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Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

https://seattleultrasonics.com/
91•hemloc_io•3h ago

Comments

jmarchello•2h ago
We made it! We’ve finally invented vibroblades!
trhway•1h ago
the next version will come with plasma micro jets ejection from the cutting edge - convenient for civilian use. I'm also wandering about an array of shaped micro-charges on the edge - should be able to cut through several millimeters of steel in one move, etc. so a soldier can cut though an opponent's ballistic vest or a into an lightly armored IFV.
tsimionescu•25m ago
Now if they could get the vibrations by shooting a bullet along the edge, we'd also have gunblades!
tra3•2h ago
What happens when you “oops”? All the way through the bone?
amacbride•1h ago
Subsidized by Big Hook, no doubt.
DennisP•1h ago
Same as a really sharp knife. In general though, dull knives are more dangerous. You have to cut with more pressure and they're more likely to slip.
pkulak•1h ago
There must be a limit though. Surely a light saber is not more safe than a dull knife.
cjbgkagh•1h ago
If you’re used to sharp knives then it’s probably safer than applying more pressure which could yield in surprising ways. Getting used to it is the dangerous part, especially if not forewarned or the user doesn’t heed the warning.

Lightsaber would be different because doesn’t have a blade to guide.

kulahan•9m ago
Not really. The dangerous aspect of a knife is when it moves unexpectedly. The sharper it is, the harder it is to create a scenario where it jumps on something particularly dense, like when a saw hits a knot in a tree.

If you’re pushing down with hard force, it basically doesn’t matter if the knife is sharp anymore, it’ll just chop your finger off. However, with an extremely fine cut, it will be much easier to reattach, as the edges will match up well. With a dull knife, you’re not slicing, you’re more tearing your way through something.

omnicognate•1h ago
You say this from any special knowledge or is it just your opinion from the video? Looks to me like it will go through your flesh and bone like they're not there, in a way even a razor sharp knife won't.

Also, while it's true that dull knives are in some ways more dangerous than properly maintained ones, that doesn't mean safety increases monotonically with sharpness. I sharpen my kitchen knives every weekend and I'm perfectly capable of achieving an edge I could comfortably shave with, but I deliberately don't (I skip the highest-grit step and leather stropping needed for that) because it's not optimal for the vast majority of cooking tasks. The only thing that happens regularly in my kitchen that needs razor sharpness is scoring the top of a sourdough loaf, and my wife uses actual razor blades for that.

This strikes me as more of a competitor to electric carving knives than something I'd want to replace a standard chef's knife with. It looks like it needs to be used with very great care.

SilverElfin•9m ago
Medical bone cutting knives are ultrasonic. I assume this one has a duller edge than those though.
phailhaus•21m ago
He specifically says it's not a lightsaber, and when he's cutting the tomato you can see he does have to apply force for it to go through. He compares it to an ebike, where it makes cutting easier but it's not magic.
fumeux_fume•1h ago
While I think this is neat, I doubt the added complexity of the device, extra space required for storage of charger and the chore of charging it are worth the benefit of a slightly better, easier slice. Might be nice for people with certain disabilities though.
pkulak•1h ago
A lot of the cool stuff we have now started off for accessibility.
psyclobe•17m ago
I think it would be fine as u would need a lot less knives so one bespoke one with a charger wouldn’t be that big of a deal
saaaaaam•16m ago
How much do you actually cook though? As a former professional chef I still do a lot of cooking and I’d love one of these and any storage trade off looks absolutely worth while.
kenjackson•1h ago
How does this compare to the electric carving knives?
thrill•1h ago
Watch the video.
rkagerer•1h ago
It's not obvious at first in the video, but they pre-cut a flat base into the plum to stabilize it on the table, and are cutting in at a slightdownward angle. I feel like you could make nearly the same shot with a regular knife. Tricks like this (and the deliberate filming angles to obscure those details) make the video seem disingenuous and come across akin to a snakeoil sales pitch, which detracts from my genuine interest in how the ultrasonic tech fares.

