I bought a Rada Quick Edge at a thrift store for $2.
Was always taught my my metal-smith grandfather how to properly care for and sharpen knives, but when I tried it out on a knife I cared little for, I found it was such a shocking difference in efficiency I couldn’t help but notice.
It completely changed my relationship with knives and knife care, which was so helpful for me because I cook everything from scratch and whole ingredients. Everything, so having good knives is not kids-play for me.
It made me discover that for me, using a quick sharpening wheel and a hone gets my knives beard-shaving sharp in less than 30 seconds. I could never go back to the “right way” and I firmly joined the “dark side” of knife ownership.
Yes they destroy knives with some aggression, far more than traditional methods, but in the forensic audit it has saved me hundreds in a literal way, and hundreds of hours laboring over sharpening stones.
I no longer need to pamper knives, I buy cheap German steel chef knives on sale for $5-$20 and I throw them out in 3 or 4 years. I’ll never go back. All the hysterics from knife “gurus” on YT be damned - in my personal cooking world where I have 10,000 Km on my knives and cutting board, I could give two shits what they think. Nobody better ever give me a $300 knife for a present because it’s going back in the box.
Dual-wheel sharpener and 14" hone is all I’ll ever use from now on.
Broke single mom here. My H&M usually offers a buy one get one discount on boys’ cotton boxers, so whenever I buy a pack for my 12 year old son, I grab myself one as well and they serve pretty well as pajama shorts which I pair with a cheap oversized cotton tee.
Extra long shoe horn. I eventually upgraded to a solid metal one when the cheap one broke.
Pair of hook earbuds. Cheap no-name presumably Chinese brand, but they sound great and don’t fall out of my earholes.
A back scratcher. Got a pack of 4 for a few bucks after one I was gifted broke. I’m old and have one quite arthritic shoulder, so half of my own back is unreachable. It’s especially shitful getting an itchy back at night, but now I don’t need to get up to relieve it. I use it every day, and every day I bless the person who first gifted me one.
A bottle opener shaped like a key so it fits neatly between my other keys on my keychain. I thought I lost my keys once and I was way more upset about that than my actual keys, despite it probably being pretty easy to find on Amazon.
I’ve got a lot of use out of a 1000ml water bottle I got at college. Originally got it because the club I’m a part of was making food and I needed a container to take some with me. Since then I have used it a lot. Same with a discounted $1USD aluminum bottle I got because I forgot my water bottle at home and needed something so I wouldn’t be getting up every few seconds to get water while working on something in the library.
Wireless phone charger. I’ll be stuck somewhere looking at my low battery life, and suddenly remember it’s in my purse. It isn’t the fastest charge but it is useful.
A Victorinox Swiss army knife. Bought it used for 10€, and it has everything from a very good blade to screwdrivers, a bottle opener, pen and tweezers. Always in my pocket in case I need it.
It’s weird, but despite owning a couple of nice pocket knives, I almost never have actual use for them. My tactical torch though, is freaking amazing, and given my shitty old eyesight, I use it every day.
I’d be lost without my pocket knife. I use it daily, I’ve even gutted a moose with it.
$20 bread maker I found at at a thrift store. There’s no telling how many hundreds of loaves of healthy, fresh baked wheat bread I’ve churned out of that thing over the past two years, especially now that we’re grinding our own wheat too.
I loved my breadmaker back in the day. I’m in an apartment these days though, so no room for a new one after the last one broke.
Did you try getting rid of the old one and putting the new one in its former place?
I got a bread maker for free. I asked my coworkers and THREE different people said they had a bread maker that’s just sitting there, unused as gifts that they don’t want.
A screwdriver kit with multiple head tips, can repair almost anything as long as I am given some schematics
Wool poncho. I’ve used it to stay warm, stay cool, as a groundcloth under my sleeping bag, as a blanket, as a pillow, as a decorative throw, as a cat bed, as a picnic blanket, as a beach blanket. It’s incredibly useful and versatile.
Same! I always keep my emergency wool cloak in my car. Saved me tons of times
One way window heat shield. Reflects 85‰ of the UV back out. Sticks to the window using only water.
