Hi Donald, I don't know if changing its color to black is agreeable, but the idea of sand blasting it for a matt finish is good and I have used a "black oxide" finish on stainless before. It is usually used as a surface finish on regular steel parts, but works on any material with iron, such as stainless steels have. It is a nice finish in that it is not a coating such as paint and will not flake off; it actually uniformly changes the surface material by "rusting" (oxidizing) it with a black stain. One problem is that I believe it needs to be done in a "bath" but I'm not sure. You can get an idea of its appearance by looking at many kinds of black steel bolts.
Fritz -
