Salut Frankie,

If you're looking for great kitchen knives at a decent price, look at the Lagostina Pro-Forge knife kit available at Canadian Tire. I remember paying 150 $ for a 9" chef knife, a smaller 6" utility knife, a bread knife and a 5" paring knife. I use them all the time and they are great! Full tang, great feel... I don't forsee myself needing/wanting anything higher-end than that. They're basically exactly the same as pricier J.A. Henckels knives and such.

EDIT : Can't find the Pro-Forge set online, you might have to visit your local CT.

As for the practicing, I think you need to take advantage of fishing, hiking or camping trips to play with pieces of wood and make fire sticks, etc. I agree you can't really practice doing those survival chores at home.

:-)