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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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Buy it for Life
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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!
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Basically anything short of a stamped metal boning knife is "buy for life" if you actually know how to sharpen it. No, not the grinders but a whetstone. And then just hone it (optimally every time you use it... so like once every other month).
Different metals will dull/misalign faster but basically no home chef will really have to worry about that. It is only really an issue when you are dicing dozens of pounds of veg a day (so restaraunt and some recipe developers). And the big difference there is just that you are sharpening once or twice a week instead of two or three times a year.
The real benefit to a more expensive knife is almost always balance and ergonomics of the handle. And unless you know what you want, you are just going to waste a lot of money.
Saying "this knife is buy it for life" is like saying "this hammer is buy it for life".
One other caveat. A lot of people will see a youtube chef cut through the joint of a chicken leg or carve out the spine or something similar. Unless you know what you are doing, that is where those cheap stamped metal boning knives come in handy. THAT is how you chip and break a blade because you weren't actually cutting through the cartilage (?) connecting the joints and were instead hacking through the bones themselves.
I recently replaced my hammer because it wore out.
If you’re serious, certainly you are working with it daily?!
No, it was just a low-quality hand-me-down that started to bend and lost part of one of its claws.
Maybe they were using it to tunnel out of prison.
BIFL tags for kitchen knives differ for the average buyer since I assume most people do not sharpen their knives. So how well knives retain their sharpness will be the main factor for the average buyer.
No, they don't.
A dull knife is a dangerous knife that is frustrating to use. And if you use a knife, it will dull. Saying "this is BIFL even if you don't sharpen it" is like saying "this car is BIFL because you only have to change its oil half as much".
Yep, I’ve still got the same bog standard Sabatier set from 1990 or something that my parents gave up because they think sharp knives are more dangerous to cut with.
"Treaded tires are more dangerous to drive with than bald ones."
I see no reason for a normal person to buy a knife that costs more than ten bucks.
REALLY curious where you are finding knives for ten bucks. The stamped metal boning knives tend to be closer to 20 or 30 a pop.
But I AM a huge fan of the 60-100 USD range (pre-Liberation Day prices. Who the hell knows how horrible they are now). The Victorinox (the swiss army knife company) knives are shockingly affordable and the polymer handle isn't the most ergonomic but it has a really solid texture to make up for it.
Also, just because I have apparently mentioned them like ten times: Don't sleep on those really shitty dirt cheap stamped metal boning knives. For that, you want something REALLY sharp that you don't care about damaging. THAT is where you actually use those shitty metal grinder sharpeners... or you just buy a new one every hundred or so chickens you break down.
There's a special type of Costco stores called Costco Business Center. They're designed for businesses, but you can shop there with a regular Costco membership. Not sure how many there are, but there's three near me in the San Francisco Bay Area: South San Francisco, Hayward, and San Jose.
They have a lot of restaurant supplies for cheap. One example is a two pack of Tramontina ProLine knifes for $20: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/tramontina-proline-8-and-10-cooks-knives-commercial-grade-2-ct.product.100227891.html (online price; it might be cheaper in store).
It's a great place to get mixing bowls too - they have stainless steel mixing bowls for $2-3.
I just got a knife at the thrift store and sharpen it with a little sharpener designed for, like, camping knives. Works great!
Currently I have these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NW1J2NW
Fair enough. I hate those kinds of handles with a passion and am curious how it was manufactured but if it works, it works.
What kind of handles do you like? I have some fancier knives that I got as a gift and they have riveted handles too.
I don't mind riveted construction. My issue is that the style of grip is very specific to a single hand shape because of how broad it is from top to bottom. So lifting your palm up for the pinch grip greatly weakens the grip on the bottom (or top) of the handle for most hand shapes.
Optimally? I am a huge fan of round handles since those fit a much wider range of hands. But I also find the victorinox rough polymer grips on their knives get a good chunk of the way towards at least making it feel like you have a solid grip at every point of contact.