The Forschner (Victorinox) Fibrox gets my vote for bang for buck. Its butt-ugly, but the blade performance to price is stupid good. The blade can take a keen edge, but lose it quickly and needs frequent touch-ups. Its sort of springy and bounce back easily with a few swipes against a ceramic hone. With chefs knives, youre better off getting the longest length - up to the point where it becomes too much for you / workspace to handle. In general, the knife length should be ~ 2-3 less than the width of the cutting board, and the cutting board should be ~ 6-8 less than the width of your countertop.
The Forschner and Kuhn Rikon paring knife are quite excellent. The Kuhn Rikon has a hard coated blade that takes as keen of edge and holds it longer than the Victorinox. Both are less than $10 bucks, despite the low price are more than fine as paring knives (normally) arent used against cutting board, or for difficult items / tasks that require better steel, edge acuteness, retention, etc.