The shot of the scale showing force as they cut through a tomato was more compelling. I notice after the initial breach, when the knife is about halfway through, the forces are equal again. I assume that's due (at least in part) to friction between the inside of the tomato and the wide, side of the blade. Do they make a skinnier vibro-blade, or something like an ultrasonic cheese cutting wire?

esafak•1h ago
It's ultrasonic; the frequency is much higher while the amplitude is much smaller.
canucker2016•41m ago
The video mentions that the knife vibrates over 40000 times per second.
Cheer2171•1h ago
For $500 I'll just replace the handle of a regular knife with a vibrator.
omnicognate•1h ago
I lost three fingers watching this video.
bombela•1h ago
Hard to watch the tiny video. Cannot be made full screen. Rotating phone sideways the website header obscures the video.

edit: https://youtu.be/cXjbSVt9XNM

YossarianFrPrez•1h ago
Maybe I'm just a sci-fi nerd who loves innovation, but this is so cool!

Clearly, this product is not intended for the mass market, and may find purchase with people who have tennis elbow and who can afford it, etc. <insert other critiques about practicality and applicability here>. But still, when was the last time someone tried to re-invent something as basic as a knife?

onlypassingthru•1h ago
> when was the last time someone tried to re-invent something as basic as a knife?

A year ago? This one is designed for woodworkers.

https://www.bourbonmoth.com/shop/p/the-bourbon-blade-origina...

jstanley•30m ago
I thought I recognised the name - Bourbon Moth is the guy who faked a video of oily rags self-igniting to make a video to advertise fireproof bins for woodworking.

This one: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gqi2cNCKQY

Debunking: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtU3bYyCtA

cjbgkagh•1h ago
Ultrasonic knives are used commercially, this is an attempt at a mass market by making it cheaper and packaging it in a more familiar form.
tianjerry•1h ago
This is the best demo video ever! Congrats on reinventing the knife!
ginko•1h ago
Yeah, have to say the video is pretty good. I came in expecting the typical shopping channel pitch, but it did a very good job explaining the things the knife can and can't do. It really helps that it's presented by the inventor himself.

Still won't buy one but still.

vasusen•1h ago
Super cool! I wonder if it would bother pets
Havoc•1h ago
That looks really cool. Especially loved the wall of prototypes with raspberry picos etc.

Way outside the price range I'd consider personally but I look forward to having one in 5 years at a hopefully lower price point

SoftTalker•1h ago
Don't buy dumb electronic kitchen gadgets.

Get a good steel knife, learn how to sharpen it properly, and you're set for life.

grues-dinner•1h ago
In particular, you don't need expensive stones, guides or lapping systems to do it. An aliexpress-grade 3000/8000 waterstone, a flattening stone and a strop will get most knives shaving the hairs off your arm for under £20 all-in.
wffurr•52m ago
The odds I will ever learn to use a waterstone or strop are nil. A Chef’s Choice manual sharpener is really easy and makes my knives plenty sharp enough to cut tomatoes.
grues-dinner•37m ago
Yeah they work fine too. The point is not that you need stones to sharpen knives at all, but you don't need insanely expensive glass or diamond stones like the YouTubers tend to tell you to get to shaving-sharp if you want to.

Just don't use a sharpener with the carbide v-blades that shave off slivers of metal or you'll get a knife with a concave edge that doesn't meet the board along the whole length and that really is a pain to fix (related note on that, a kitchen knife edge up in a vice is quite a disconcerting thing!).

