When we were little, we had to use paring knives for steak knives, adults got the longer steak knives.

I have a set of Henckels serrated (oh shudder) steak knives that work great and the edge is fine after 10 years. I wouldn't trust anyone but me to use a higher quality steak knife in my shack.

Victorinox Pro Chef’s knife. Acceptably Sharp out of the box and cheap. Light and feels decent in a traditional pinch grip.

Victorinox paring knife, sharp, cheap, and disposable.

Victorinox 6in utility boning knife, sharp, cheap, and useful for dispatching chickens in a kill cone.

Victorinox 6.7in Santoku. Sharp out of the box, cheap, and the grantons seem to actually work decently at reducing sticking.

Mercer Culinary bread knife. Cheap and it cuts bread, no idea why people spend a fortune on bread knives.

Victorinox slicer. It’s an okay knife as long as you keep it sharp.

Wusthof Classic Ikon 5in utility knife is probably my favorite knife. Serrated and sharp as heck. Cuts baguettes and soft tomatoes like a laser.

Wusthoff Classic Ikon chefs knife. If you don’t like a traditional pinch grip and prefer a more grasp the whole handle approach it is a nice knife. Using it like a traditional pinch grip chefs knife is uncomfortable though. It is incredibly sharp and holds an edge well. Honestly for a home cook like myself the Victorinox is a better value.

For rabbit butchering we use some German F. Dick blades we got from the bunny ballista sellers.

My reasoning is I am cheap, and I don't care about using my knives as a status symbol.

I buy either Tramontina or Dexter-Russel commercial kitchen knives with the white plastic handles.  They are cheap, and I have a chef knife that is just a few years shy of two decades old and has been through hundreds and hundreds of dishwasher cycles.  It is stainless, doesn't impart any flavor to the food, holds an edge well, sharpens easily, and has an ergonomic grip that is easy to hang onto when it's wet or greasy.

These are designed to be used in restaurant kitchens where they will be abused by prep cooks and then ran through the autoclave-like conditions of commercial dishwashing machines.  If they are good enough for the restaurant business, they will be more than adequate for my home kitchen, and almost 20 years of use has proved that out.  My kitchen knives will probably outlive me, and my family does plenty of home cooking.