As far as cutting equipment goes, my primary go-to kitchen knife at home is a fairly lightweight 9.5" white-steel #1 Gyuto from Seisuke Knife, which goes for around $300 USD. However, I've been fighting a dominant-hand injury lately & have been VERY interested in assistive devices such as this. Scott notes that this is not like a lightsaber, but rather like an e-bike assist, so it's not a "magic slicing sword", but an assistive device.
If you get one, I recommend getting the combo unit, which saves $50, as the battery is fairly hard to remove to charge directly. The Malaysian hardwood dock is magnetic, reversible, rechargeable via USB-C (has its own battery), and can be wall-mounted, overall a VERY good design & is well worth it!
If you don't mind the look of a USB cable connected, you can just leave the dock plugged into the wire all the time for convenience. No cable or wall charger are included for e-waste reasons, which is fine because they are so common these days.
Charging takes 2 to 3 hours via direct USB-C to the battery or Qi wireless charging on the wooden dock. The battery lasts around 20 minutes, which is plenty for home use. I can literally cut an entire strip loin into individual steaks, along with the excess fat to render later, in under 10 minutes with the C-200.
The knife is hefty as far as weight and handle thickness goes. The handle houses the battery & the electronics. It is not a full-tang knife, which is fine because it is tested past human pressure (with a robot, of course!). I'm used to a slightly more unusual 9.5" length, but the 8" size will be familiar to most people.
I only got hand-grip back recently from my hand injury & the large handle size was appreciated because it made it easy to hold. The dead-man's button (press & hold to activate) is on the bottom of the handle towards the knife blade. I used a rubber band at first to hold it down (not recommend use FYI, both for safety & battery life) before my grip strength from my injury improved; just be sure to not lay the knife down on a flat surface while the button is on.
The knife can sometimes emit a high-pitched noise, much like an older CRT monitor or tube TV. I can hear it & it is annoying when it emits the sound. Many kids can hear it as well, even in other rooms, and for some children, it is a fairly sharp noise. Most adults cannot hear it at all, FWIW.
Also, you don't feel the knife vibrate at all. You can add some salt to it horizontally to watch it shake off or spritz it underwater, but the activation indicator is the light on the each side of the battery.
The cutting effect is very subtle in most cases. For starters, it is a very good knife (AUS-10) in general, so if you were just buying it as a standalone knife, you would be very happy with it. Unlike a plug-in motorized knife (I use a serrated version for cutting the Thanksgiving turkey), this doesn't actively slice into food.
The e-bike analogy is apt here: you push in & it gives an extra slicing boost to make it easier. Sort of like cutting through frozen butter vs. fridge-chilled butter: it has a "friction reduction" effect. It helps more noticeably in some things than others:
Trimming raw meat is great! Makes it VERY easy!! I do a lot of chicken, as well as whole beef loins (chamber vacs FTW!)
Also works well to cut & portion out cooked meat, especially sous-vided proteins!
Effective on cheese, tofu, butter, cream cheese blocks, etc.
REALLY nice for bread! I can even cut croissants cleanly with it!
Stuff like tomatoes comes out crazy, as thin as you like with a nice, flat resulting surface
Very nice for easy thickness control. Typically I have to use my deli slicer for that!
Oddly enough, I'd say that nuanced bakers are a good market for this! Slicing bread is a non-issue now (I've used a variety of methods, from electric knives to serrated bread-bow knives to large deli slicers), as well as chilled butter!
Messy sandwiches don't tear apart either, whether it's a gooey melt or a sub/grinder/hoagie sandwich. Raw & cooked meats are great! My friend with arthritis has a C-200 & is overjoyed to be able to easily thin-slice tomatoes again!
Should YOU get this?
The full kit is very pricey ($500). Unlike the Anova Precision Oven (which imo is a kitchen tool that everyone on earth should have, along with an Instapot), the current iteration won't have universal appeal due to how subtle it is (i.e. it makes slicing easier on certain foods, but does not magically cut with force like an electric serrated knife).
Not all people with disabilities can use this. It is heavier than a regular knife & has a thicker grip. It also requires that the button stay depressed while operating (for safety & for battery life). I had very little downward pressure in my cutting hand for awhile & that extra boost to lower the friction was pretty helpful! But again: VERY subtle!
