Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

seattleultrasonics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 697 posts

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#201

Post by latexr »

onlypassingthru wrote: post #21
YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #14

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. . But still, when was the last time someone tried to re-invent something as basic as a knife?

> 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...

A pocket chisel is very much not the same thing as a kitchen knife.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#202

Post by tptacek »

knifemaster wrote: post #196
tptacek wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it can't work, just that they didn't show it, and after the required thin-tomato-slice that's the thing I'd most want to see the knife doing.

For reference it would be also nice to see your (and your Slack friends) knife handling skills.

Wh...why? I'm not selling anything. I'm just saying dicing an onion is a better test of a chef's knife than taking a single thin slice of a tomato. Seems like that's an argument you can just take on directly.

I don't think there's anything interesting about my onion dice. You'd be seeing a video of a banged up MAC, scraped up from all the times I've casually sharpened it in a hurry, doing the standard one-cross-cut Jacques Pepin onion dice. You know, an onion dice.

(The "Slack friend" thing was just that I felt bad about sharing a link I'd gotten just a few minutes while pretending as if I'd known about it myself. I have no idea their level of expertise! Probably better than mine though.)

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#203

Post by justahuman74 »

non_aligned wrote: post #127

Ultrasonic knives have been available for non-food uses for a long time. They are useful in certain narrow applications, such as cutting leather or some plastics. That said, they come with two big caveats. First, if you push them into any harder material, the edge is destroyed almost immediately because of the micro-scale "jackhammer" action. So, hit that avocado pit and the knife is probably cooked. Second, the cons…

Sourdough can actually be a pain to cut without making a giant mess of the crust

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#205

Post by niccl »

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…

I'd really like to see a citation for 25 Hz. It feels to me like a decimal point might be missing. And how does the knife moving at twice the frequency of the vegetables being cut work? do they do two complete cycles of the knife for every cut of the veges? that's not what I've seen watching cooking shows (which might not be the best thing to watch for this to be seen, of course)

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#206

Post by xxs »

kminehart wrote: post #117
dzhiurgis wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wet stones are hard. Rolling ones are easy albeit “real” knife aficionados don’t like it.

I used to sharpen my straight-knife planer blades, planing irons, chisels, and knives with whetstones / water stones. It was too big of a pain in the ass over time, so I switched to diamond stones. Biggest advantages is that you don't need to pre-soak them and diamond stones don't develop a valley / have to be flattened. if you plan on getting into sharpening I would just start with a coarse, fine, and extra fine dia…

Same advice - don't use the soaking stones. Nowadays they are plenty of decent quality diamond stones (or ceramic ones)

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#207

Post by jfim »

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…

I can see why one would use a serrated knife to cut bread, but what knife would one use to cut cheese other than a chef's knife?

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#208

Post by montag »

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 nerdy sales pitch got me excited about a knife. Also, I have to wonder if the name is a deliberate nod to the Seattle Supersonics...

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#209

Post by mgiampapa »

jfim wrote: post #207
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…

I can see why one would use a serrated knife to cut bread, but what knife would one use to cut cheese other than a chef's knife?

A Santoku or other knife with scalloped sides do well. There are also in fact, cheese knifes, for cutting and serving that are popular for self service cheese boards. Wire is also popular for cutting large block cheeses.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#210

Post by xxs »

ReptileMan wrote: post #116
scrlk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

3d printer and couple of cells and I guess a board will get the job done.

You will have to print it from something like polyamide or polycarbonate, definitely not PLA
Post reply on HN