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A decent Chef's knife will cost you in excess of £50. This sounds like a lot, but they will last you for years and years. A block of knives for £40 will be stamped rather than forged, which means that they blunt quicker. A full set of knives, steel, block and scissors from Henckels should be about £180-£200 - I think amazon sells them. This contains all the knives you'll need in a kitchen - not cheap, but well worth it. On the other hand, like Juliet, I have a really good 10" Chef's knife, a small paring knife, a breadknife and a steel. I also have a couple of cheap knives from IKEA, but I don't really need or use these that much. I love my Henckels knives, but then I've got big hands and like the German handle style. Look for a knife style that fits your hand well and has a nice balance. Most knives are made from stainless steel these days, but some are made from carbon steel. Carbon steel knives are easier to sharpen than stainless, but blunt quicker. Like I mentioned above, you want forged knives. Look for a knife where the blade extends right the way back through the handle, rather than disappearing into a plastic grip - the handle can come off on cheap knives. Buy a steel and learn how to use it - touch up the edge on your knives every few times you use them. This keeps the edge on them, and means you don't have to sharpen (or get them sharpened) so often. I've heard good things about cook's choice sharpeners - pull-through is the way to go if you're at all inexperienced, as it's easy to destroy the edge with a whetstone if you don't know what you're doing. (On that note, can anyone recommend anywhere decent in town to get knives sharpened? I know some of the big department stores get people from the knife-makers in around Christmas, but I always seem to miss them). --JakobThere's stuff above here
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