This is greatest knife ever MADE!

[shezmu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE_JIRSXjEg&feature=related

and as a bonus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An1KPF...

Okay, the second one may actually have a legit purpose, but it wasn't being as explicitly advertised as being for people with arthritis as it should be for something this (otherwise) dumb, so I treat it as fair game.

*just so I don't get modded, please don't buy these if you don't have arthritis.*

NOTE: repeat of a previous topic I made but with a better title. I'd edit/delete the old if I could.

[BobB]

That dagwood sandwich alone made the video worth watching! "We've all done this." HAH!

[shezmu]

Whelp, I learned something.

[Eiron]

LOL, whut you lernt?

[Chemicalkinetics]

Wassup

[shezmu]

The food industry uses electric knives, worked by hand. I was not expecting to learn that. o_o

[Chemicalkinetics]

A very small segement of the food industry uses electric knives. petek is in the professional industry and so are TeRReT I think. I think if you ask them, they will tell you the percentage of time you will be holding an electric knives is not very high.

[petek]

Chem is correct. We only use them for tea sandwiches(cutting off the crust and then cutting them into 4 pieces) and nothing else..promise :-D.(please don't send me any hate mail)
And that's only if we have to do them in large quantities.But like I said it works very well for this particular application.We are in the minority of the pro kitchens that use electric knives..

[Chemicalkinetics]

Since we are talking about electric knife, do you have a brand/model to recommend?

[petek]

I'm in the shop tomorrow,I'll get you the name and model # of the one we use.
I'm not saying it's the best but it's a good one..

[Kagemusha]

Not sure the knife performs much better than this product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHZe1...

[kaleokahu]

Hi, shezmu:

No thank you. Looks a little too Magic Bullet for me, but just to keep things in perspective...

(1) For people who do no knife maintenance at all, this Sonic thingy might be an improvement, and actually work pretty well (relative to really dull knives) for a long time. Is there any reason to believe this is any worse than a Cutco?

(2) It might also perform better than a regular serrated knife, by virtue of the reciprocating action. A lot of manual cutting done with serrateds is done more in one direction than the other. All things being equal, the blade would stay sharper longer than one that wears only on one side of each "tooth*.

(3) If you look closely, there is one fixed blade, and a slightly shorter reciprocating blade moving against it (with a keeper near the tip). It therefore doesn't *stab* like reciprocating sawblade.

(4) Alton Brown likes and uses electrics.

Not for me, but less ridiculous than it would appear. I especially liked the scene where they cut on the granite surface.

Aloha,
Kaleo

[shezmu]

I guess this isn't going to be a funny topic. :/ Anywho, I may likely have a bias here due to being someone interested in getting into restaurant industry, but the maintenance argument doesn't really hold water for me, not with western knifes anyway. Steel and sharpen both sides ninety degrees divided by half then divided by half, hand wash it and don't use it as a can opener. That's it. Also, if electric knifes were legit, why have normal knives. It doesn't make sense.

Finally, while I do respect AB's views on food, the man isn't perfect and his use of electric knives period is one of the things I disagree with and AB only uses a electric knife on few occasions.

[GH1618]

I thought it was funny, especially the way the actors tried to make it look impossible to cut anything neatly with an ordinary knife.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I agree with the top youtube comment for the first video:

http://youtu.be/KE_JIRSXjEg

At 0:35 min, the person really intentionally messed up the cut by twisting the normal knife side to side, and finally pushed it all the way to the left (of the screen). I am sure the mess would have been equally or worse if the same was done for the electric knife. Funny stuff.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I have not seen a lot of electric knives around in the professional kitchens, but I did see one in a BBQ joint. Mind you, it is the only one I saw in display. The BBQ meat was cut to go and customers can ask for different cut patterns. Maybe she was tired of cutting all day long, so she used an electric knife. I don't know. Nevertheless, she used one with a power cord. This sonic blade is cordless, and usually the cordless ones have more complaints.

I can see an electric knife have some advantages in certain cases. It really is a small chainsaw.

On the other hand, an electric knife has some disadvantages. It is noisy and usually heavy. It is not really fast -- which is a common misconception. You have probably seen numerous fast cutting demonstration with a regular knife, like dicing a onion in speed. You cannot do that with an electric knife. The claw technique that we use for regular knife does not apply for an electric knife. Unlike a regular knife, you really don't want to put an electric knife blade right up to your other hand.

[Dave5440]

One of these might come in handy for cutting up that winter squash
http://www.jorymon.com/tag/miniature-...

