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Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

seattleultrasonics.com

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Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#421

Post by stickfigure »

poink wrote: post #416
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…

> People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives With a mass market electric sharpener and a reasonable knife I spend maybe 15 minutes/yr on sharpening and the knife + sharpener costs less than half this product The marketing video seems to try to head people like me off, but it also seems to wildly overstate the level of commitment required to have sharp knives (I do think the tech is cool…

To embrace a stereotype, there are two types of people in the kitchen: Tool enthusiasts and food enthusiasts.

The tool enthusiast has beautiful Japanese steel knives treated as family heirlooms; the knives are sent out for professional sharpening once or twice a year.

The food enthusiast has a pile of fibrox knives and a chef's choice electric sharpener. The knives go through the sharpener once a month and the dishwasher daily; the knives get replaced every decade or two.

The tool enthusiast's knives are pretty, but the food enthusiast's knives always pass the paper test.

Nobody has ever complemented me "wow, this meal was prepared with such pretty knives!"

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#422

Post by saaaaaam »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #120
saaaaaam wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is. I’m a former chef and have great knife skills but would love one of these.

What would it do that your current, well-maintained, very sharp knife doesn’t?

Slice thinner and cleaner with less effort. For example the bread slicing ability — I’d love to be able to cut really thin slices of brioche to drape over things or toast. It would also be fun to play with what it might let you do that a regular knife just can’t. I don’t see this as an alternative to a regular knife, but as a different tool that would elevate garnishing.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#423

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

mminer237 wrote: post #335
oofbey wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25 chops per second would be EXTRAORDINARY. Possible? Probably but only with super elite training. Most competent home chefs can probably do 5 Hz and probably struggle to get to 10 Hz.

The fastest button mashing record appears to be 16 Hz, so I definitely do not believe it is possible to chop with a knife in the double digits.

Can somebody count Jacques' garlic chopping speed then? Perhaps someone younger than 80 could do it faster? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ENOZgEqXg#t=1m20s

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#424

Post by benbayard »

wisty wrote: post #246

Why is it people here seem so unusually sceptical? It's expensive (but not really, only compared to knives - a $500 GPU isn't expensive). It's probably mostly good in certain niches and using a $10 knife that's sharpened properly is probably 95% as good in almost every application, and using a $10 knife that is only reasonably well sharpened is probably 90% as good. Slicing stuff for hotpot or yakiniku or Korean BBQ…

I think it’s a really cool product. I would happily own one. The problem I have with it is that $400 is a LOT for a chef knife. A great knife and an awesome sharpener can be easily had for $150, or $250 if you get a top of the line sharpener. That knife will last you a lifetime. How long will this knife last? What happens when the battery runs out of lifespan. What about when the motor dies? If this was closer to $250, I’d be much more likely to buy it.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#426

Post by petepete »

john_minsk wrote: post #366
dlcarrier wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives... What amazes me is how many people spend absolutely zero time sharpening knives, using decades-old knives that have never been sharpened and can't even cut through cucumbers.

I don't use knives in my kitchen. My romantic partner does. Yesterday I decided to cut some tomatoes only to find out that all knives are dull. She never said anything, I didn't know it. Why? Because she is just "used" to it and to her these knives were just fine. So she never thought about sharpening knives in the first place. I will take those knives to a pro and he will sharpen them for me, as in a rental I stay i…

Were you cutting tomatoes with a serrated knife? If not, you should be - they do a far better job.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#428

Post by LordDragonfang »

RHSeeger wrote: post #411
dlcarrier wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People spend hundreds of dollars and many hours sharpening kitchen knives... What amazes me is how many people spend absolutely zero time sharpening knives, using decades-old knives that have never been sharpened and can't even cut through cucumbers.

I know I'm setting myself up for being picked up, but... I use an older knife that I've never sharpened outside of "occasionally" running it back and forth against a tough fabric. It cuts literally everything just fine; cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. Nothing about my use of it _seems_ unsafe; but I expect that's partially because I don't cut very fast. Cooking, when I'm involved, tends to be "social time", where…

> outside of "occasionally" running it back and forth against a tough fabric.

As I understand it, that's technically stropping, not sharpening, but it should be sufficient to keep an already-sharp blade sharp over the long term as long as the blade doesn't see extremely heavy use.

That said, most people don't strip their blades any more than they sharpen them.

Re: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

#429

Post by coffeebeqn »

chneu wrote: post #383
john_minsk wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use knives in my kitchen. My romantic partner does. Yesterday I decided to cut some tomatoes only to find out that all knives are dull. She never said anything, I didn't know it. Why? Because she is just "used" to it and to her these knives were just fine. So she never thought about sharpening knives in the first place. I will take those knives to a pro and he will sharpen them for me, as in a rental I stay i…

You don't really need "tools" to sharpen knives. You just need a harder surface and some experience. It's one of those things that once you learn you can accomplish with a variety of "tools" because you're just trying to achieve an end goal. There's zero reason you can't sharpen a knife in a rental, lol. You don't need a belt grinder or anything. People get way too caught up in buying into systems and being told how…

Buy a whetstone for $10 and you’re set for life. It’s not complicated! People have been sharpening knives for millennia
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