Damascus is a construction method, not an alloy. A Damascus blade is forge-welded from layers of two or more steels and then etched so the layers show. A solid, or mono-steel, blade is one homogeneous alloy. Performance depends on which steels went into the billet and how it was heat treated, so "Damascus" alone tells you nothing about how it cuts.
With a mono-steel blade you know exactly what you have: a named alloy with published composition, hardness and characteristics. With Damascus, the maker may or may not disclose the constituent steels, and the pattern is the marketed feature.
That is not a criticism. It is simply what the two categories are. Buy Damascus for the pattern, and buy mono-steel when you want a predictable performance specification.
A genuine pattern-welded billet carries the pattern all the way through the steel, so it continues down a freshly sharpened bevel. An acid-etched or printed imitation has it on the surface only and disappears if you sand through.
Checking the edge bevel is the fastest test you can do in your hand.
Historical wootz Damascus was a crucible steel with a different origin from modern pattern welding. The two share a name and not much else. Modern steelmaking solved the original problem pattern welding existed to solve.
We carry Damascus-pattern blades and we describe them as what they are.
Every steel we stock, with its published composition, hardness range and the trade it makes, is documented in the Steel Lab.