Weddingbee boards

I have a different take here...

Unless you are Bobby Flay or Emeril, odds are, you aren't going to use every knife in a 13-piece set, so you are actually probably better off registering for four knives of very good quality. i cook A LOT and love kitchen gadgets and thingabobs, and i can't emphasize enough the importance of a GOOD KNIFE. it's your most-important kitchen tool. Try one of the Henckels or Wusthof brands that are less-expensive. you can probably get all four of these knives for under $200, like you were looking for. and you wont have 9 extra knives sitting in your block that you never use:

1. chef's knife - should be about 9-10 inches. big, sturdy. this is for chopping vegetables, mincing stuff, anything really. this should be the crown jewel of your knife set. you'll use it forever, for everything, so money spent here is a good value.

2. serrated edge knife -  longer, 12-14 inches (you can spend a little less here too). this is for bread and actually also good for thinly slicing tomatoes.

3. paring knife - small 3-4 inches. this is for little things. i cant even really think of what i use it for right now. but it's small and always comes in handy.

4. sharpening steel - this looks like a sword and you use it to sharpen your chef knife and paring knife. there's nthing worse than a dul knife!

5. steak knives - you know what these are. one set of 4 or 6 should be plenty. how often are you going to have 12 people over for t-bones?

And for my money, that's all you need. You should be able to get a top-quality chef's knife for around $80 (and you will have it forever and use it every day); the other knives will cost you less, and trust me, you will never use all of those other wacky knives in your block that you were so concerned about not spending money on. (seriously, are you ever planning on fileting a whole fish? ididntthinkso)

hope this helps!