Noticeable difference in temperature for any sun-facing windows
I added these last summer too. Roughly a hundred bucks to cover three patio sliding doors. Huge difference.
I did this at my last House and it was fantastic.
Just need to remember that once it’s dark outside the reflective side “switches” and everyone can see clearly into the house.
That’s just how a normal window works
Yes but the film has a one-way mirror effect and most people don’t put 2 and 2 together and think the window is opaque when is not.
wait really? and isn’t that always the case with any window?
Window film is so glorious. I have my bedroom windows blacked out with it, easier to sleep, and yes, always cool temperatures in there.
Probably you mean 85% of infrared, not 85 parts per thousand (or 8.5%) of ultraviolet?
How easy are they to cut to size, or if you need to use multiple to cover a window how does the gap/seam look? Have been thinking of getting them, but we also want to replace our windows at some point. I assume you can’t just reuse them?
Pretty easy to cut, but of course it’ll never be perfect, and it’s better to cut smaller than larger since it sticks to the window using water, and needs a complete seal, so any corners that overlap a frame will just slowly force the whole thing to peel off.
Very easy to re-use, it sticks using water and requires a flat piece of card (e.g. an old credit card) to spread it out over the window
Is that the static type then that are reused and just need water, with adhesive backed ones being single application only?
Huh, never heard of the adhesive type. I’ve used the static/water ones for ~4 years without any issues
At least in home depot, some of them come with a specific blade tool, or one that’s not too much more expensive. It’s hard/sharp enough to seamlessly cut through the tints, but not scratch your window.
Somewhere i worked had that. (Edit: but more for privacy)
It was so funny seeing passerbys using it as a mirror.
Absolutly funny 10/10
My pocket stun gun was $19.99. Decided I needed a defense mechanism I could conceal after an encounter with a scary aggressive homeless man.
Also has a flashlight.
Be careful with a stungun. It requires close range confrontation, and It’s not effective if the assailant is drugged up or heavily drunk and ignores the shocks.
Mace gives good distance, and pepper in the eyes doesn’t care about the stimulants in your blood stream.
Also practice with it. A large number of people carry self defense tools and choke under pressure/fail to use it correctly during situations.
I tested it on myself.
It works fine.
Stun guns are useless.
Always appreciate when people offer their opinion with a YT video. I’m definitely going to watch it. Thank you.
Make sure you also test it while drunk or heavily drugged up.
That does sound like a fun Friday night
lol, you completely missed all that advice.
This has been “useful” to you? I hope mostly the flashlight and not the tazing homeless people part.
Go judge someone else. It wasn’t my decision to turn whole cities into mental institutions. It was Ronald Reagan’s.
Hahaha. Who said I was judging you? I hope you don’t need to be using a tazer often because it doesn’t sound like a fun existence. It sucks that we have homeless people in the richest country in the world, but that doesn’t mean homeless people can’t be dangerous. Take a chill pill please.
Apologies.
Every time I mention I had a run-in with a homeless person, some self-righteous SJW discounts my experience and infers that I must have been in the wrong, though I was just sitting on a bus minding my own business on the way to work. My city has fare-free buses, so we end up having a lot of close encounters with untreated homeless people. (Also why I carry a stun-gun instead of mace, so if I have to use it there’s no chance of friendly fire.)
So I figured you were another one here to cast aspersions, and I have a short fuse with it for sure. My mistake.
All good. Stay safe out there. It’s a wild world we live in.
What kind of flashlight??
A basket/bowl thing for keys, wallet, and whatever one carries around. No more hunting for them when walking out the door.
I just leave my shorts or pants (depending on weather) hanging on the back of the door with everything still in the pockets (except my phone). I change them once a week or as needed and just transfer the stuff when I’m putting on the fresh pair.
You wear the same pair of pants every day for a week straight?
Only when I leave the house, which I don’t most days, since I work from home. People who need to change more frequently (I can’t imagine that e.g. roofers can wear the same pants even twice) could still leave things in their pockets and move them over either when they get undressed or when they get dressed (I imagine the former, leaving your wallet and keys in the fresh pair, would be especially important if you get very dirty).
My husband still doesn’t use it, the hunt for his keys is getting old
Put a tile or AirTag on them
