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Buy it for life | This versatile Japanese chef’s knife has lasted longer than some of my relationships
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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Buy it for Life
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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.