It was discovered that the secret of the original Damascus steel was accidental, and they did not know how to reproduce it except by chance. It was Buckminsterfullerene, aka “bucky balls”.
Randomly, one of their swords would have a greater than average amount of it in their steel, making that blade exceptional: stronger, less brittle, with a sharper edge.
Because these blades were so special, all Damascus steel was highly prized. For the most part they were ordinary, however.
True Damascus is not made by pattern welding but by the
process of smelting iron with carbonaceous materials in
a neutral environment, a sealed crucible.
Pattern welded steel is not that hard to make or manipulate.
I’ve been doing it for decades.
Wootz is probably the closest to Damascus of the turn of
the century methods.
I used to scour the second hand and junk shops looking for old turkey carving sets that were Damascus steel. Found a few that I reshaped and re-handled into lovely hunting knives. Beautiful stuff!