The knife is definitely one of the weaker weapons. I'm still not sure about needing to time your attack with the idle animation, it definitely means you can't just fire an attack off whenever.
My favorite to use for melee is the spear although the slingshot is also pretty fun to use. We should have clarified that block and dash are abilities you get from items, so you can't just use them whenever. Blocking/parrying is not completely finished being implemented so it's not too bad that you didn't get to use it. I'm glad you had fun playing!