Suggestions for a gift

[bones57]

Greetings
Hey guys i got a bit of a dilemma. My Pop who is a great cook knows i like to fool with knives and have been sharpening quite a few of them around my house as my wife told him about it. I am using the spyderco sharpmaker and have two DMT paddles.
Point being this : He gave me a cleaver and a large chefs knife and three fillet knives to sharpen. The edges on these things were non existent !! Whatever he was using to try and sharpen them in the past destroyed them. I gave up after about a half hour trying to get an edge of any kind on the chefs knife and was just beginning to get something resembling an edge on the cleaver. The fillet knives are cheap as i could see just by picking them up and looking at them. I am not even going to attempt to sharpen them.
The man just let them go and go and go till theres nothing to work with. I figure i will carpal tunnel before these knives ever see any kind of edge again. My stuff around my house i sharpen up as soon they even begin to slide off my thumbnail so as to avoid situations like this.
Now that i have thrown all that out there, does anyone have any suggestions for a good set of kitchen knives that i can surprise him with ?? Nothing outrageously expensive but not junk either. I am looking to go for around $100-$150. Will this price range get me anything decent ??
Any help at all will ge greatly appreciated by me and my aching wrist.

 

[GarageBoy]

make sure they dont have sentimental value first. go with victorinox forscher, dexter russel and old hickory for low priced, but good quality stuff.

 

[bones57]

Thanks,i appreciate the help. I will check them out.

 

[Stockman]

For people who can't or won't sharpen their kitchen knives, Whiltshire knives with the built in push in / pull out sharpening system built into the knife block seems to keep them happy.
Wouldn't use them myself, but they do a fair job of keeping an acceptable edge for the kitchen and will last a few years or more.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Bones, I like GarageBoy's suggestion to see about any sentimental value. Probably none with the cheap filet knives, but look at the style of the cleaver and chef's knife. Are they plastic or wood handles or what? You might want to replace them with a similar, comfortable style.

Getting a cleaver and chef's knife from one company, and filet knives from another, you can save money on filet knives, and still get good ones.

Take a look at this summary for some quick background on different companies.