What are "buy it for life" items made in the USA?

Debt

Student loans

Lodge cast iron cookware. my pan is 20+ years old and literally better than new.

Medical debt

American made guitars are still some of the best. Fender, Gibson, PRS, Collings and more. All USA made and BIFL.

PS: Ukuleles from Hawaii (the "k" brands).

EDIT for clarity: I am specifically referring to the USA made models. Many companies, including Fender, Gibson and PRS (not Collings) sell less expensive models made in other countries.

Socks from Darn Tough Vermont are about as long lasting as it gets for socks. They are pricey but I've bought a pair or two a year starting in 2018 and I have yet to have a hole in any of them, and they've been worn a lot and have seen some things.

Flowfold wallets. Made out of recycled sail cloth and have a lifetime warranty.

https://www.flowfold.com/pages/warranty

Redwing boots

'for life' is a pretty tall order for shoes, but with available refurbishing, I have had two (identical) pair of Mephisto cap-toe shoes for... About 22 years?

Both have been sent back, rebuilt and returned more than once.

Also, about as comfortable as running shoes. If you are stuck in a suits-required career field, do yourself a favor.

https://mephistousa.com/pages/refurbishment

While there's some degree of QC issues, benchmade knives.

I've owned about a dozen over the years, and still have most of them. The ones I don't have I gave to people I know. Every single one is still in great shape. The worst of them is the first I ever had, a model 710, and the only thing wrong with that is the tip being slightly rounded from before I got better at sharpening and had good gear to do so.

I actually have three of that model, one a special edition that's dressed up all fancy, the original one, and a brand spanking new copy of my first one that was dead stock that got sold off just this year.

I've also got other models, though I tend to give those away since I'm so happy with the design of the one I carry (the 710). I only buy them if they're way underpriced because benchmade is usually way more expensive than most brands, even other us made ones. That means I usually buy them with gifting in mind, and just use it as an excuse to play with it a little.

A caveat though. You have to be careful where you buy them. Amazon has had a bad track record of accepting fakes as returns, and eBay is flooded with fakes from the makers as well as resold amazon fakes. So you have to be able to identify a fake to be certain the deal you're seeing is a deal and not a scam.

The original 710 I have was purchased the year they came out, which I think was 99 or 2k, but I can't promise my memory is right on the exact year, though it is around that time.

Even if it had been 2001, that's 23 years of carrying the same knife almost everywhere, and carrying it at least part of every day. I took the thing camping and abused the hell out of it, including batonning with the damn thing. If you don't know what that is, you won't get how stupid it is to do with a folding knife of any type, or how impressive it is that the knife survived, much less did so without anything bragging breaking.

But, that's when you take a knife, and use it to split wood by slamming another piece of wood against the back of the knife. It breaks fixed blade knives sometimes, it's meant to be something you'd only do in an emergency because a knife just isn't the right tool for splitting wood of any kind other than maybe balsa.

It got to the point that even when I carried another knife it was alongside the 710 because I could, and do, trust that damn knife with my life.

I haven't abused other benchmade folders as much, but I have put them to hard use. Never had a single failure, even of the one spring that is commonly a problem that needs replacing.

There's other knives just as reliable. But not that exceed the track record I have, and not that are us made

I have a whole set of older Craftsman handtools that were made in the US and they are excellent. I have some other Dewalt tools that were made in Taiwan which are less so, but still much better than tools made in China.

Kirby vacuums. They're pricy because they basically do door to door selling and there's a huge markup. For example the starting price the guy quoted was 2k, I declined a few times and he went down to 1k. I later got one from my parents who bought one but didn't like how heavy it was.

They are monsters. It's basically a small shop vac with a ton of attachments, including a carpet shampoo scrubby thing. Replacement parts are easy to find 3rd party and I've never really had to repair it except replacing a belt and removing hair from the brush. Pretty sure they have lifetime warranties too.

in the u.s.?

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I’ve got some pretty good wooden kitchen utensils still going strong. My cast iron skillet is pretty solid as well. I can’t tell you if they were e in this country though. Probably not.

Colt 1911 Government Model. Accept no substitute.

I cannot imagine wearing this thing out, no matter what. TWO WORLD WARS!

I joke, but BIFL and "made in the USA"? That one fits the bill to a T.

I’ve got a Wagner cast iron pan that is at least 100 years old and I use it probably 3 times a week. It will be around this earth a lot longer than I will be.

Edit to add: it was originally my great grandmother’s pan and it got passed down to me.

I saw a quasi-infomercial on youtube that cast Shopsmith as just that (esp against planned/forced obsolescence). IIRC, they are the only in-usa manufacurer of bench-grade power tools, or something. If only i had a bunch of extra cash and garage space! :)

The good news is that with the lowering life expectancy more and more products will fit this description