Knife set

Trollslayer

I have used a steel for many years, not as frequently as Mark but the same basic approach.
Had a Sabatier for over fifteen years and you have to look closely to see any wear.

bluedroog

Exactly, I'd way rather have 2 or 3 Global knives then a mid price set of six.

I don't own them but love using them when I visit my mum. To be honest I use my one favourite knife at home for 90% of jobs, when the time comes to replacing I'd get one quality knife.

Trollslayer

A good kitchen knife and a good paring knife does me.

DrPhil

I'd be happy with a smaller set of knives too in fairness.  In my old block of 5 there were 2 kitchen knives, a bread knife and 2 small ones (paring knives?).

I only ever used the smaller kitchen knife.  The wife used one of the paring knives.

I'll look into a smaller set.  That 3 piece Global one looks good but holy crap, £180!

MIghtyG

I'm maybe not the chef I think I am but hear me out here. I was bought a lovely knife set as a house warming gift by my folks, was roughly £80-100 for the set from John Lewis. They lasted a few, maybe 2 years and were pretty decent but after time they started to not sharpen well and some were chipping etc. just not lasting well.

Bought myself some cheapos from Ikea, Vorda knives, and tbh they are excellent. Sharpen really well and have lasted better than the 'expensive' set I got as a house warming gift. Maybe worth a look, they have blown me away with how well they have lasted and they are still going great after about 2 years now.

I started off with just a cheap utility knife to try it out, now I have everything but the bread knife

Sloppy Bob

Before you blow £100  on a single knife I'd want to try it.

While Global knives are good many don't like the way they feel in the hand (me included) and opt for something else.

I'd advise going to a large department store or a cooks shop and trying a few before you purchase elsewhere. Also note that while Amazon is generally safe, there are loads of Global knives out there that are fake.

Thug

You only need 3 knives.
A cooks/chefs knife, a small paring knife and a bread knife.

I have the cooks knife (middle one) from this range, the Richardson Sheffield Kyu (made out of X50CrMoV15)...

                                                                                                                                                 

It retails at about £60, but you can get it for around £24...
Villeroy & Boch Wild Rose

Trollslayer

The cook's knife looks a good choice there. Sets of  knives look nice in a photograph of a kitchen but I doubt most people will use many.
An old fashioned paring knife with a thin  blade can complement the cook's knife nicely.

DrPhil

Don't even need a bread knife. Never cut bread, and if I ever do need to I'll keep the barely used bread knife from my current set.

Trollslayer

I have a Kitchen Devil bread knife, sometimes used for bread but the two edges can go through all kinds of packaging in a flash!