Well, Nihonto blades are for collectors, yes, especially the handmade ones with "damascus" multilayer work (modern ones, ofcourse ..... for a real original Muramasa one from 1500 age, or also better a Shizu one from 1300 age, i suppose that also 200,000 Euro may not be enough
) ..... also very simple ones, non-damascus work and non-handmade, are usually quoted from 250 to 500 Euro ..... (and are considered "bad" blades for training and sport only
Anyway, i know a pair of collectors that have very good pieces ..... The one that bought the katana, also paid around 4,000 Euro for a real "damascus" handmade knife, from a famous knifemaker that do these types of blades one by one, mainly on personal orders (and waited 6 months for it
).
It look as a very high price, for a knife (especially for one like me, that don't have all his money
), but the video that come with the blade for proof its quality was impressive ..... the maker shows the blade used for cut 3mm dia iron nails (placed on a block of wood, and hammering on the knife with another block of wood) without sign the edge ..... then he hammered it in the block, and pulled it bending the blade til 45 degrees from the vertical, in both the directions, and the blade always returned perfectly straight ..... he also placed the blade, horizontally, inside a vertical support for 1/3 of the lenght, then used it as "step", bouncing on it with all his weight, and the blade got no damage ..... and so on ..... i suppose this can justify the price, in some ways (at least, for the ones that have so much money to spend in knives
)
That "Emanuele" knife, if really handmade and damascus type, may be from 1000 to 1500 Euro, considering the shape and style ..... that one is a printed pattern, on a common commercial blade ..... good for exposition, but no other value.
EDIT: by the way, the "petters" one is a real "damascus style" piece ..... you can see it also from the "side corner" of the blade (i mean, where the sharpening curve start, making a corner with the flat side of the blade)
You can see that the pattern "style" change, where the inclination change (in this particular case, from "spots" to "waved lines", can also be different, there are a lot of different systems for made a "damascus" blade), as in any real multilayer piece of metal, where instead when it's just printed on the surface, it simply continue the same pattern tracks.
