Ironforge, if you watch a pro chef in action (or read through the knife work section of Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques") you'll see that the good ones really only use one knife -- generally a honkin' big chef's knife.
I have to admit, I'm not that good. I do use smaller knives for paring and dicing, generally a 3.5" Wusthof. I use my bread knife many, many times a day. I use a 5" serrated utility knife on occasion to slice tomatoes or sausage, but it's not a necessity. I use an 8" chef's knife or a santuko for everything else. And if I had to, I could do everything I need to do in the kitchen with just the santuko.
As has been mentioned before:
Don't put your good knives in the dishwasher
Don't cut on glass or ceramic
Don't store your knives loose in a drawer
Don't try to catch a dropped knife
Do get a good cutting board, preferably two (one for poultry only, one for everything else). Wood is actually more sanitary than plastic
Do use a knife block (I don't like the magnetic strips -- see #4 under Don't)
Do choke up on your big knives unless you're hacking a carcass for stock -- a chef's knife is held by pinching the blade between the thumb and the curled index finger with the other three fingers loosely gripping the handle
Do go to a basic knife skills course if you can. My local gourmet shop holds them a couple of times a year with the regional Wusthof rep. You get basic julienning, dicing, etc. and a handy paring knife for about $30. He gets to show off various knives and hopefully make some sales for the shop. Pretty cool.
Chad
