Hello Whitefish, Rose Damascus indeed is real. To make the rose pattern, the smith will most of the time take a package of about 60 to 90 layers and drill a pattern of shallow blind holes into the flat side approx. 5mm deep this is done to both sides, then the piece is then forged flat again. the result is a pattern of irregular sized circles with snaking lines interspersed between them. The drilling disrupts the somewhat orderly layers of forged steel and that gives you the multilayered small circular patterns that are known as Rose. There is another interesting variation on this process called the Nail pattern Damascus, in which you drill holes all the way through the piece and then insert shortened nails into it then forge flat, although I prefer the rose Damascus pattern myself.
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