A good kitchen knife from let’s say Global is dreadfully expensive here in Sweden. Are there any well known Chinese manufactured ones with equal quality but at a lower price?
It’s probably not what you were looking for,Victorinox/Forschner knives are amazing quality and value. From what I’ve read they can go toe to toe with the Zwilling/Henckels and Wusthofs, but can’t speak from personal experience as I have never owned those expensive knives.
The Victorinox 8” chef knife (40520) and 7” Santoku (41529) are both excellent. I got mine for $20 and $30 respectively, but they are currently around ~30 on ebay (depending on your location). Made in switzerland and the fibrox handles are very comfortable and do not get slippery when wet or greasy, also NSF approved and allegedly dishwasher safe, but I wouldn’t push it.
It might bother some people they are very light (but sharp!), so you may prefer the forged versions, but those are more expensive and likely don’t cut any better. The Santoku is my favorite, extremely sharp and so far the edge holds well. Hand doesn’t get tired from chopping veggies, it’s as if the knife were part of my hand!
Also take note that Global uses Japanese steel. It obtains a superior edge and holds it better, but is more difficult to sharpen. It’s recommended you either be an experienced sharpener or have them sharpened professionally. For this reason I stuck with the softer German steel.
Mercer is a great value brand. They’re famous for being used by culinary students since they’re inexpensive to acquire yet perform very well. They might not last as long as the mid to upper level Wustof and the like, so take that into consideration. My mom has been using hers for about a year and a half with no problems. She enjoys them.
I’ve done a lot of reading that says the same thing (in particular, the ones with fibrox handles.). I don’t have any yet either but if I were to buy a proper kitchen knive, it will be one of these for sure!
Another vote for Victorinox/Forschner and I was a butcher on and off for around 25 years. I have cut tens of thousands of pounds of meat with these knives, at work and around the house.
I buy mine from Kent Butcher Supply. (you might find a better deal someplace else, I don’t really know)
http://www.kbsmi.com/index.cfm?CatID=36&cLvl=2
If I could only pick one knife it would be the 6” Boning Knife-Stiff Straight. It does have some flex to it but not much. It is easy to sharpen with a steel and holds an edge forever as long as you don’t abuse it. I have used it for just about everything you can think of. From fish to rabbits to chicken, pork, beef, venison, its even great on vegetables.
If you don’t own any other kitchen knife, this one alone will do just about anything you need.
Honestly, I would rather own this one knife than most people’s entire sets.
Victorinox are definitely some of the best value for money knives around.
I have some much more expensive knives, but I am always happy to pick up one of my Victorinox blades to work with. I actully prefer the way the stamped Victorinox knives cut, although the forged ones feel nicer in the hand, the blades are thicker and take more effort to slice through tough veggies.
I too find a 16-17 cm Santoku blade most generally useful in the kitchen. A good paring knife, and a big slicer/chefs knife/Gyuto (I prefer one about 30 cm) makes a good combination.
I am a sucker for blades, like torches, you can never have enough good ones 
Surprisingly, some very cheap blades can be quite good these days. Particulary the ones with Japanese styled and profiled blades
I have a preference for slim V ground distal tapered blades. They cut better and are lighter in the hand. I don’t like blocky wedgy blades.
Kai/Kershaw make some nice budget blades too, well worth a look.
The Victorinox ones are indeed very good, especially for the money, if you don’t mind to have plastic handles.
Very similar are those Dick knives but I don’t know how good they are available in sweden.
If you are looking for something a bit less budget I can strongly recommend the Eden Quality Knives with VG-10 Blades.
They have forged handles and the “3-layer-steel-blade” has an inner layer (the part that cuts) of VG-10 steel, wich is a lot harder than the steel used in most german/european knives.
That means it holds an edge a lot longer, but is a bit harder to sharpen, as already mentioned.
I gave a lot of these knives away for christmas and birthday presents already and use some of them myself.
They are great value and hold the edge so much longer compared to the common softer steel knives!
Only downsides I can think of are:
-the blade is a bit thicker, especially on the big ones.
-some of the knives were not as sharp as they could have been as I received them, (so I sharpend them myself)
- the big ones, especially the Santoku are/is rather heavy.
But the price and the great steel totally makes up for these things IMO.
Edit: Aahh, I almost forgot: You get up to 30% discount on these knives when ordering more than one aka “Set-Discount”, wich autmatically adds to your shopping cart! I had around 20% all the time when ordering 3 or more knives, just try it out!
When i read the title my first thought was ... Global .. just buy it ..How wrong could you be ..
I was thinking global when Iwalked into the kitchen supply store but the price stopped me also...Then I started looking at rachel ray orange handled furi's .(and solid handled ).. Suddenly I had an epiphiney and asked the owner (chef) what he would buy and he showed me the CiA knives ...Starter set was a santoku and a paring knife for 100$..But they had a special were you could pick any otherknife for free .
So instead of one Global knife I bought 3 CIA knives .. I like them they are tough as nails but seem a little heavy (not nessesarily a bad thing )...Although I think I was leaning towards a lighter knife in the first place . That said ...buying a decent set of knives was the best thing I've done in a long time . I still say ...go global.
http://www.chefsresource.com/cia-starter-knife-set.html
http://www.chefsresource.com/cia-5-chef-knife.html
Victorinox is very ok.
I love the Ikea ones. Found the recommendation on the german knife forum, they love em too. Gynnsam is my favourite, gnistra seems ok too.
i got a couple of the furi pro series on sale and could not believe the weight, balance. and cutting of these knives. i used to be a fan of sabatier until carbon steel went out of fashion, and own a multi thousand dollar set of custom david boye kitchen knives with his fantastic dendritic steel cast blades but for under $40 you can buy a set of rachel ray furi gusto grip knives, i am a sucker for the orange handle and great grip. dont be tempted to buy the others in the line without the solid tang and counter weight on the handle. i also have a set of the solid metal version which i liked very much and just could not resist buying these. will i pass them on to the children as heirlooms like the boyes, doubtful but they are a pleasure to use, take a great edge. i mean really, what have you to lose for that price while you save up for the expensive knives of your dreams.
ken