Michael Altfield

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Joined il y a 4 mois
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Cake day: 21 avril 2026

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  • There is no such thing as a BIFL waterproof backpack.

    Buy a BIFL pack with a good aluminum internal frame, and then also add to your cart:

    1. A waterproof cover for your pack
    2. A pack of very thick (construction-grade) garbage bags

    The garbage bag is your pack liner. Leave it inside the pack at all times. It keeps everything inside your bag dry.

    To keep the pack itself fairly dry in light rain, you can put the waterproof pack cover on the outside. This will just make your pack quicker to dry when you get to your destination.




  • This article is great, thanks for sharing :)

    Here’s the conclusion at the end:

    What to buy instead

    The counter-list in this category runs deeper than any I’ve covered previously, because cookware is simple enough that stubborn, family-run businesses can still compete. The pattern in who survived is uniform: nobody outside the family has ever been owed a return.

    Stainless and carbon steel

    • All-Clad: The bonded lines are still made in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, sharp-rim settlement and French owner notwithstanding.
    • Heritage Steel: Family-owned in Clarksville, Tennessee, building on old Vollrath tooling. The fully American clad alternative.
    • Tramontina: Family-controlled in Brazil. The honest value play; their clad line embarrasses pans at twice the price.
    • de Buyer: The carbon steel standard, still made in the Vosges. It belongs to Groupe SEB as of January 2025, so it’s one to watch over the next few years.
    • Matfer Bourgeat: The French commercial standard, family-held, and what a lot of commercial kitchens use.

    That said, Tramontina was one of the companies I contacted. They also said they didn’t know the thickness of the metal in their own cookware. Maybe I’d have a different experience if I called them in Brazil and spoke Portuguese :/

    I’m also shocked that the article doesn’t mention Browne Thermalloy. I think they’re one of the best cookware brands on the market, but I can’t find any third-party reviews on the Internet about them – except one small thread on reddit. Browne’s support couldn’t tell me the metal thickness in their 3-ply cookware, but they said they’d forward my request “to their marketing department” (not sure why not their “procurement” or “engineering” or “product” departments), and I haven’t heard back…