- Get a big new knife.

- Get a big wooden cutting board.

Too many people are suffering with a tiny kitchen knife or even an eating knife or bread knife, trying to cut their stuff on tiny plastic cutting boards. No wonder they hate cooking!

And you don't need an expensive kitchen knife, it just has to be big. All new knifes are sharp. When it's become dull after a year or two you can throw it away and get a new one, or get a better knife.

Edit: For all of you repeating "learn to sharpen" - that's nice, but if you deal with people in the real world, you know that they don't want to be bothered with sharpening their knives. It is better for them to get new knifes, rather than stick with dull knifes.

The best knife is also the one you will use. No need to be frugal with knifes, when a new knife costs less than the ingredients for your next meal.

"You should have a good knife but cheap pots and pans that are heavy enough to kill someone with" and also the story about all of the students at the school stealing each other's expensive knives.

In my defense: my family loves watermelon, we eat a ton of it, and I'm happy to have a special "Watermelon Knife".