runekaagaard•59m ago
I agree. The industry standard for a great, boring, durable and surprisingly cheap knife is the Victorinox Fibrox Chef's Knife 20 cm.
SilverElfin•11m ago
Maybe it’s dumb. But the video seems convincing. Ultrasonic knives are also used in some industrial and medical settings. So the concept does work. And the inventor of this one worked at Sansaire, Anova, and other kitchen hardware places. So they have a lot of credibility producing real products.
cush•1h ago
If you have a sharp knife and a wet cloth under your cutting board chopping is a joy, otherwise it's a dangerous, tedious, and exhausting task that turns so many people away from cooking entirely
rcdemski•1h ago
Why a wet cloth?
kla-s•1h ago
Stiction
haneefmubarak•1h ago
I think the wet cloth is meant to increase friction between the surfaces
unwind•1h ago
It stops the board from sliding.
NortySpock•1h ago
The wet cloth between the counter and the cutting block keeps the cutting block from sliding / moving on you when force is applied, which is more comfortable and safer.
xboxnolifes•14m ago
So bad cutting boards don't slide.
amelius•1h ago
Its capabilities don't look any different from what I've seen in TV ads over the last few decades.
crooked-v•1h ago
The bit that looks actually interesting to me is buried in the middle of the video - while the ultrasonic switch is on, food visibly falls off the knife instead of sticking to the sides.
whyenot•1h ago
A good quality well sharpened knife already works incredibly well, doesn't cost $500, doesn't need to be recharged, and isn't going to be e-waste in 5 years (when the battery fails).

It's a cool idea, and I hope it is commercially successful, but not for me.

karmanGO•1h ago
The battery is comes out for recharging, so replacing a dead battery should be trivial
scrlk•1h ago
It's a proprietary form factor, so you're gambling on replacements being available down the line. I don't think it'll be easy to rebuild the battery pack without compromising the casing.
Zak•57m ago
Given the battery specs and the form factor of the products, they could have used a 14500 cell that retails for $5. That's not as much recurring revenue as charging $80 for something proprietary though.
ChrisMarshallNY•1h ago
Pretty kewl, but, for some reason, this old site comes to mind...

https://www.tumblr.com/weputachipinit

amelius•1h ago
Does the vibration pass through the skin, via the handle?
Tade0•1h ago
I would get this for the same reason I'm planning to replace my couch with an optimal-for-moving-through-a-turn couch as soon as I find a carpenter willing to make it. The middle part will be evened-out by a separate, round cushion.
typon•55m ago
This looks amazing. I love tech in Lindy products that actually works well.
dsr_•43m ago
It certainly would be nice to have three or four independent reviews from people with knife skills.
martini333•20m ago
It's not made for people with knife skills.
saaaaaam•15m ago
It absolutely is. I’m a former chef and have great knife skills but would love one of these.
SilverElfin•4m ago
If it helps, the inventor worked at other kitchen product companies like Sansaire (founder) and Anova. And at other places in the cooking world. So they’re not entirely unknown either.
leeoniya•18m ago
all the comparisons in the vid show knives being pushed through the food. that's not a good way to use a knife.

if you used a knife to actually slice the tomato instead of chopping it, you'd get a much different force result.

not to say there's no benefit here, but def feels intentionally exaggerated.

also, i wonder how fast this blade will wear if you ever accidentally pressed the edge into the cutting block. my guess is that it will wear much faster.

kulahan•14m ago
That’s not necessary with an ultrasonic knife and would generally be a waste of time. The vibrations take the place of needing to slice, rather than chop. This knife is not meant to be used like a normal chef’s knife.

I’d still never get one because I love my knives (and zen out hard when sharpening for an hour or two), but the push is literally the goal here.

mrtksn•10m ago
I wonder if they talked with people who actually cook, because the demonstrations here don't look like how people who cook are cutting stuff.

For cooking, you usually chopped things very quickly because you need a lot from that stuff. You don't do surgery most of the time, you may need some extra dexterity and precise cutting every now and then but for most of the time cutting for cooking sounds like someone very angry and anxious is nocking on the door because you chop a lot of veggies and meat in a rhythmic way. That's why there are specialized tools for cutting common ingredients. They say that you are able to do the regular knife stuff but then what's the point?

ok_computer•7m ago
This is a QVC product with the name of a US tech city slapped on it.

Signed, a guy living nearby the home of QVC in a decidedly non-tech area of the US.

Ps. don’t buy future e-waste kitchen ware unless you have accessibility reasons. You can get a good-enough victoronix 8” chef knife for $65 (I paid $36 a long time ago) and a world class chef knife for less than $250.

schainks•7m ago
This is a boon for elderly losing hand/wrist strength

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Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

https://seattleultrasonics.com/
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