I’ve seen this knife on YouTube. It vibrate at ultrasound frequency that makes it sharper than the blade really is and the ingredients don’t stick to it, or so they claim. If it really does perform as demonstrated, it’s pretty cool, but still overpriced.
But the kind of people who are impressed by a vibrating knife are also likely to be impressed by the ability to update firmware. They don’t know what firmware DOES, they just know it’s modern.
The incredibly silly true answer is that the software industry’s love for “deploy early, deploy often” has led to all embedded devices shipping with over-the-air (OTA) update support even when it barely makes sense. The earliest units of a given product run will ship with a minimally viable product build that has lots of bugs, but solid OTA.
Fun anecdote: I had a TV backlight die after about 3 years, and the root cause was a shitty embedded app that incorrectly regulated the voltage for the LED strips.
I don’t think that actually answers OP’s question. If all it does is vibrate then it doesn’t need any software. It presumably just has a single button that turns vibration on/off and maybe cycles through vibration levels. A dumb circuit without even a single chip in it could do that.
I’m just guessing here, but it’s probably for battery management and wireless charging, which are tricky problems you’re not gonna solve with a 555. I generally trust EEs to not put MCUs where they aren’t needed, so this must have been the cheapest/easiest option.
As i said in my original post, “A dumb circuit without even a single chip in it could do that.” Vibration units can literally just respond to voltage. It’s how electrical devices worked before chips, like old pinball machines and old radios. It works just like how a standing fan works - there’s a mechanical motor, and you literally just need to attach plain copper wires onto the motor’s contact points and stick the other ends of the wire into the slots of a wall power outlet.
I don’t know why I’m replying this deep to play devils advocate for some stupid knife, but I could see a situation where you haven’t completed the research on optimal frequency and ship it out while that’s ongoing. Maybe the window of optimal frequency is narrow enough, or unknown enough, that it’d be difficult to calibrate a potentiometer such that the end user could find that ideal point.
we’ve engineered the bolster connection to withstand up to 50 lbs. of pushing force, so you can chop without worry. (Our human arms could only muster 30 lbs. This is why we’re nice to the robot.)
Noodle-armed motherfuckers could only manage 30 lbs of force with their arms?
This is good as an accessibility device for people who have trouble doing the proper circular knife cutting motion, but if you can use the proper technique without trouble, it is not really much better or worth the cost.
I don’t see accessibility as the main benefit. I see reduced need for sharpening. Yes, you can always sharpen a knife, but it’s not as easy as people pretend. And it’s another chore you have to do.
It does work and it is super cool from any videos or info I watched on it. Because metal is flexible, the size, length, thickness, and weight of the blade all gave to be taken into account in order to get a vibrating frequency that works. If you ever watch videos of this or ones like it (this is the only good working home use kitchen knife I know if) it’s pretty bad ass, if for nothing else than just for how anti stick it is. I’m still not willing to pay like $400 for it. I’m a big knife sharpening and cooking guy, but I don’t think I’ve paid over about $50 for any of my kitchen knives or over $230 for a pocket knife. Now if I ever wound up seeing one of the Seattle ultrasonics somewhere new or used and still looking good for under $200 I’d probably break down and buy it. Blade stick is pretty annoying when you want to cut something very consistently and not spend a bunch of time to do it.
Those seem fast if you don’t know how to use a knife very well. Plus then you got to clean the thing. Plus you’d be using it a long time if you were trying to make something like fries. Plus they don’t work with things like tomatoes. Then let’s see how a mandolin does with cilantro or green onions.
Stuff sticks to knives because they are flat. They need to have dimples for stuff not to stick. Even with ultrasonic vibrations things will stick because things are elastic and sucktion.
I doubt this knife has the power for its vibrations to make a meaningfull difference in cutting.
Ultrasonic vibrations have been successfully used to make cutting tools more effective for a long time. It doesn’t make the cutting edge sharper or amplify the force, it just moves it back and forth slightly, in microscopic imitations of a cutting motion. That does work. Though at the end of the day it won’t magically make a dull knife sharp.
