+1 on Global. I bought She Who Must Be Obeyed a Global paring knife to replace a knife I'd broken. It became an instant favorite, so I got her several more.

+1 on the magnetic knife bar. Handy access plus keeps knives clean and dry. Who knows what evil lurks in those knife blocks?

I do the sharpening, because she does not. She'd let them get dull as a butter knife left to her own.