I don't think there's a huge appeal for 'art' knives each available to a couple hundred people. Material variations work well in more exotic steels, carbon fiber, anodizing colors, etc, but sculptured stuff seems to be picked more for being 'one-off' in nature. For 3-400 dollars, more utilitarian designs are leading the way in recommendation (Chris Reeve, Hinderer ordered direct, etc). Add to the price, and the bling comes back into play, but again in limited numbers and to another segment. BM gold class, WH, etc use damascus and some precious metals to be called 'art', but the designs are the same as the less expensive runs. I don't even know what to call an art knife, since some say all knives are art, others say all knives are tools (I guess even Warenskis), and more opinions in between. To me, an 'art' knife is something very difficult to produce dimensionally, not just more expensive base materials.
Just speaking for myself, I would only be interested in a "sculpted" piece at about 5 times the mentioned price to start, and don't foresee myself actually doing it. Just saying, an art knife for me would have to very clearly be an investment, and thereby also much more limited than sprint runs of simply steel or handle color variants.
To comment on the Cadre in particular, the machining in the blade would be a hassle for cleaning. The price is still at a point where I would have to clean the blade because it would be a user and not an investment piece. So that sort of design element doesn't appeal to me in a using knife, and a 200 piece run doesn't pull me in due to exclusivity. 50 pieces, maybe. But this is just my feeling when these numbers come up. Put up a different knife and maybe my mind changes on the numbers.