Ultrasonic vibrations have also been successfully used to get shit off of surfaces for a long time too. It is a common and effective method. Though it usually involves a bit more than just shaking the thing, but still…
Theoretically this knife could very well do both of those things. Probably not well enough to be worth 425 dollars, but probably entire useless either.
This test: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PTd98UnJnnU looked fairly objective to me. It’s kinda cool, but not as impressive as most demonstrations (probably shills or “official”) make it out to be. It certainly didn’t pass through the crust of that baguette much cleaner with the vibration on.
Even with ultrasonic vibrations things will stick because things are elastic and sucktion.
Eh, perhaps not.
Ultrasonic vibration causes tiny cavitation bubbles to form at the interface between metal and liquid, and then those bubbles collapse a tiny second of a fraction later … quite violently. If it’s well designed, then it should clean stuff off of itself just like materials you put in an ultrasonic cleaner.
But these cavitation bubbles are strong enough to eat away at the metal itself as well. I expect this knife might not actually last very long if you use the vibration a lot.
I doubt the vibrations would do anything to make it cut better, but to make things not stick you could also just put little dimples on the side like those of a santoku knife. So goofy.
People freak out over the dimples because it means that some day they won’t be able to sharpen the knife anymore.
Which ignores that once you are even two millimeters worn down it is probably time to get a new knife regardless due to ergonomics and the like.
And yeah. Vibrations only make sense if you are sawing through food. That is why those (cheap) electric carvers are genuinely amazing and worth grabbing if you are hosting a big roasted meat party (e.g. American and probably also Canadian Thanksgiving). Non-serrated blades don’t do that. If you need to saw through your food with a chef’s knife then you should have sharpened that years ago. And if you actually CAN saw through your food with the chef’s knife, odds are the blade is so fucked up that it is not salvageable to begin with.
I got a knife my grandfather used, that has been sharpened so much it looks like a fillet knife. Ergonomics? It cuts, I don’t care. It’s a good reserve.
Good point about dimples though. But thinking about it why wouldnt I be able to sharpen it? A knife’s like 2mm thick while a dimple is idk I don’t have one such knife, but it’s probably much less then 0.3mm and the edge obviously tapers.
I’ve seen this knife on YouTube. It vibrate at ultrasound frequency that makes it sharper than the blade really is and the ingredients don’t stick to it, or so they claim. If it really does perform as demonstrated, it’s pretty cool, but still overpriced.
If all it does is vibrate why does it need a firmware update?
Download (and print) a knife
It doesn’t…
But the kind of people who are impressed by a vibrating knife are also likely to be impressed by the ability to update firmware. They don’t know what firmware DOES, they just know it’s modern.
I can hear this image
The incredibly silly true answer is that the software industry’s love for “deploy early, deploy often” has led to all embedded devices shipping with over-the-air (OTA) update support even when it barely makes sense. The earliest units of a given product run will ship with a minimally viable product build that has lots of bugs, but solid OTA.
Fun anecdote: I had a TV backlight die after about 3 years, and the root cause was a shitty embedded app that incorrectly regulated the voltage for the LED strips.
I don’t think that actually answers OP’s question. If all it does is vibrate then it doesn’t need any software. It presumably just has a single button that turns vibration on/off and maybe cycles through vibration levels. A dumb circuit without even a single chip in it could do that.
It obviously needs specific vibration settings for each food you want to cut.
And a mic and camera for some reason.
Ah, but what if you want it to vibrate to the beat of your favorite song? Did you think about that?
Or in my ass?
No, it’s not a poop knife!
A vibrating poop knife might be the next big thing.
I mean, it would prevent sticking…
I’m just guessing here, but it’s probably for battery management and wireless charging, which are tricky problems you’re not gonna solve with a 555. I generally trust EEs to not put MCUs where they aren’t needed, so this must have been the cheapest/easiest option.
Marketing convinced the boss it needs AI, too bad engineers
What does marvel have to do with this???
Because it’s cheaper to buy a commodity chip and program it rather than get an application specific chip made.
