You know what else is a realy good and inexpensive knife? The Kitchenaid 7" Santoku. At $20, it really is an amazing versatile knife. We've had ours for 4 years now and it's still nice and sharp.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/273769?&cid=chanintel&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=273769

I recently bought one of these -- it's certainly excellent for the money, but for those of us accustomed to more standard Western style knives, the balance is off. Too point-heavy.

Before using this chef's knife, we'd only used the requisite wedding gift generic knives. This one is a dream. The handle is no-slip, even when dealing with raw chicken (you know how that gets.) This is a very good upgrade knife that is sharp enough right out of the box to slice a folded newspaper. The blade is not overly heavy to the point of distraction, but certainly stout enough that I've used on the aforementioned chicken keel bones and ribs.

Where did you get the information that this had a 15 degree edge?
Just recently Cook's Illustrated put this knife up against the new-school hybrid blades, but I thought the point was that it wasn't one of those 15 degree edged blades, but was an old school 20 degree edge that still won, due the the cost to awesome ratio.

Very nice find. Glad I'm still reading this site after the homeopathy dust up.

The Forschner Victorinox bread knife is also a great knife... we've had ours for ~ 5 years, have not had it sharpened, and it still performs very well.

A lot of "super sharp" knives get that way because they're factory sharpened stainless steel that's too brittle to be sharpened again. They're basically disposables. So is this knife made of sharpenable high-carbon steel or what? The angle of the edge is also important: if it's not the standard western configuration I assume using something like the Accusharp would wreck it.

I own a couple Forschner knives: a chef knife and a slicer with a scalloped blade. Great value.

I use this knife all the time and it is as great as they say. I hone it before every use and just use a standard sharpener when it gets a little dull. Holds an edge well and is a joy to use. If you don't have $200+ to spend on a knife this is the one to get.

That knife looks cheap. Way better off with the 3 knife set of Chicago Cutlery Centurion for the same price. They are full tang, with really hard stainless that holds a great edge. They are at least as good as my old Wusthofs.

http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Cutlery-Centurion-3-Piece-Knife/dp/B00091SDM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1256588273&sr=8-1

I was given this knife as a gift before beginning culinary school 15 years ago. After many years and many knives, this is still my go-to blade. Have never had a problem putting a new edge on it when needed and it has survived many ordeals that other knives did not.

Highly recommended.

It may look cheap, but don't let looks fool you. This is a professional piece of kit - a go-to blade for pro cooks and butchers. I grabbed one a couple of weeks ago and definitely agree with the recommendation.

The (included) angle of the edge bevel is whatever you want to make it.
Don't like 20°? Rehone to 15° ...no big deal

Great knife, went through my index finger in one.

Just stopped by the knife store the other day to pick this knife up as a gift. Glad to see it's getting recognition. I like the no-slip handle so much I might pick one up for myself.

I worked for a while as butcher, and we used both this Forschner Victorinox boning knife as our primary knife. It is a great knife and took a lot of abuse. (Yes, they can stand up to the Accusharp sharpener!)

I've now owned three of these knives -- the 8" chef's knife is my go-to knife among many others in the block (include a few japanese and Wustoffs). Only drawback is that it has less heft than some others for those jobs where you really need to hack. They may look cheap, but perform MILES ahead of similarly priced competition.

Reason I've owned 3? I love them so much that I travel with them and have had a bad tendancy to leave them in friends' beach and ski houses.

(And don't tell anyone, but they can survive the dishwasher too!)

I have 3 from this series, the 8" chefs, 8" bread and 6" utility. These are commercial knives, NSF approved. They may not be as pretty as a damascus or carbon steel blade, but not as brittle or expensive either. Excellent everyday use knives, sharpen up well and stay sharp.

I have had the 8" Chef knife for nearly 2 years. This is the best knife for the money I've ever owned. I usually grab it before the more expensive German made knives I own. It doesn't look expensive, but it feels good, cuts and holds an edge as well or better than knives 10x it's price. I paid $22 for it, including shipping.

When I announced my intention to be a computer programmer and a writer, my grandfather insisted my uncle teach me to be a butcher so I'd hae something to fall back on; computers were a fad.

Among many useful lessons I learned is that if you want a good knife for a good price, go to a restaurant or butcher supply and buy a middle of the road professional knife.

Like this one.

I've got a couple of these, and a $500 chef's set my brother gave me for Christmas one year. The $500 knives are beautiful and a joy to use, although a little terrifying. These aren't near as pretty, but they're damn near as useful, and if catastrophe happens you're only out $20.

We bought this knife in a set that included 5 others and have used them for at least 10 years. I just recently had them professionally sharpened for the first time. These knives have a heftier feel in my hand (more important to my husband) - they may look cheap but they have held up very well. We'll own these for the rest of our lives.

Why is this 8" knife $30 on Amazon and the 10" version is $27? Is there any difference other than size?

Our main chef's knife at home is the 35-year old version of this: same blade, but with a wood handle. It's still my go-to knife for most stuff, but I'm thinking about picking up new, slightly smaller one. As several readers have pointed out, these are professional tools. This is the brand you're most likely to see in butcher shops and restaurants. I picked up mine at the local meat locker.

I've had one of these knives since I moved out of home 10+ years ago. Went to a chef supply place and asked for a decent quality no frills knife, this is what they recommended!

People keep telling me I "need" to get a knife set but if it aint broke, don't fix it is my motto.