Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Where's the whittling thread?!? 

then you are obviously part of the problem

I'm interested in a good general purpose knife, I looked at some of the Japanese offerings but didn't buy.  I have a sort of midrange butcher block set that are OK, kids have it to me a while back.  My main blade has to be sharpened almost daily if I'm to cut something more precisely.

• Pay for quality. That doesn't mean "buy the most expensive knife"--as I've said I believe the Victorinox to be quality, but a better knife will hold its edge longer and require sharpening less frequently. That will improve your enjoyment of the knife, especially since most of us [myself included] get lazy about sharpening.
• Pre-made knife block sets are usually a bad deal. Usually they include knives you don't need and they sacrifice quality for quantity. Since you already have a block, I'd look at replacing individual knives--your main used knives--with new individual knife sets rather than getting a new knife set.
• I recommend larger knives for your main workhorse. I think a lot of people are intimidated by anything larger than an 8" chef's knife--and quite a few people are intimidated by those. My primary Victorinox is 10" and the Gyuto is almost 11". It's actually a lot easier to cut many things if you can get the blade above what you're cutting while the tip of the knife still rests on the board. You can always buy a smaller knife for more delicate tasks (we also have an 8" chef's knife and 7" santoku), but a lot of jobs are easier with 10" than 8". 
• Knives need to be sharpened regularly, and a honing steel is NOT sharpening. Most home cooks buy a set of knives and will have them for a decade without sharpening them. I'm a nerd, so I learned to sharpen my knives myself with a whetstone. But for people who don't want to do that, they can take their knives to be sharpened for a few dollars per knife. Do that every 6 months with your main knives and you'll be a lot happier...

I'm just messing around.  I only have a decent set of really old Henkels, I'm not much of a knife snob.

The best, most used, and cheapest knife I own, is my brisket/roast slicer from Ace Mart.