A lot of the efficacy of various blades at various chores comes from the edge geometry. Put a steep convex on one of these swords, or something, and it will chop wood quite well. If that's your metric, just change the edge, and you'll see different performance. But you'll lose out on other aspects of cutting performance.
As for costs, well, I don't generally even charge labor for my blades. Most of them are offered at cost for me, or pennies on the hour. I'd be able to reduce costs if I made knives in greater bulk, but as is, I don't generally make much at all, and that's assuming I sell anything. I've got a few up at cost or below, and haven't been able to move them, which means no more steel for further projects for now. And even then, swords are spendy.
Consider: A sheet of CPM 3V big enough to cut a 36" curved blade out costs over 200 dollars by itself, not including the roughly 40 dollars it costs to ship a big heavy chunk of steel. So depending on what you're looking at for a khukuri, you'd be looking at maybe 100-120 in costs to get the steel to your door at minimum. Realistically, probably more. My last sheet of 36" 3V cost me almost 300 bucks shipped, and I got ONE sword and a few smaller blades out of that. Then you've got the costs in belts. Belts are generally 6-8 bucks apiece, and I can easily go through 3 belts of various grits working on 3V. Plus shipping, at roughly another 6-8 bucks. So you're looking at around 24-30 dollars for belt costs. Pins, drill bits, epoxy, sandpaper, and other similar consumables may add on another 5. Then you've got to ship it out for heat treat. Peters charges 25 per blade up to 100 bucks plus shipping there and back. Even if you're shipping 10+ blades (which reduces costs, but requires you to buy more steel up front), you're still looking at 160-180 in shipping and heat treat. Then you've got the cost of the wood. Stabilized wood can run up to 70-100 bucks if you want a long piece, but you're looking at 30+ at minimum. G10 is a little cheaper, but not a whole lot unless you buy in bulk, which increases your costs up front. If you're using metals for the guard, you may be tacking on even more. So you're looking at around 400-500 bucks in costs alone for an 18" khukuri with stabilized wood handles done from CPM 3V if you're a small scale producer like myself. More for a sword. And then you still have to ship the thing to the customer. Oh, and they probably want a sheath. If you use cheap leather, you may keep your costs to another 100 bucks. So there's your 500 to 600 range right there, and you're not even paying the maker for his time.
Thing is, for small scale operations like those of many custom makers, shipping alone accounts for a LOT of money that you as the end-user don't think about. Some of us just can't afford to buy in bulk, particularly not offering our blades at cost, and premium materials and such are spendy as well. It's easy to look at big-scale producers that do their own heat treat in house and buy in massive bulk and say that a custom maker should be able to make something for not much more, but the fact of the matter is, those factory operations are likely making more profit per blade than many a custom maker, even at the lower price point. And they use much cheaper steels. a 36" chunk of 1080 or 1060 would cost only 60-80 bucks before shipping, where 3V is 2-3 times as much. And it's a lot easier to heat treat in house to boot.
