Look, man, you only need 3 knives:

• A Chef's knife (or Santoku) - this is your everyday workhorse.
• A serrated knife (or bread knife) - this is for sawing through things like baked goods and pineapples.
• A pairing knife - for those small and detailed cuts like coring a strawberry (but get a full handle!).
• BUT - make sure you get a honing steel - this is critical!

You can get a super high-quality pairing knife and bread knife for less than $100. For the home cook? We can get away with cheap throwaways for $20 each. Honestly, this isn't where you spend your money if you are on a budget.

If you can get an 8" Mac for $100, just do it and never look back. It's super high-quality with a blade made from Japanese steel (with a 60-62 rockwell hardness score). It is soft enough not to be brittle but hard enough to keep an edge for a LONG time. Those Vikings, for comparison, have a hardness score of 55. That's WAY softer and going to require sharpening WAY more often than something in the 60s.

Pick up a honing steel for less than $15 and use that sucker once a week. You will be made in the shade and loving life.