I would much prefer to have one or two excellent items, that I know are going to work than a bunch of substandard items that I will fight with every time I use them.
I agree with you. I don't want substandard items, and I guess the 3 things that might fall into that category are the knife sharpener, vacuum sealer, and kitchen scale.
As I said before, the kitchen scale should be good for what I need; 1, 2, or 5 lb measurements of meat for packaging. The smaller scale will give me the accuracy I need for spices and cure.
For the knife sharpener, the Presto one I have listed has good reviews and seems to be of good quality. Would it be a bad choice? Would I be better off without it? It's $95 less than the Ken Onion Work Sharp.
With the vacuum sealer I definitely want a product that works well. I buy almost all of my meat in bulk or I harvest and process it myself. For years now I have just been using butcher freezer paper and freezer tape, but I want something that preserves my meat better. I don't want a substandard vacuum sealer, but at the same time I know I won't get a $300 sealer as a gift and I KNOW my wife won't let me buy one. As for the Pro 110 that was suggested, it is quite a bit cheaper than the FoodSaver one I listed. On
Amazon it only has 10 reviews which aren't the best. The FoodSaver has over 1300 reviews, with 69% 5 star.
Like I said in the beginning I don’t own, nor have I ever owned many of these items before so I don't know what would be good and what would be crap. I am mostly going off reviews on
Amazon and what you guys suggest to me. I appreciate the help and advice, I just know what I can expect from the gift givers, and I know it will be quite some time before I am able to buy these things on my own.
Thank you for your advice and help, I am just trying to make good choices.
My wife always says "you can't afford to buy the cheap stuff". I don't always abide by that but it is a good point. There comes a time where you cut corners to your own detriment.
Now that I think about it, maybe she says that to justify buying name brand and designer stuff?!?!? Oh well....
I sent a PM to Lisa B.
I don't want to buy/receive junk products so I have to decide whether it's worth it to buy a slightly lessor product and use it like I want to or if I just go without. Some things, nice things, are just out of reach at this time.