Reddit mentions of Winco 10 Compartment Knife Bag, Black

Honestly, depending on the person, the job, and how much stuff they actually carry back and forth with them, knife rolls can be very personal things to shop for. You may find a nice roll that holds 12 knives, then they may end up taking a lot of smaller tools that don't fit in the knife spots. You may find a roll that has a zippered area for smaller tools, only to discover that they only take 6 knives and a peeler to work with them, and have no need for a zippered pouch.

You could go with an ultra-basic model, and it could be fine; it's utilitarian, and gets the job done. In my school, most people ended up going with a bag like this, because it had a pocketed area for smaller tools like thermometers, pens, bandaids, and other things. I still have mine somewhere in the basement, and it's a good bag. Personally, I usually take a lot of stuff to work with me, and I wanted a larger bag to be able to hold everything, so I started looking at bags like this, which are massive, and have 4 areas to hold all sorts of things. A week after I started looking at them online, I actually got lucky enough to find one in a thrift store for $3, so I couldn't pass that up.

For myself, because the tools I take to work varies, based on the menu cycle we may be in, or the work I expect to possibly need to do, and because some of the things I take a little too bulky for a regular knife roll, I prefer not to use an actual knife roll. I've switched over to using something like a small duffle bag, and it works just fine for me.

What I might suggest is to see if you have a restaurant supply store near you, or some place that sells cutlery that has a large selection of chef's knives, because those places might have knife rolls. If it's possible that you find a local place that has a few different types/styles of knife rolls, maybe you could take him there, and ask him to pick his own knife roll, since he knows what he would plan to put in it.

Any of the ones that I've linked to would be a half way decent starter knife pouch (except for maybe the huge one), and over time, he'll most likely upgrade to something else.

Something else that you might want to seriously consider, if he doesn't already have something like this, is maybe getting him a set of blade guards to go with the knife bag. It'll help protect the knife edges, and his fingers, while they're still in the bag.

Whatever you settle on, good luck.

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-8-Piece-Knife-Block-Set/dp/B0000CF9AG

The Victorinox knives with the textured rubber\plastic handles are seriously great bang for your buck.

You might look into building your own set piece meal and only getting the knives you want and a cheap generic block, may save some cash that way.

Edit: Actually since you are going to school, something like this http://www.amazon.com/Winco-Compartment-Knife-Bag-Black/dp/B001RJTX9C will probably suit more than a block.