I have spent 20 years cooking in some of the world's best restaurants.
Henckels are for Housewives. (sorry)
WUSTHOF Tridents are the only knives that ever made it past 1 year for me in prof. Kitchens still in good shape. Classics are my preferred knife but the Grand Prix are great at the house.
You must get a block for storage.
http://www.wusthof.com/en/default.asp
they have some really nice modern blocks.

Hey, are those Kyocera Ceramic knives any good?

Sabatier's are great. They were standard issue when I went Culinary School in Europe.
The problem is that Sabatier is a named for the region (town). There are MANY producers using the name. We were lucky, the school only sourced for us one of the 3 top producers ever "K" SABATIER. (I still collect the NICE, OLD ones)
The composition of the steel in France has changed so much since 1984. The stainless knives can be questionable if not top quality and what is marketed commonly today (new knives by Sabatier) are only average knives. (eBay etc..) I would not recommend a Lay person sourcing the better older ones. This would be quite a task and not worth the time.
Your best bet-the Wusthofs.
Hope this helps and I am sorry if I offended anyone.

Freakin' razors, but VERY fragile and only a true pro can sharpen them correctly. (imagine honing an edge onto a bathroom tile)

+1.....it's made in Germany and we all know something about a fine German product. I've been using them for 5 years and luv 'em.......Phil

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I'm glad I have Wustof Classics. If your screen name is any indication I chose very well.

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I've got a Sabatier Provence set. It is the best knife set I've owned. Though I'm no expert, no complaints here. I find the tomato/bagel knife that came with the set quite useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Sabatier-Prove.../dp/B00004SCQN

No longer available from Amazon though

All my knives are Wusthof.... great knives.

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X3 WUSTHOF Tridents ROCK!!! I have some Classics and Tridents. I would say they are some of the best available. For delicate work, I would also recommend Korin. They make some of the best Yanagi's on the planet.

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