Damascus pattern

[Andy45]

If I sand off the Damascus pattern of a knife blade, will it reappear over time with no action by me. My goal is to get rid of the pattern permanently. Thanks.

 

[weo]

If I sand off the Damascus pattern of a knife blade, will it reappear over time with no action by me. My goal is to get rid of the pattern permanently. Thanks.

I'm not sure that's possible, without adding some kind of coating to the blade. In a most basic sense, the pattern is visible because the higher nickel content layers resist oxidation (rust, patina, etc) more than the lower nickel content layers, and the oxidation is what causes the pattern to appear.
So, to permanently hide the pattern you need to permanently stop oxidation. A bake on ceramic coating would do this, but when you sharpen the blade, you remove this protection at the edge, so over time there will be some pattern showing up at the edge.
I'm curious as to what others say.

But....coming from a damascus maker, why on earth would you want to do this? If you didn't want patterning, why not just get a knife with a mono-steel blade?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It would depend a lot on what the blade steel mix is.

Sanding it very smooth to a high grit may make it less robust and sort of a ghost-pattern. It may be visible as you turn the blade in the light.
A brush-finish by sanding to 220-400 grit and using a Scotch Brite belt should pretty much eliminate the pattern.

Age and patina may make it show somewhat later on in either case.

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

It will disappear if you grind it so both sides meet in the middle.