As i said in my original post, “A dumb circuit without even a single chip in it could do that.” Vibration units can literally just respond to voltage. It’s how electrical devices worked before chips, like old pinball machines and old radios. It works just like how a standing fan works - there’s a mechanical motor, and you literally just need to attach plain copper wires onto the motor’s contact points and stick the other ends of the wire into the slots of a wall power outlet.
You don’t need a chip in a vibration circuit. Hell a potentiometer is more than sufficient to give you different levels of vibration
I don’t know why I’m replying this deep to play devils advocate for some stupid knife, but I could see a situation where you haven’t completed the research on optimal frequency and ship it out while that’s ongoing. Maybe the window of optimal frequency is narrow enough, or unknown enough, that it’d be difficult to calibrate a potentiometer such that the end user could find that ideal point.
I want an update that let’s it play audio files by vibraing the blade.
My only acceptable IoT scenario is where all hardware is open and we can indeed flash music software onto it.
I’m not sure a knife needs to vibrate in the first place…
I’d love to see a chip less BMS for lipos.
The fuck you talking about?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
How would it vibrate without wpa3 support?
To fix all the RCE bugs, of course!
maybe scientists discovered new frequencies?
Yup its vibrating in the wigglehertz range.
Don’t you think it would vastly improve your stabbing experience if the knife could vibrate the Halloween theme while you’re at it?
I’d want it to whistle a spooky tune like a theremin.
Value-add apps cost extra
To show you ads, of course. Duh.
Microphone was a little muffled, fw update supposed to clear that up.
That’s what she said.
data gathering
It has a battery, so circuity exists for that.
they updated it so it also vibrates in rgb
Different frequency and patterns provide different results.
And some of those frequencies need to be paywalled, for the customer’s enjoyment.
Sense of pride and accomplishment
Motor with an eccentric shaft?
Found it: https://seattleultrasonics.com/products/c-200-ultrasonic-8-chefs-knife
452€ 🫠
Noodle-armed motherfuckers could only manage 30 lbs of force with their arms?
Hummm ackchuly, lbs is a unit of mass, it is not used to measure force, they ackchuly mean 136N 🤓
lbf
Well, up to 50% less effort for that low price? Sign me the fuck up!
JapAnESe sTEeL!!1°!
Then demo cuts the most basic shit any other half decent knife would have no issues with.
And the wireless charger is sold separately!
So it makes your hand vibrationally numb as you use it.
Sounds safe.
Ultrasonic dude, your hand won’t even feel it.
I’d imagine the handle is designed to absorb it.
Aah, can’t prove it does nothing at all, smart smart.
So you’re saying it’s ideal for murder because it brings home less damning evidence?
“Hmm, the stab wounds show that this guy was stabbed by an ultrasonic vibrating knife!”
“Really? Those must be rare, what can they sell, maybe a dozen of those per year?”
Reminds me of that guy who burned off his fingerprints and made his way more identifiable.
Remember that I am not a certified lawyer so you shouldn’t take my advice at face value. But, yes.
This is good as an accessibility device for people who have trouble doing the proper circular knife cutting motion, but if you can use the proper technique without trouble, it is not really much better or worth the cost.
I don’t see accessibility as the main benefit. I see reduced need for sharpening. Yes, you can always sharpen a knife, but it’s not as easy as people pretend. And it’s another chore you have to do.
Vibrating blade that cuts better? Why do I hear Rules of Nature playing in the background
It does work and it is super cool from any videos or info I watched on it. Because metal is flexible, the size, length, thickness, and weight of the blade all gave to be taken into account in order to get a vibrating frequency that works. If you ever watch videos of this or ones like it (this is the only good working home use kitchen knife I know if) it’s pretty bad ass, if for nothing else than just for how anti stick it is. I’m still not willing to pay like $400 for it. I’m a big knife sharpening and cooking guy, but I don’t think I’ve paid over about $50 for any of my kitchen knives or over $230 for a pocket knife. Now if I ever wound up seeing one of the Seattle ultrasonics somewhere new or used and still looking good for under $200 I’d probably break down and buy it. Blade stick is pretty annoying when you want to cut something very consistently and not spend a bunch of time to do it.
if you want to cut something very consistently and not spend much time to do it you use a mandoline
Those seem fast if you don’t know how to use a knife very well. Plus then you got to clean the thing. Plus you’d be using it a long time if you were trying to make something like fries. Plus they don’t work with things like tomatoes. Then let’s see how a mandolin does with cilantro or green onions.
