Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8-Inch

There are beautiful Japanese knives with hammered Damascus steel and octagonal handles that cost $300 and feel like holding a samurai sword. The Victorinox Fibrox Pro is not one of them. It is a $35 knife with a plastic handle and a stamped blade — and it is the knife that America's Test Kitchen, Serious Eats, and virtually every culinary school in North America puts in the hands of first-year students.

The edge comes screaming sharp out of the box. It holds that edge through weeks of daily use. The blade is thin enough to glide through onions and sturdy enough to break down a chicken. The handle is grippy even when wet, and the balance point sits right at the heel where your pinch grip naturally falls.

You can spend more. You will eventually want to. But this knife will still be in your drawer ten years from now, and you'll reach for it more often than you'd like to admit.