A cheap knife that has been properly sharpened will beat an expensive knife that has become dull. Knives get dull quickly, no matter how good they are (if you think otherwise, you don't know what a truly sharp knife is like). Sending knives away to be sharpened sufficiently frequently that they stay properly sharp is not practical. Resharpening services are not an alternative to home sharpening; they serve a different purpose (restoring the edge of a knife after repeated home sharpening). A good knife will take a better edge, and hold that edge longer, than a poor knife, but "good" and "poor" don't correlate precisely to price. How sharp a knife is when you buy it only tells you that it can be given a good edge; it does not tell you how well that edge will last, nor how easy it will be to resharpen the knife. The cheap "Fibrox" handled knives recommended by America's Test Kitchen work very well if you keep them sharp, and they are easy to sharpen. If you abuse them they are cheap to replace. We have expensive Japanese and German knives and cheap Fibrox knives; the expensive knives are better than the cheap ones, but the cheap ones are more than adequate. It would be a crime to run a fine Japanese knife through an electric sharpener or run it up a diamond "steel"; for the cheap knives, who cares? That means it's much less work to keep the cheap knives adequately sharp (not as sharp as I can achieve with a good hand sharpening on expensive Japanese water stones, but plenty good enough for the real world). This post was edited by PeterH2 on Thu, Feb 21, 13 at 18:39

Proudmama: Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for in a light maple. Puppy farms? Egads, just another category of purchases to feel guilty about.... I can't buy anything from China without a twinge of guilt either.... Ellen: Thanks for the insight into Amish business practices. I'm glad they've found a way to survive and still hold their belief system together. I admire those people for their lifestyle and discipline. Thanks again for all of the replies!

galaxytools.com has an excellent selection of ss sinks, if that's what you're looking for. but they sell only their label, ticor, sinks, some of which look like copies of blanco sinks. i was set on a blanco myself, but read sterling reviews of glaxytools' sinks here on GW, and wound up buying from them, at a tremendous savings. my contractor thinks it's a great sink. the soundproofing on it, he says, is what they spray the undercarriage of cars with. it's heavy duty and well-made. and i bet if you call in the order for "several" of them, you can negotiate a fat discount. i'm still waitin gon countertops, so can't comment on it's usage. however, i can vouch for their great customer (phone) serivce.

Generally speaking, LVP is a real victim of supply chain issues. I think it's pretty much across all brands. I ordered Coretec last March or April which was supposed to be here in early June. It kept getting pushed back, late June, July , and then finally in August we did get it and I am thrilled. I am just sharing that the availability is a real issue and people in a time crunch should be aware. It will come through but it may be delayed (and this seems to be all brands pretty much). I think for Coretec there are some that they have in more plentiful supply and they have indicated that on their Facebook page.