[Chemicalkinetics]

USB powered?

[Dave5440]

I think it might be joke! I'm not sure , I think electric knife are more like a reciprocating saw than a chain saw IMO.

[Chemicalkinetics]

:) I see.

[GH1618]

USB does provide power, so it's feasible as long as it's low power.

[petek]

"I have not seen a lot of electric knives around in the professional kitchens"
Hate to break it to you Chem,but we use an electric knife to trim the crust off "tea sandwiches".Never thought in a million years that I would actually use one,but it works like a charm..
(I've been known to use one on occasion to carve up a turkey or 2 at family functions)

[Chemicalkinetics]

Guess I have to visit a few more professional kitchens then. :)

[petek]

Guess I have to visit a few more professional kitchens then. :)

I'm not sayin' a lot of pro kitchens use em,only the ones that make those dainty little tea sandwiches :-D

[Dave5440]

I know there are lots of people/places that use them for cleaning fish , and from the videos I've seen of it they work incredibly well in a skillled hand

[shezmu]

I'll look into that, cause if fish butchers are using them, then there must be some reason for it.

[Dave5440]

I think speed it the reason mainly, these guys I saw where cleaning the haul off charter boats, they left some meat on the carcas but not as much as the guys I watched in florida using knives

[Chemicalkinetics]

Little tea sandwiches. :D

[shezmu]

@ Chemicalkinetics - Would the BBQ joint have been serving meat products with bone in? Okay, I could see that as a reason to use a electric food saw, assuming those things can handle bones. Either way, nice to know not every chef is a drill Sergent.

@ petek - I'm curious as to why your place decided to use electro knives over bread knives for tea sandwiches, if that's not too much to ask.

[Chemicalkinetics]

The electric knife was not used to cut any meat with bone in. She just liked to use it. Most of the other joints I have been to, they just use regular knives.

[petek]

@ petek - I'm curious as to why your place decided to use electro knives over bread knives for tea sandwiches, if that's not too much to ask

It's faster, cuts cleaner and it's more efficient for larger quantities(believe it or not).

There were a few naysayers(including myself) but we were quickly put in our place after a few quick demos..

[Dave5440]

Steel and sharpen both sides ninety degrees divided by half then divided by half,

So you mean 22.5 deg? What are you sharpening an axe?

[shezmu]

On SS germane steel, that's a safe degree to keep. Yes, harder steels and Japanese steels can go lower, but I wasn't talking about those.

[kaleokahu]

Hey, shezmu:

I didn't meat to spoil your fun. It is a funny infomercial.

If it makes you and the rest of the knife mafia feel any better, an electric knife may indeed be ridiculous to you all. But you all need to accept that CH, knifeforums.com, and the like are the *opposite* of being representative of most home cooks (a fact we may all lament, but hey?). I would even go so far as to opine that a majority of the visitors to this very board do not regularly maintain their knives. And a significant % of those who try fail or are sabotaged in their efforts by others. In other words, I think the knife and sharpening cognoscenti (and bless you all) are a tiny fraction in a country and world of cutlery nebbishes whose knife drawers have three little abused or mongrel hollow-ground blades banging around inside about as sharp as those you find in vacation condo kitchenettes. It is for *those* people, not the 1 or 0.1%, that I think an electric serrated might be an improvement for some uses, especially carving meat and "slicing" bread and tomatoes.

I'm no giant Alton Brown fan myself, but when a guy like him, with his cred, finds a use for an electric, who's gonna call him a fool? Me? You? If I called my friend and fellow knifemaker Bob Kramer and asked, what do you think he would say?

Aloha,
Kaleo

[Dave5440]

I wish I was tiny!!

But of course you are correct, if there wasn't a use or a demand the product wouldn't be around long, Beta, DAT,laser disc, 120VAC plugs on stoves

[kaleokahu]

Hey, Dave5440, howzit?

"I wish I was tiny!!" Me too, braddah, me too...

But that gives me an idea... My wife, a nurse, used to scrub in with a group of plastic surgeons who do a lot of liposuction. Why not use a Sonic electric knife instead of the suction cannula? Brilliant!

Aloha,
Kaleo

[Dave5440]

That has got to be the second worst visual I have ever had, next time I get a shwarma I'm gonna see a fat guy on a stick in front of a infared element getting his belly fat trimmed off,,, geesus,,, way to ruin a shwarma Kaleo

[Eiron]

LOL!!

[shezmu]

I should point that is isn't an uber serious topic to me like politics or something like that, I just think that it's preferable to use the most efficient tool for the job at hand. But yep, I can't disagree what the notion that electro knifes are easier for people with *zero* interest in maintaining their kitchenware.

