My 1992 Gibson les Paul, my 13 year old Mitchell leather money clip wallet, my 1980's thiel floor standing speakers, and my 14 year old Fuji bicycle stand out for me.

I would actually go against this. Typically commercial use would be the builder grade paint which is actually worse than the more premium paints.

I have a bunch of yeti's (work in construction so basically any time you do a good job someone throws a yeti at you), I actually prefer my klean kanteen water bottles. I take my 64oz tk wide everywhere and it takes a ton of abuse. Nothing at all wrong with yeti's, they are excellent, but I prefer the klean kanteen.

Truthfully though, once you get a higher end insulated SS water bottle, all of these companies make great products and performance between them is basically identical, so get the one you like the most.

Klean kanteen for sure! Absolutely biased because their hq/distribution is local (northern California), but they make great products, stand behind them (their warranty is awesome) and take care of their employees/give back to the community.

Patagonia's softshells are expensive but worth the price of entry imo. The tech face r1 line is great for warmth and breathability that isn't bulky and easy to layer. The r2 line bumps that up and is great if you spend a lot of time in snow.

Neither are Bifl, I have had both fail within 2-3 Years of use. The fellow is better built for sure, but both will fail at some point (within a few years most likely) and be unrepairable. That being said I don't know of anything better, so that may just be the reality of the category.

Seconded peak desin

I would argue for linen of cotton as it is a stronger and more durable fiber, but with all things it really depends on who makes it (i.e. a great cotton sheet can outlast a crummy linen sheet, but a great linen sheet will outlast me.) I recommend linoto from my personal experience. That being said some people don't like linen so ymmv.

That's an insane deal, last year we bought a house and I think it was about $2400 our tc5/dc5 plus a multi month wait :/

Coffee , tea, or just hot water?

Saxx don't hold up if you do a lot of active work/construction (at least in my case)

A lot of etsy is like that, but not all. My wife recommended to me to look for Instagram or Facebook pages tied to the creator accounts and go research them to see if they actually make their products. Lots of people on Etsy still do make stuff, but it takes a lot of searching unfortunately.

Popov is a great company, thoroughly recommend supporting them, their owner seems like an awesome guy.

Also Mitchell leather makes a great bifold wallet (their money clip wallet) super slim and I have had mine going on 13 years now.

Honestly, I would go to a website like carbonknifeco.com or chefknifestogo.com (not affiliated with either, just trust them both, though I prefer carbonknifeco's selections) and look at their knifes. You can get a lot more bang for your buck with Japanese none brand name knifes. A great knife line for the price is the masakage mizu line, excellent bang for buck, plus the knifes are made by one of the best smiths in the world and sharpened by arguably the best knife sharpener in the world.

Damascus steel has nothing to do with edge retention. You can have fully stainless, or fully reactive (carbon steel) Damascus. Vg10 (this knife) is a stainless with pretty good edge retention, but not my favorite steel.

Damascus is just a way of folding the steel and then using acid to etch out the various layers though, has nothing to do with what type of steel it is or how the knife performs, purely cosmetic.

Shapton glass splash and go stones, get a 1000 grit to start and then build out a set from there. They are basically BIFL for home use as they really don't dish out in any reasonable amount of time, and they cut great even on harder steels.

What's your budget? Hop onto carbonknifeco / chefknifestogo / bernal cutlery (three shops in the USA I have used and trust) and start looking, any knife you buy from one of those places will be BIFL with proper care. I personally like supporting independent or smaller artisan blacksmiths, but there's some great stuff from big names as well.

If you have the budget and want a known quantity, look at the bob Kramer (super well known American blacksmith) zwilling line. Basically his designs produced to his specs by zwilling in Japan. Great western style knife with Japanese steel.

Seconded dianese, no matter what the piece of gear, their stuff is excellent.

Masonry eats boots so no sense going crazy expensive, but you also don't want to go crazy cheap. You can look at keen moctoe's (with a steel toe) in the $150-200 range that will be super comfortable and good quality, they will fail a little sooner than a nice pair of thoroughgood, but in this line of work everything will fail, and the keens will at least be immediately comfortable and not need a break in.

I've had an embody for a few years and love it, built like a tank!

When you say daily use on construction sites what do you mean? Are you doing the work or are you in oversight? BIFL for an engineer will be much different than BIFL for a ground man.

Reporting you for this one, there is no space for hate here.

Negative, The sub is "BUY it for life", not "BOUGHT it for life". the sub is meant to be for items that you can "Buy" for life, Can't exactly easily go buy a 1920's era toaster right now. Also, Look at the sidebar, it's all guides on what new products to buy in various categories, and explicitly states "This is a subreddit emphasizing products that are Durable, Practical, Proven, and Made-to-Last. Products that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last an lifetime) are accepted.".

I work in utility construction in the mountains and spend a good chunk of my time hiking through tough terrain and brush/forests and I have some Patagonia jackets that have held up remarkably well through snags and tears/etc, add onto that their lifetime warranty and I feel like it meets the spirit of BIFL (in that I only have to buy it once and it will last me for life or get replaced for free).

That being said, I use "buy it for life" as more of a "this is the highest quality product in a given category". Sometimes that really does mean heirloom items (nice knifes/cookware/watches/etc) and sometimes it means that it's a high quality product that will possibly be heirloom quality, but If not the company will take care of you (darn tough/Patagonia/peak design/Popov leather/Mitchell leather/ etc).

You can't take a one size fits all approach. Just because you design products that aren't Bifl doesn't mean every designer and company takes the same approach.

Look at modern mechanical watches, the movements in modern watches are literally refined versions of 60 year old movements and require far less maintenance and last longer than old movements due to many iterative changes over the years. A new oris 400 caliber watch is going to be better than an old Rolex at 1/10th the cost.

Look at textiles, modern waterproof materials work sooooo much better then what we had even 20 years ago. You can't compare a coat from the 60's to a modern waterproof jacket from a company like Patagonia or Arc'teryx. Yes lots of fast fashion exists, but there are also items out there where the quality of those items literally can't be matched by old products.

There are lots of older products that work well and will last a lifetime, I agree with that, but there are also lots of modern products that will last a lifetime and be better then some.of those older items. Metallurgy/textiles/technology/electronics/etc have all come a LONG way and if you seek out the quality items (which is what I use this sub to do) you can still find truly generational items that are built better than they were in the past.