I guess I learned how to cook with Japanese knives, so my knowledge of techiniques more suited to the traditional chef's knife may be a bit lacking. I didn't know Henkel made a $40 chef knife though! I know what my next kitchen purchase might be.

Do you have a knife block suggestion? The one at my house doesn't quite fit the number/types of knives that we have at my house, so I"m looking for something a bit more universal than the standard fare. Looked at the kapoosh as well as some magnetic ones on Amazon and was wondering if you had any experience with them.