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Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

seattleultrasonics.com

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Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#301

Post by jszymborski »

Taek wrote: post #243

I'm a bit surprised to see how much snark there is in the comment sections of this video. The requests for "let's see an independent chef use this knife to do real kitchen work" make total sense, but the moralizing around e-waste and losing fingers etc feels off balance. People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives, of course there's a viable market for sharper kitchen knives. And for e-w…

> ...you are never going to make meaningful progress by telling consumers to feel bad for buying fun things.

I think it's a worthwhile message to tell folks that we, collectively, should be mindful about the resources we consume and the waste we produce. For such razor-thin (lol) gains in QoL, I think it's worth reminding people to consider whether it is worth the huge increase in waste. Knives are metal and wood/plastic... awfully efficient tools for the work they get done.

EDIT: And to balance the negativity, I _love_ the Seattle Ultrasonics logo.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#302

Post by rkomorn »

rowanG077 wrote: post #298
Taek wrote: post #243

I'm a bit surprised to see how much snark there is in the comment sections of this video. The requests for "let's see an independent chef use this knife to do real kitchen work" make total sense, but the moralizing around e-waste and losing fingers etc feels off balance. People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives, of course there's a viable market for sharper kitchen knives. And for e-w…

This is also make takeaway. I have noticed this more and more on this site. Everything is criticized to an insane degree. If someone hasn't solved world hunger, while at the same time making money and curing their grandma of Alzheimer it will not be received well.

Oh good for them if they cure grandma of Alzheimer's. That's REALLY gonna help those of us whose grandmas are already dead.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#304

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

Taek wrote: post #243

I'm a bit surprised to see how much snark there is in the comment sections of this video. The requests for "let's see an independent chef use this knife to do real kitchen work" make total sense, but the moralizing around e-waste and losing fingers etc feels off balance. People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives, of course there's a viable market for sharper kitchen knives. And for e-w…

Most importantly, buying useful things, that will likely be used for a long time and contain about as much e-waste as a single-use vape.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#305

Post by omnicognate »

mhb wrote: post #221
omnicognate wrote: post #10

I lost three fingers watching this video.

You'll be wanting the KnifeStop™, then.

Hehe, yeah I was wondering if something like SawStop could work. It would just need to switch off the ultrasonic, not spectacularly destroy the blade. However, I then remembered the frankfurter demo for SawStop and realised there are extra challenges for something that is actually intended for cutting meat.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#306

Post by eightysixfour »

condiment wrote: post #173
tptacek wrote: post #96

Elsewhere on the thread I pointed out that I'd noticed the video doesn't show anybody doing actual prep; making an easy but deliberate thin slice of a tomato is one thing, quickly dicing an onion or a bell pepper is a very different thing. To that observation I'd add (h/t my Slack friends) this interesting site Seattle Ultrasonics stood up: https://seattleultrasonics.com/pages/knife-database One thing I notice here i…

A talented chef might cut vegetables at 25hz, while the blade is moving at 44khz. So whatever cutting improvement is conferred by the ultrasonic tech will certainly be applied towards fast cutting. It seems that the main benefit for fast cutting would be that food doesn't stick to the blade. I'll cut bread with my chef's knife (amazon shun knockoff) when I want to make less of a mess. One interesting thing I noticed…

> It will be interesting to see the knife in the hands of real chefs.

Not really? I feel like this is for the other people, the folks who don't have the training to use a chefs knife super well. I'd rather see a decent home cook compare it to their knife in general prep.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#307

Post by ackfoobar »

saxonww wrote: post #261
tptacek wrote: post #96

Elsewhere on the thread I pointed out that I'd noticed the video doesn't show anybody doing actual prep; making an easy but deliberate thin slice of a tomato is one thing, quickly dicing an onion or a bell pepper is a very different thing. To that observation I'd add (h/t my Slack friends) this interesting site Seattle Ultrasonics stood up: https://seattleultrasonics.com/pages/knife-database One thing I notice here i…

The two things that stood out to me: "The best tools shouldn't only be accessible to the pros" but his knife costs more than every knife in that database. The weight is listed in their help articles as 330g. I also think that handle is chunkier than a typical high end chef's knife. It may be easier to cut things with it, but I think your hand and arm are going to get tired of using it more quickly than with a regular…

I don't think anyone who cares about the cutting experience would put a knife into a dishwasher.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#308

Post by mlrtime »

jszymborski wrote: post #301
Taek wrote: post #243

I'm a bit surprised to see how much snark there is in the comment sections of this video. The requests for "let's see an independent chef use this knife to do real kitchen work" make total sense, but the moralizing around e-waste and losing fingers etc feels off balance. People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives, of course there's a viable market for sharper kitchen knives. And for e-w…

> ...you are never going to make meaningful progress by telling consumers to feel bad for buying fun things. I think it's a worthwhile message to tell folks that we, collectively, should be mindful about the resources we consume and the waste we produce. For such razor-thin (lol) gains in QoL, I think it's worth reminding people to consider whether it is worth the huge increase in waste. Knives are metal and wood/pla…

You're not entirely wrong but the selective outrage (on e-waste) here is 100% off balance.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#309

Post by gurgeous »

tptacek wrote: post #282
gurgeous wrote: post #278

I personally watched Scott spend years working on the project and obsessively iterating on the steel, the vibration pattern, the circuitry, the handle, and the form factor. Scott is a hacker, one of us for sure. I mean, the guy built a custom robot just to measure cutting efficiency... The knife is amazing and exactly as shown in the video. Rand Fishkin has a nice short on LinkedIn trying out the knife too. I think h…

Does that video show him doing actual prep? I 100% believe he made a knife that can make a paper-thin slice of a lemon. But that's not what a chef's knife is for. As someone who thinks the world would be a better place if this product worked and was successful: for god's sake record someone processing an onion. That's what matters.

In Rand's video he does an "old" lime, mozzarella, and a shallot. It's just a quick vid he did in like five minutes but it shows some prep. Rand is a prolific amateur chef...

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7374472...

Disclaimer: I've enjoyed many delicious meals at Rand's table

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#310

Post by cyberax »

appcustodian2 wrote: post #87
xandrius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whetstones, pretty cheap only and not as hard as it seems.

just want to point out that maintaining a knife is a whole hobby that requires a time investment of learning the skill and storage of additional tools and materials. i'm surprised at all the apparent knife enthusiast posts trashing this device. I take my victorinox (which is absolutely nothing special and surprises me that it costs $60+ dollars) to the farmers market for sharpening but sharpness isn't even the proble…

You need one diamond two-sided plate, holder for it, and a stropping leather. All of that can be bought for $60 on Amazon.

This is enough to get your knives to be sharp enough to shave hair.

Time investment is more individual. It took me about 3 hours to get good enough.

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