Bought a $20 pair of kitchen shears on a whim last month
I was just tired of wrestling with plastic packaging and thought, whatever, it's twenty bucks. They live in a jar by the stove now and I use them for everything, from cutting pizza to trimming herbs. It's silly how much easier they make small tasks I used to hate. Anyone have a cheap buy that turned into a daily hero?
Disagree on the cheap part. Twenty bucks for one tool is a lot. My ten dollar ones from the hardware store do the same job. They cut packaging and herbs just fine. Spending double just to have them look nice in a jar seems like a waste. A tool just needs to work, not be a decoration.
I mean, the ten dollar ones from the hardware store usually have a plastic handle and a really thin blade that dulls fast. I bought a pair for eight bucks at a discount store once and they couldn't even cut through a rosemary stem cleanly after two weeks. The metal is softer so it gets little nicks in it way easier too. Also, a lot of those cheap ones aren't actually stainless steel, they're just coated and the coating flakes off into your food. So it's not really about looking nice in a jar, it's about not having to replace them every few months and not worrying about metal bits in your herbs.
Nah man, I've been there with the cheap hardware store shears. They work fine until you try to cut through a chicken bone or thick cardboard and the pivot pin starts wobbling after three months. The twenty dollar ones usually have a better metal alloy that stays sharp way longer and a sturdier rivet. I had a pair of cheapos that literally snapped in half when I tried to cut a frozen pizza box. Save yourself the frustration and just get the decent pair now, you'll end up buying them anyway when the cheap ones break.