Registry question: individual knives or a set?

Neither of us loves cooking but we don't have a decent knife set, aside from a few knives that were given to us or bought by us, so we registered for a SALT 18 piece set for $60. It's one of the things we're actually most excited about.

If you want really good knives, I would choose them separately. Individually they are pricey, but a whole set might be prohibitive for your guests. This way you can fill in the blanks with your discount after the wedding.

When FH and I were registering the person helping us said most people get the set but don't end up using some of the knives (like for us a fish knife would go unused and we don't use a bread knife often). She suggested just registering for the knives individually that would be used almost everyday (paring knife, utility knife, chefs knife) and a separate magnetic block.

We registered for individual knives. And we got them each.

The year before, I got DH a small set of knives, and they were a good start (JA Henkel), and we used our registry to add to our set

We actually have 2 knife blocks and a magnetic strip since we cook a ton and have knives for specific things.

Depending on what kind of knives you like, the sets you see, and the price point you're willing to register for might help you decide between the options.

As a gift purchaser, I usually prefer to see things added to registries individually.

I buy individual knives. That way, I get exactly what I want. I have Henckels and Wustof.

For future- make sure you sharpen them regularly. It's literally like night and day using a dual versus a freshly sharpened knife.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I think we will be going with individual knives since we will be using them all the time and for years to come.

@033118 sharpened knives definitely make a world of difference! FH sharpens our current ones regularly...I put on headphones so I don't have to hear the sound!

We were told to register for both at crate and barrel so that's what we did. I pretty much knew we wouldn't get the set but you never know. We did get a couple individual knives which is great.

We registered for a wusthoff set but it was only a handful of knives and kitchen shears plus a block for them. It also has slots for whatever steak knives we want

Love my Henckels knives. Bought them individually.

I would rather have a few high end knives. In my home now, that's all I use. They other are just chopped liver, taking up space. When I move to be with my FH, all but the favorites are getting donated.

As someone who has worked in a kitchen, buy your knives individually.

You need a good chef's knife, bread knife, paring knife and filleting knife. A good set of steak knives is indispensable too.

I cook allllll the time and use knives pretty much every day and we registered for a nice knife block set and a few extra knives and a knife strip! I ended up just buying the knife strip myself because I actually really needed it rather than waiting 😂 you could also register for a steak knife set for when you have company over in the future. You really can never have too many knives in my opinion!

Knife sets are a waste if you don’t use them all, and knife blocks are honestly not very hygienic. I prefer buying individual knives based on what I use so I would ask for a set of 4 steak knives (serrated, but serrated knives cannot be sharpened unless you have all the time in the world), a 6-8 inch chefs knife, a slicing knife, a serrated bread knife (9-10 in), and a few paring knives or utility knives.
Also if you ask for nice knives, please for the sake of your knives, do not put them in the dishwasher!