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Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

seattleultrasonics.com

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Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#231

Post by Moto7451 »

crazygringo wrote: post #225
Moto7451 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QVC might not be a well written takedown of it, but he’s right that you don’t need an electronic knife. My first job was at a knife shop so I’ve seen everything from stamped steel fantasy nonsense to traditional style hand forged items. There’s a lot that goes into making a good knife and you don’t need to spend a lot to get one. Similarly you can spend a lot of money for marginal to no benefit. In general a hard edg…

Literally everything you've said is about regular knives. You haven't said a thing about ultrasonic knives. So I'm not sure what you're trying to argue?

Knives are already high tech and the GP’s point that you don’t need an ultrasonic knife is valid even if “QVC product” is inaccurate. They’re not just hunks of steel. Sharp knives can be dulled by abuse which something that vibrates will be vulnerable to as well.

This is akin to the already established very expensive powdered steel knives. Do you need this to have a sharp knife? Nope. Is anyone wrong for wanting it? No.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#232

Post by gehsty »

NortySpock wrote: post #38
rcdemski wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why a wet cloth?

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.

I cook every day, and I’m also a mechanical engineer, I’ve never understood where the sideways force comes from. I’ve also never had a board slide away from me. Tbh I thought this came from chefs chopping on stainless steel worktop. I’d like to understand.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#235

Post by calf »

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…

I'm an amateur cook, my immediate question was how much the vibration and heating will affect vegetable and meat oxidation and cell damage on the cut surface.

Could this improve the texture and flavor of certain foods? Like make garlic taste even more garlicky? Or could it cause an apple slice to brown faster? Can it be used to slice cooked fish as if it were sashimi? Etc.

If a site like SeriousEats does a product review I hope they focus on qualitative taste, and possibilities for enhancing cooking techniques, not merely saving time/effort to do something.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#236

Post by SilverElfin »

ash_091 wrote: post #181
SilverElfin wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually had an industrial design studio come up with the design. It isn’t white labeled “Alibaba junk” and to my eyes, it doesn’t resemble that either. > I've got knives that I've had for over 20 years that perform as well as this thing appears to (in the slick prepared advertisement). You have knives that can not have potatoes stick without scallops in the blade? Or that can atomize lemon drops? Or that can cu…

> Or that can cut through bread easily without a serrated edge? Yes. Absolutely. IME a quality sharpened chefs' knife is far better at cutting bread cleanly than a serrated knife, which by contrast will leave a rough edge and loads of crumbs.

It depends on the bread. Many breads are basically impossible to cut properly with a straight edge knife. They end up disfigured worse than what you’re describing with serrated knives.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#237

Post by crazygringo »

Moto7451 wrote: post #231
crazygringo wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally everything you've said is about regular knives. You haven't said a thing about ultrasonic knives. So I'm not sure what you're trying to argue?

Knives are already high tech and the GP’s point that you don’t need an ultrasonic knife is valid even if “QVC product” is inaccurate. They’re not just hunks of steel. Sharp knives can be dulled by abuse which something that vibrates will be vulnerable to as well. This is akin to the already established very expensive powdered steel knives. Do you need this to have a sharp knife? Nope. Is anyone wrong for wanting it?…

This product isn't about not having to sharpen your knife.

It's about a knife that is ~equivalently sharp to begin with, but slices with less force and less sticking, and can therefore slice things more exactly/easily than otherwise.

Of course you don't need it, but it's fundamentally different from existing knives, which you seem to not be acknowledging. When you say this is akin to "powdered steel knives", no it isn't. Powdered steel is about hardness. Nothing to do with ease of slicing or lack of sticking.

So you're talking about things that have nothing to do with this particular technology.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#238

Post by SilverElfin »

mattmaroon wrote: post #223
condiment wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Damn, I was set to completely dismiss this as entirely useless overcomplication but making stuff not stick to the knife would be nice.

The video comparison of this knife cutting through potato compared to a regular one is very enticing. My own experience is that there is more sticking even on my knives that have those scooped out edges that are supposed to prevent sticking.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#239

Post by its-summertime »

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…

it takes no skill to make a blunt knife sharper. To make a sharp knife sharper, sure, but in a good vast majority of home knife situations, just doing anything with any flat sharpening surface is an improvement.

I can attest to this as I have improved knifes day one of trying despite my lack of any sort of skill

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#240

Post by SilverElfin »

Mtinie wrote: post #219
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 shared this with my tech friends: “This has all the hallmarks of a product that’s going to be disappointing but I’m so optimistic it won’t be.” I’m seriously hopefuls it works because vibroblades (I mean, “progressive knives” and “high frequency blade”) are awesome and the timelines of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Metal Gear are getting closer. Which may, or may not be a good thing.

Well we know this tech works because there are already ultrasonic cutters in medical and industrial equipment. So it’s more about whether they implemented it well, rather than some new fundamental discovery.
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