Kiwi

Why r/BuyItForLife recommends Kiwi

7 mentions from real owners

• #1Dec 5, 2025

  Is there anything you're convinced is "the cheaper the better"?

  They sharpen just fine, i've had some kiwi knifes for at least a decade. I do have a lot of sharpening supplies, but I mostly just hit them with a hone every once in awhile.

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• #2Dec 5, 2025

  Is there anything you're convinced is "the cheaper the better"?

  Knives. I have a bunch of high quality chef brand knives but anymore i prefer the $4 kiwi knives i get from amazon. They come sharp as a razor and hold that for a while. When they dull i replace. I don’t freak out if someone outs in dishwasher. I don’t have to hone or sharpen and it costs me like nothing. Haha.

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• #3Dec 5, 2025

  Is there anything you're convinced is "the cheaper the better"?

  I worked around chefs for a couple of decades, and they fell into either of two camps regarding knives in their personal lives.  Some went full hog balls out obsession, spending thousands on a library of folded steel Japanese artefacts of perfection and beauty, with all the multi-graded wet sharpening stones etc. One guy I was living with even set up a forge at home and started smithing his own. Others went entirely the opposite direction,  buying ultra cheap Kiwi brand blades from the Asian supermarket. They are super light, thin, and absolutely razer sharp, but after a year or two will dull a bit, and are almost impossible to sharpen due to hardness. Toss out and spend another $9.... I'm somewhere in the middle, using a heavy $40 Scanpan knife as my workhorse, which can be sharpened quite nicely every 3-4 months...

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• #4Sep 5, 2025

  Cutco knives. New experiencer

  For $65, I really can't name many BIFL knives that will actually be really good/high quality. Maybe Victorinox or Global if you can find them on sale. Honestly for people who want really high quality knives with great steel (can get *relatively* sharp, maintain sharpness for a *decent* amount of time, and easy to maintain), I always recommend Tojiro. Their chef knives have gone from like $90 to maybe $120 since COVID but they are excellent to use. If you are trying to min/max price and value, people should spend $10 on a Kiwi knife from Amazon and $40 on a decent stone. That brand has surprisingly good edge geometry, they're easy to sharpen, and cut well. Though they do not retain their sharpness for very long. Then again, people buy a set of knives and never sharpen them for the rest of their lives.

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• #5Jul 11, 2025

  Fed up with chipping knives - need a real workhorse

  I know this is the exact opposite of BIFL, but I've come to the conclusion that knives don't necessarily have to be BIFL. I've been buying Kiwi brand knives from Amazon for the past several years. They are very cheap (think $10 chef's knives), very sharp, and very light. When they get messed up, I just buy more. I really like the weight of these knives, and even though they are cheap, you can still get a few years out of them.

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• #6Jan 9, 2025

  Good affordable knives

  Go to an Asian grocery store and look for Kiwi knives. They’re so cheap and so good. Opt for a sharpener too.

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• #7Jan 2, 2025

  Care about expensive boots (advice)

  You can take them to a cobbler ever 6 months and say, "Make dis good". Return in 3 days with $20 and go about your business. If you must DIY, do so cheapy via this method: **Tools** 1. 2 Gallon size plastic ziploc bags 2. 2 horsehair buffing brushes 3. 2 horsehair daubers AKA polish application brushes 4. A bunch of buffing cloths 5. Sharpie 6. Split toe shoe trees Ultimately, you will have a bag with a can of black polish, buffing cloth, buffing brush, polish applicator, edge dressing and a bag with can of neutral polish, buffing cloth, buffing brush, and polish applicator. Mark all items with Sharpie as "Black" or "Neutral" as you can't mix colors. **Supplies** Polish: Normal Kiwi. Black and Neutral. Edge Dressing: Black Allen Edmonds. You can use Kiwi, but I prefer the AE as it is "waterier" and doesn't build up as much as the Kiwi version. Edge dressing is basically black nail polish for the edges of your shoes to blacken/gloss them up. I only use black on black edges and just use neutral shoe polish on other types as its impossible to match brown edge dressing from Maker A to Shoe Brand B. The Cadillac of buffing brushes are 8" horsehair. It REALLY pays off buying the big suckers, but this may be a preference thing vice an actual performance thing. I have two 8" ones and I found someone on eBay that sells them in black and "white" to make their differences 100% obvious to create a black and white kit. Alternately you could use two standard Kiwi 6" horsehair buffers and mark them "Black" and "Neutral" with the Sharpie. As to the small horsehair brushes for polish application, you can get two from eBay or Kiwi mark them "Black" and "Neutral" with the Sharpie. As to the buffing cloths, I had a EUREKA moment. I purchased a bunch of microfiber diaper inserts off of eBay. They are PERFECTLY shaped for buffing a shoe? Yeah...I'm a genius. I got a 10 pack. 1 each for my "Black" and "Neutral" kits, 2 "Black" and "Neutral" ones for the office, and spares. You may or may not label them with a Sharpie as "Black" and "Neutral" but once used, the polish stains them and their colors become apparent. **Technique** 1. Insert shoe trees. 2. Use large buffer to remove dirt/dust. 3. Remove occasional staining with a wet rag...allow to dry. 4. Apply polish with small brush to both shoes. 5. I use black for black shoes and neutral for all other shoes to include several browns and spectator shoes. 6. Wait 5-10 minutes as the polish needs to settle/dry/flash off/*.science reasons. 7. Buff with big buffing brush. 8. Buff with buffing cloth. 9. Smoke cigarettes. **Notes** Once a year or every 6 months, I may remove the laces and do the tongue area, otherwise I just avoid polishing this area. Likewise on this schedule, I will paint black shoe edges with edge dressing as the final step as it takes awhile to dry. Non black shoe edges just get a good going over with neutral polish. Why Neutral? Neutral matches ALL colors. If you have brown AE shoes, brown Iron Rangers, Black and White spectators, and cordovan wingtips, you are talking about a lot of different polishes, so your options are: 1. Use neutral for every color other than black. 2. Buy the exact shoe maker colored polish for the exact shoe maker colored shoe. 3. Play Russian Roulette with shoe polish and hope it matches (which it won't). Notice I do not use any creams, salves, lotions, oils, balms, protectants, conditioners, superhydrophobic sprays, or other witchcraft? What I do do is wear cheap eBay sourced Totes overshoes when rain/snow threatens my good shoes. My method results in the cheapest and easiest way to maintain shoes. While I'm not using artisanal non-GMO hipster products like the cool people use (and there's nothing wrong with this), the tools and techniques listed here are cheap and easy and work for me. Replicate or repudiate, your mileage may vary, void in Canada.

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