Agree with this. A decent whetstone (or two/three of varied grit) is way more important than the internet-ism of Japanese steel or Damascus for your non-professional bloke. Too many people spend 200 quid on 1 knife that's "ultra sharp", just to let them blunt because they cba with sharpening. Those fruit slicing clips doing the rounds a few years ago really duped people
I have others, but the paring knife, chinese cleaver and bread knife are all I use tbh. Don't ask me which ones, I have no idea they're just knives and I probably picked them up from a random home store (except the chinese cleaver which I know I picked up from the local asian cooking store near me, you just can't get them anywhere else in-person in my experience).
It's no different to cars, TVs, clothes, or any other "luxury" item in that regard.
A Dacia will get you to your destination the same as a Rolls Royce.
You can watch the same programs on a 40" Toshiba TN TV as a 75" Sony QD-OLED.
A tshirt from Asda will cover you just as well as a one from Louis Vitton or whatever.
I have a bunch of cheapish knives from a set which was given to me as a gift.
I also have a chef's knife which I made a custom walnut handle for and a Damascus petty which cost as much as all of the rest of them put together!
Given the choice, I'll use one of the latter every time. The others do the job, but those 2 are simply much more pleasant to use. They are better weighted, the handles fit in the hand a lot more comfortably, and they hold a better edge for longer.
So yeah, cheaper* stuff will do the job, but there's nothing wrong with spending a bit more to get something better, particularly if cooking is something you do a lot of and enjoy.
You're right about needing to sharpen them though - definitely a skill everyone should learn!
Agree with the latter part of your post as well, the majority of ones in the set get very little use (I usually make the kids use those rather than ruining the decent ones
), so would definitely recommend sticking with 2-3 that you're actually going to use rather than wasting money on a block to take up worktop space and several knives to sit in it getting dusty.
* that being said, price isn't necessarily always an indication of quality, and obviously there's a point of diminishing returns.
