With Knives and other Kitchen equiptment it is always wise to buy the best that you can afford.

When I buy knives I look for something comfortable to hold and well ballanced.

It is always tepting to buy a huge knife set but in truth , you will find that you only use a couple of knives on a regular basis.
I think that these are good knives to start with....
A large strong knife for chopping (blade around 8inches I would think),
a small knife for peeling,
a serrated knife that you could use for cutting bread.

There have been a number of threads asking this question, if you go to the search area at the top of the page ,click on it and then enter 'knives' into the topic box then a whole load of assosiated things will pop up. Just trawl through these and you will be able to see poeples advice and preferences.

One thing that I will add is that it is important to keep your knives sharp as a well sharpened knife safest.

I got a set of Villeroy & Boch for my birthday, and have so far found them excellent.  They came complete with a wooden block, and include a bread knife, cook's knife, paring knife, carving knife and a small serrated one too.  Oh, and a steel.  They were very reasonably priced, too.
http://eshop.villeroy-boch.com/ch/shopp … how_127017

I use Global knives, they are brilliant.

Hi there,
This is the fourth time, at least, that I have replied to a post on knives, may be it should have its own section? Or put a search engine on the forums? Just a suggestion!
Anyway...... as a student chef we had Sabatier Knives which served me well for fifteen years untill some creep knicked them! My boss, being quite generous at the time, told me to order what ever i wanted, so I got five globals. Should've seen his face when he got the bill! For the next few years I used my globals daily and they did a good job, however when you really analyse them I found that after a long day of chopping, slicing and boning they were in fact quite tiresome. I then discovered Wusthof Gourmet. They are incredibly light, stay sharp, are easy to sharpen and work realy well but they are really expensive. I bought a pairing knife, a 8cm Nakiri (excellent for fast chopping) and a 10cm cooks knife. But I also needed a butchers steak knife, boning knife and fileting knife. I bought a Victorianox Steak knife and a Victorianox Flexible boning knife which you can use for filleting aswell! Just goes to prove that some times the cheapest are the better.
Just remember one thing.... it's they way that you use them and your personal style and technique that count. Some people will get on with some knives better that others will with other knives