I have now after carrying this little knife for a week, retired my EABs forever. Yes the blades cost more but they also do a hell of a lot more. You also should know by now I look at total cost of a thing, not the unit cost. If you use a steel to keep the edge true you should be able to again do that about 10-12 times, this reduces cost over time by 10-12x without much work. Again if you know how to use a sharpening steel (and you should) the J2 steel is soft enough that it is like spreading butter to get it back to an absolute razor.