Good knives are a start. YOu also need to learn how to sharpen and keep them sharp.
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Knife overview:
My most used knives are
5 inch santoku
meat cleaver
serrated bread knife
I use the shears (scissors) a lot and the honing steel quite a bit.
There is a slicing knife I use a bit. And a 7 inch santoku that I use a bit.
I don’t use the chef’s knife much. And I use the paring knife not too much at all because it is too small and the 5 inch santoku can do everything I need a paring knife to do.
One large smooth blade (chef’s knife / butcher knife) for meat and veggies.
One long, thin, serrated blade for tomatoes and breads.
One smaller knife (paring) for more precise operations.
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My wife uses the steak knives out of the block to cut stull like onions or carrots or potatoes.
Drives me crazy!
Top to bottom for me:
My chef’s knife is my go-to, I think it’s an 8" blade that’s very thick. I’m a big guy, and I could see why some people wouldn’t make this their #1. But I use this thing a ton.
I also use my 10" serrated knife a lot, obviously for bread but it’s also good for things like tomatoes.
Kitchen shears are probably my #3, maybe #2.
And I use the paring knife a lot, it’s a 3" blade. I’d prefer something just a bit bigger, and at some point I may get something with a 4" blade.
I have a smaller 6" all purpose knife, same shape as a chef’s knife but with a shorter, thinner blade. I like it, but normally I’d just take the larger chef’s knife here. Some people would prefer this to my chef’s knife because of the similarities and the lighter weight.
I got a 7" santoku to try, and I like it but I don’t love it. It has scallops in the edge to prevent food from sticking to the blade, which I do appreciate and they work reasonably well. It is great for chopping, with a big, flat blade and a lower weight than the chef’s knife.
And then I have a 5" serrated knife, which pretty much only gets used if the 10" is dirty.
I use steak knives for a lot of things. And I put them in the dishwasher.
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I’ve had the same set of Shun for about a decade. I like the thinner angle on the blades as compared to the German brands. Those seem to rely on the weight of the knife to do some of the work, imo.
My favorite paring knife is 4". Maybe that makes it technically a utility knife? That’s a good length for most kitchen tasks, for me. I have a nice 3" global knife that i use for precision cutting of small things (cutting out the stem from strawberries) but it’s too short for a lot of what i want to do. If my only paring knife were 3" i suppose I’d use the chef’s knife more, but that’s overkill for a lot of tasks, and i feel i have better control with a smaller knife. Also, it’s just easier to use a small light knife for an extended period.
Also, my paring knife has a slightly more flexible blade than the others, making it good for peeling apples and ginger, for instance.
I have the same shears he has. They are very nice. But i mostly use a knife for cutting poultry bones, not the shears. I guess that’s how i first learned to do it.
And we have a meat cleaver for larger bones.
Chef’s knife gets by far the most use for cooking in my house. Nothing else is close.
Paring knife and kitchen shears are probably the next two in popularity. Carving knife, boning knife, and serrated bread knife get used when appropriate but that’s less frequently. We also have some knives with very small and sharp blades that are handy for fine work like cutting the ribs/seeds out of peppers. I sometimes use the santoku, but my wife doesn’t like that one. We have a medium serrated knife that is basically for tomatoes, but it doesn’t get used much. It does work well, but if I’m cooking I generally already have the chef’s knife out so I just use that. We also have a few crappy knives that can go in the dishwasher that get used for things like slicing some cheese.
This ends with me ordering a new knife, I can feel it. By the time we’re done here, this thread will be responsible for like $8k in new kitchen hardware for GoA.
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Per my brother (a chef) you don’t need super high end, just something ‘good’, watch for stuff that goes on sale and buy a set then. We got our set for like $250CDN.
Mind you he uses obscenely expensive knives, but I guess the rest of us can’t tell the difference at that level.
I’ve bought a couple of very expensive knives. They are fun to use.
Why yes, i do have two knife blocks plus a lot of knives in a drawer, why do you ask?
My breakfast most days is one of those frozen spinach egg white frittatas that you can get at Costco. I slice it in half and put on a piece of toasted Oat Nut bread (also from Costco, also sliced in half… makes a nice sandwich).
I’d rather just subsist solely on carbs and cheese, but I feel noticeably better when I start my day with a decent amount of protein.
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That’s not accounting for the fact that it doesn’t / can’t / shouldn’t sit flush against the wall. I think they deliberately make the cord really stiff to force you to leave some space behind the microwave.
If it fit flush then since the microwave is 17 5/7” and my shelf is 17.5” it would only stick out 3/14” . 
This. I started with just a santoku knife (essentially the Asian equivalent of a chef’s knife although a knife enthusiast may bristle at that description) and a paring knife.
I’ve since added a tomato knife, a carving knife (and later the fork) and a boning knife. All Shun.
I’ve been gifted three Victorinox paring knives. Two plastic handled which are nice because they’re dishwasher safe and one wooden handled that basically only gets used when the others are dirty or if I’m serving fancy cheese to guests because it looks nice with one of my small wooden cutting boards.
And I still have the cheap set of knives I bought when I was in my early 20s which are only brought out for occasions where I want big knives but they don’t have to be especially sharp (cutting a pie or brownies, for example).
“That’s not a knife”
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I believe my mom still has a knife from a Shell Gas Station giveaway in the 60’s.
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Yes/no? Henckes 12 knife set? BNIB, $90 ($260 retail)?