Wasted $85 on a leather paring knife I cant even sharpen

Bought this fancy paring knife from a supplier in Portland thinking itd make edge work a breeze. Turns out the blade geometry is so awkward I gotta use a jig just to get a decent shave, and the cheap steel wont hold an edge for more than 2 books. Anyone else blown cash on a tool that looked pro but was basically a paperweight?

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2 Comments

owens.anthony1mo ago

...and that's the thing with a lot of this "pro" gear these days, it's made to look the part in photos more than it's made to actually work in your hands. I've seen it with knives, with chisels, with all sorts of tools honestly. It's like they spend all the money on the handle and the branding and then cheap out on the one part that actually matters, the steel and the geometry. You end up with something that needs constant fussing just to do what a $15 basic model did without thinking. It's a real shame cause it makes you second guess every purchase after that, you know?

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amy_west1mo ago

I hear you on the "made to look the part" thing, but I gotta push back a little. Sometimes the problem isn't the tool, it's the way we expect it to work right out of the box. I've bought cheap stuff that was trash too, but I've also bought "fancy" knives that just needed a totally different sharpening angle than I was used to. Like, my first Japanese knife felt impossible until I looked up the actual bevel it was meant to have. It's frustrating, but I've learned that a lot of these boutique makers are designing for a really specific user, not the general hobbyist. So maybe it's not all branding, maybe it's just a tool with a narrow skill window.

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