Stepping up with knife collection

Hi all,

My birthday is coming up soon and I've decided I'd really like some new, high quality knives. I'm no professional chef, but I cook at home a lot, I love it, and spend many hours in the kitchen.

I've never had good knives, always basic cheap ones.  About 3 years ago my girlfriend bought me a new 8" Brasilia chefs knife, and whilst it's not high end by any means, it was a big step up from the cheapo knife I'd been using.

I've been looking around and reading up a lot. The downside is that I live in New Zealand and it's hard to find stockists for many of the knife brands. I can get a single range of Shun, Global, Wusthof locally, but not many other options (www.kingofknives.com shows the local availability).

Originally I had decided on the Wusthoff Classic Ikon range, as that seems more like the knives I'm used to using, has a decent name, looks really nice and was shown in Gordon Ramsays latest program (I know, I'm not that naive really).

Anyway, after doing some research it seems that the German knives don't really stack up against the Japanese steels these days. Having said that, I would still prefer a knife in the European style, rather than Japanese.

The Shuns are nice, but I'm not sure the handles really do it for me and from what I've read, the blades are a bit whippy, which I dont think I would enjoy.

So I'm currently looking at MAC Pro's.  They seem to fit most of the critera I have: european style, good Japanese steel, sharp, relatively easy to sharpen, nice handles.

The issues I have: are they fragile? I've read a few reports that they chip/break easily. Is this just people misusing them? I use my Brasilia for everything except opening tins, so I don't want to break an expensive knife!

Are the handles small, or do most people find them comfortable?

Other than that, I don't really like how the emblems/logos seem to be stuck on? But I guess that doesn't effect the performance in any way.

I would have to import these, so if anyone can recommend a supplier in the US, Aus or Japan that would ship overseas that would be appreciated.

Does it sound like I'm looking at the right knives in this ball park?

Many thanks!

~p

Thought I would just add, the knives I am initially looking at:

Chefs knife (either 8 or 9.5")

Paring

Carving

Bread - Doesn't look like MAC pro do a bread knife, offset will be fine (I've read all the reasons to choose a cheap offset blade, but one that matches the set would be nice, for vanity reasons :)  )

As for sharpening, I am still researching this as best I can. I am used to running my chefs knife over a steel rod each time I use it, but have no expertise in honing/sharpening, though I will be looking to learn before I get new knives.

From what I can gather, the MAC ceramic rods are adequate for honing, which I assume would be done every 1 to 3 times the knife is used?

I'm yet to decide on a sharpening solution, but gather it only needs to be done a couple times a year if the knife is looked after and honed (could be wrong here).

~p