Thanks for the tips Dustin and Spopepro!

Dustin: That Takamura is awfully pretty! Man, I can see how one could get sucked down a rabbit hole with this stuff.

Spopepro, I watched the Bernal Cutlery YouTube presentation, looked around their website, found a few knives that interested me, inquired as to recommendations and ended up calling Bernal and chatting with Katy Jane. A nice little Q&A conversation later and I decided to get what she uses at home:

https://bernalcutlery.com/collection...arbon-steel-ne

I figured that while working at a place like that probably doesn’t pay enough to make the seriously expensive stuff affordable, she has surely used and sharpened them, and would know which modestly priced knives would be decent substitutes.

So, that’s on it’s way, along with a companion for the journey; a Spanish, carbon steel paring knife: https://bernalcutlery.com/collection...carbon-boxwood

So, now I’ll have my personal three-knife quiver: Chef, paring, bread; I need nothing more...and they’ll be sharp! What a treat that will be!

As a bonus, my spousal unit suggested an isolated but convenient drawer location which, by dint of good fortune, just happened to be the one I was thinking of. I’ll make a little storage block for it and some organizers for the other occupants.