The universe really said "let's ruin this guy's Tuesday" with that loading dock lighting, huh? Pretty wild how we blame the printer, the ink, the file, even our own eyes before we ever think to blame the dumb fluorescent tube buzzing overhead. That bruised peach description gave me a good laugh, but also a little PTSD because I've been there more times than I care to admit. It's always the most boring, obvious thing that ends up being the whole problem. So congrats on your 2% win, that's basically a perfect score in this dumb game we play.

My buddy tried one and it held his reservation wrong three times in a row.

9 times out of 10 the cheap stuff is garbage, but there's a middle ground. My $80 Henckels from Target has held an edge for 2 years through weekly use, so maybe you just got a dud set. Block sets are mostly filler anyway, but that extra bread knife and honing steel actually get used at my place.