That said, I would like to know what Bob Kramer what would say. Not because I think he'd agree with me, but because I'm trying to learn as much as I can about food and cooking and the industry as I can.

[petek]

"If it makes you and the rest of the knife mafia feel any better"
There ain't no such thing as the knife mafia..it's just an old wives tale..got it. :-D

[kaleokahu]

Hey, petek:

Yeah, what a waste putting all those FBI agents and prosecutors to work looking for something that doesn't exist. Excuse me for suggesting it existed; I wouldn't want to have an "accident".

Kaleo

[Dave5440]

Ahh a wise guy eh!!!

[Eiron]

"... a country and world of cutlery nebbishes whose knife drawers have three little abused or mongrel hollow-ground blades banging around inside about as sharp as those you find in vacation condo kitchenettes."

As much as I appreciate the application of the epithet "nebbish" to most knife owners (even if it does bring to mind Woody Allen trying, in vain, to make himself a sandwich), I'd have to say that most of the ones I know have a plethora of impoverished implements packed into useless piles inside of drawer dividers. It's a good thing they're ALL dull, or these kind folk would, no doubt, shred their phalanges at every attempt to retrieve any one of them!

I actually bought an electric "carving" knife at a garage sale. It's wonderful for cutting foam rubber into intricate shapes for packaging/shipping delicate items. I wouldn't use anything else! (And believe me, I've tried!)

[Chemicalkinetics]

"an electric "carving" knife at a garage sale"

That is the problem. It is from a garage sale. If you buy a good and slightly expensive electric knife, then your experience may be different. :D

[breadchick]

Well, the plethora of useless knives would cover some of my siblings cutlery drawers, but I have to admit that I do have an elec carving knife. I bought it a few years ago on a lark (my mom had one years ago) and it actually comes in handy. I've got the whole gamut with Wusthoff and others, have the Chef's Choice three stage sharpener, and that's well and good. But if I'm slicing very super thin slices of a big roast or ham, I like the control the knife has. (I don't use it for poultry because my chefs knife or boning knife handles that breakdown.) I'm not talented in a lot of things regarding hand-eye coordination, but I can slice meat with that thing that you can practically see through. (Don't ask me to throw a ball or a frisbee. Our retriever would patiently wait for my husband to retrieve the frisbee from the roof if I had a hand in it. Or from the pool.)

[Chemicalkinetics]

Chick,

What is the version/brand of your electric knife? Is it the Cuisinart one that I once considered?

"Our retriever would patiently wait"

I love the retriever already.

[breadchick]

Yes, indeed, it is. I just checked.

You would have loved her, she was a sweetheart we long remember in our long history of happy dog ownership. The lovely Nell.

Thank you.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Oh no... she (the retriever) is no longer with us :(

[GH1618]

Notice in the second video how, when demonstrating the difficulty of opening jars by hand, they try to turn the lid in the wrong direction!

[Chemicalkinetics]

Yes, I forgot to mention this (I read your earlier post). Yes, that is funny. Maybe it is its true selling point. Yes, it help people who has weak or injured hand to open lids, but more importantly, it help people who don't know which way to turn to open a lid. As they always say, "You put it and YOU FORGET IT" It does the thinking for you.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I saw it 2 minute after your first posted, but didn't have time to respond.

I am not a big electric fan, but sonic blade is one of the few cordless electric knives. I thought about getting the Cuisinart CEK-40 Electric Knife, but did not.

[GH1618]

I was expecting more from you, ChemK. This is satire, I think.

[Chemicalkinetics]

No, not satire. I was given a list of gift to choose from..... One of it is the Cuisinart Electric Knife, and the other is a Henckel International knife set (which I find less useful and more boring). Some 50 choices of many things from DVD players to rings to watches, I think. I did consider getting the Cuisinart Electric Knife for a few seconds really (more than 2 second and less than 10 seconds) :P

At the end, I picked a man watch.

[shezmu]

This is meant to be a joke topic, but I'm curious as to why would you want to have one of these things, knowing what you know about knives.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Well, I was given a list of gift to choose from.

So, really, it was a eliminating process. I eliminated the electric knife early on, but it was not during the first round, so I did considered it, just not very strong. I eliminated things like "ring", "women watches" right away.

I don't think I would buy an electric knife if someone hands me $60 in cash, but between a $60 ring and a $60 electric knife, I probably would have picked the electric knife because I have no use of a ring.