A mandolin is generally a tool for a novice.
Disagree, I’ve worked in plenty of commercial kitchens with them and am fine at using a knife.
Getting the big Mandela out to cut up 50 of something and leaving it out all day is a big difference from cutting up like 3 potatoes at home.
Sure, I agree with that, but even at home, if I want 8 potatoes for gratin it’s pretty worth it
8 is probably pretty close to where I’d break down and dig out the mandolin. Maybe. I’ll use the shedder attachment for cheese or hash browns.
Stuff sticks to knives because they are flat. They need to have dimples for stuff not to stick. Even with ultrasonic vibrations things will stick because things are elastic and sucktion.
I doubt this knife has the power for its vibrations to make a meaningfull difference in cutting.
That’s my opinion at least.
Ultrasonic vibrations have been successfully used to make cutting tools more effective for a long time. It doesn’t make the cutting edge sharper or amplify the force, it just moves it back and forth slightly, in microscopic imitations of a cutting motion. That does work. Though at the end of the day it won’t magically make a dull knife sharp.
Ultrasonic vibrations have also been successfully used to get shit off of surfaces for a long time too. It is a common and effective method. Though it usually involves a bit more than just shaking the thing, but still…
Theoretically this knife could very well do both of those things. Probably not well enough to be worth 425 dollars, but probably entire useless either.
This test: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PTd98UnJnnU looked fairly objective to me. It’s kinda cool, but not as impressive as most demonstrations (probably shills or “official”) make it out to be. It certainly didn’t pass through the crust of that baguette much cleaner with the vibration on.
Eh, perhaps not.
Ultrasonic vibration causes tiny cavitation bubbles to form at the interface between metal and liquid, and then those bubbles collapse a tiny second of a fraction later … quite violently. If it’s well designed, then it should clean stuff off of itself just like materials you put in an ultrasonic cleaner.
But these cavitation bubbles are strong enough to eat away at the metal itself as well. I expect this knife might not actually last very long if you use the vibration a lot.
I doubt the vibrations would do anything to make it cut better, but to make things not stick you could also just put little dimples on the side like those of a santoku knife. So goofy.
People freak out over the dimples because it means that some day they won’t be able to sharpen the knife anymore.
Which ignores that once you are even two millimeters worn down it is probably time to get a new knife regardless due to ergonomics and the like.
And yeah. Vibrations only make sense if you are sawing through food. That is why those (cheap) electric carvers are genuinely amazing and worth grabbing if you are hosting a big roasted meat party (e.g. American and probably also Canadian Thanksgiving). Non-serrated blades don’t do that. If you need to saw through your food with a chef’s knife then you should have sharpened that years ago. And if you actually CAN saw through your food with the chef’s knife, odds are the blade is so fucked up that it is not salvageable to begin with.
I got a knife my grandfather used, that has been sharpened so much it looks like a fillet knife. Ergonomics? It cuts, I don’t care. It’s a good reserve.
Good point about dimples though. But thinking about it why wouldnt I be able to sharpen it? A knife’s like 2mm thick while a dimple is idk I don’t have one such knife, but it’s probably much less then 0.3mm and the edge obviously tapers.
FTFY buddy
oh no. OH NO!
I mean, the increased damage compared to a regular knife is noteworthy.
Yo I just want a knife with a sharpening sheath. That’d be super handy irl.
nah. oversharpening will wear your knife to nothing in no time.
That just be what the firmware and Wi-Fi access is for, on demand sharpening and anti-oversharpening features. Lol