Should you have been to wager on what the oldest kitchen software in existence is, you’d be good to place your cash on the knife. It’s not simply centuries outdated however tens of hundreds of centuries outdated, as people have been utilizing sharp objects to chop meals for over two million years.
So when somebody says they need to reinvent one thing that outdated, it’s pure to be skeptical. In spite of everything, what precisely are you able to do to a knife to make it higher at what it does?
Should you ask Scott Heimendinger, he’d inform you that including ultrasonic expertise to a knife can really enhance this historical software. Heimendinger, who beforehand based a client sous vide startup in Sansaire, has been engaged on doing simply that for greater than half a decade, and right this moment he introduced that finish results of all that work is now on sale and can ship early subsequent yr.
So what precisely is an ultrasonic knife? Should you’re conversant in ultrasonic toothbrushes, it’s comparable in that ultrasonic vitality creates hundreds of vibrations per second. In actual fact, in accordance with the announcement, the knife (referred to as the C-200) will vibrate 40 thousand instances per second.
Given the time and vitality invested, I requested Heimendinger if he was nervous about launching a brand new product regardless of being a startup veteran.
“After all I’m nervous,” he stated. “This can be a factor I’ve been engaged on for practically six years and it’s gonna see daylight for the primary time ever. And I’m completely nervous. I’ve a lot of my coronary heart and soul poured into this factor and cash and literal blood.”
Because it’s been greater than a decade since his first product launch with Sansaire, I additionally requested him how the panorama for good kitchen merchandise has modified since then.
“In 2012 and 2013, the Modernist cooking motion was actually form of on an upward trajectory,” stated Heimendinger. “Now, I feel that the extra prevalent motion in cooking, particularly dwelling cooking, isn’t extra expertise however much less. It’s form of a return to analog in an entire bunch of the way.”
If that’s the case, why add ultrasonic expertise to a knife? In accordance with Heimendinger, one of many truisms on this planet of kitchen instruments is that they have to make a cook dinner’s life simpler, not tougher. Good kitchen tech, achieved poorly, simply provides extra steps. Together with his knife, these hundreds of invisible vibrations per second assist make reducing as much as 50% simpler.
“It was so vital to me to design a product the place all you must do is contact a button,” stated Heimendinger. “That’s it. There’s no telephone pairing. There’s no Wi-Fi setup. There’s no something. And you should use it when it’s off, as its additionally a very good analog knife.”
Nonetheless, even with the deal with simplicity of use, Heimendinger realizes the knife neighborhood may be skeptical, and never everybody can be able to welcome one thing like an ultrasonic knife.
“The knife neighborhood may be dogmatic in sure methods,” he stated. “I do know that there’s going to be some individuals who suppose that (including ultrasonic tech) is anathema to the sanctity of a pounded piece of sharp metallic. However I hope that they’ll be capable of see that I’m taking this fairly severely. And if we need to have a dialog about what really makes reducing simpler for dwelling cooks, then there’s information to help this does simply that.”
In accordance with the announcement, the blade is made out of Japanese AUS-10 san mai stainless-steel that’s sturdy and corrosion-resistant. The button and grip are appropriate for each right- and left-handed customers, and the blade may be re-sharpened similar to a conventional knife.
The product will retail for $399. Manufacturing of the primary batch begins in November, and pre-orders open this week on seattleultrasonics.com, with deliveries anticipated in January 2026.
