it's tight, then slot the ends of the small channel and fold them down. Next weld the channel all around to encapsulate the billet.
Weld a handle on it.
Take it to about 1675 and soak for at least 20 minutes. It won't hurt it to soak longer, but don't be impatient with it.
Pull it out, take it to a power hammer or press, and complete the fusion process with pressure. The stainless will peel off when it cools. Just grind the corners away.
Make sure your billet is clean and dry. Stagger the layers however you want, just keep them clean. Coat the bottom of the channel, and the bottom of the top channel, with white out before laying it all up. The stainless won't fuse to your billet.
I've probably explained this poorly. Send me a PM for more detailed instructions. I've been doing some art classes at the local CC so I can make higher end knives and learn some new stuff. The teacher found out I make mokume sometimes and expressed an interest, or real longing to make some. so we had a mokume party here yesterday. We did 6 billets that started at about 3/4"h x4" long, 1" wide. Out of 6 billets to start, we had 6 good billets. It was fun.
Since there were a couple of kinds of brass involved, we kept the temp at 1675 to avoid melting. That was in a Paragon furnace. My 25 ton press did the rest. Two billets showed some signs of just reaching melting point, with small brass droplets on the side. The others showed no melting. Melting it is a bad thing.
When completed we had drawn them out maybe 1/2" but they were 1 1/4" wide and 1/2" or less high.
Annealing is simple. Heat to a black heat and quench in water. It will work fast and easily that way. When it starts to stiffen, anneal again. If you overstress your joints will shear.
I hope that helps. This, BTW, is my first post.
Gene