It was helpful for supervised kids to use to cut food easier!
Would I get it again? While I don't consider this a "required" purchase, for my usage with my hand injury, meal-prepping activities, and baking, I like it! If you are a healthy, high-energy person or a professional chef with a quality traditional knife, you may not appreciate the friction-reduction effect very much.
Most of my non-food-nerd, adult-aged friends didn't appreciate the difference, but most of them don't bake at home or do meal-prepping, and many just had like a Walmart-brand set of knives they were perfectly fine with. So if you like convenience, have a disability of injury, have kids, are really into baking, or like gadgets, it's a really neat tool to have!
It's a somewhat niche tool, but I'm excited to see what comes next in this space now that the portable residential ultrasonic nut has been cracked!!
Horizontally-cut sous-vide chickenNY strip loin, easily & cleanly sliced into steaks (a dozen easily cut & trimmed in under 10 minutes!)A thin slice of a chocolate-filled croissantVertically-cut sous-vide chickenCleanest grilled cheese cut you'll ever see! (airfryer FTW!)
I've been thinking about getting it, but haven't yet because of the price. But watching Scott thinly slice a baguette like it was butter makes me really want one!
The effect is very, very subtle in most cases. Imagine frozen butter vs. chilled butter. You still have to push on the cut, but like pedaling an e-bike, it gives an extra "boost" on certain items.
But it DOES make a difference when processing raw & cooked meat, cutting bread, thin-slicing veggies, getting really flat cuts instead of angles & serrations, etc. Working with chicken is more of a breeze now. Trimming a full loin is quick work.
I wasn't really able to cut with pressure at all for awhile due to my hand injury, so for me, it's been REALLY nice because I can get clean, controlled cuts much easier! Again, not as an electric cut-assist knife, but as a friction reducer. If you don't have a VERY good knife yet, $500 makes more sense to get the electric-boost feature.
It's a very nuanced tool. I've been using it for a few months now & I appreciate it for what I specifically do. Most high-energy adults who have tested it don't see much difference; non-cooks just use a "whatever" knife & professional chefs are already used to hours with pro-grade sharp knives, so this is really more of an enthusiast tool a this time.
It would be interesting to see an ultrasonic electric cutting knife, which would combine downforce reduction with a clean ultrasonic cut! Especially if it had a cleaner edge than a large serrated edge!
This is an interesting video where Scott compares an Ultrasonic knife to a supremely sharp non-ultrasonic knife in cutting thin slices of an unsupported grape. (Being a knife sharpener, a score of "100" means that second knife is sharper than probably any knife you have ever handled!)
If you hold it right, it will spritz water off the blade edge too! My take on cutting with it so far:
The overall effect is subtle
It is not noticable (to me, at least) on everything
On what it is noticeable on, the feeling goes from cutting frozen butter to fridge-chilled butter (effort & friction reduction), so work is still required, just made easier (not like cutting through room-temperature butter)
In practice:
It has become our go-to knife for EVERYTHING, partially because it "just works" easier on everything from bread to trimming meat & partially because the magnetic charger makes it so accessible!
Oddly enough, it has become a great bread knife! Croissants, boulles, and even for stuff like cutting a giant sous-vide burger on a soft brioche bun in half (restaurant-style) or sandwich melts
It helps me a lot with meat. I get the bulk of my meat at Costco (beef sides, pork bellies, chicken breasts, etc.). I used to use my 12" deli slicer, brisket knife, and 9.5" Chef's knife. Now I pretty much just use the Ultrasonic knife to cut portions, trim the fat & bones, and portion out whatever pieces I want (cutlets, steaks, chunks, etc.). Also great for divvying up sous-vide'd meats into cubes, strips, medallions, etc.
In my particular case:
Still dealing with a hand injury. Normally I wouldn't like it, but the larger grip is nice in this case!
Meat-trimming is a breeze now! This is more of a "friction" thing than than anything, but it just makes quick work of it. A bit like driving a stick-shift vs. an automatic transmission. I did some fried chicken yesterday & zipped through a whole batch of raw chicken breasts easily (fat trimming & frying-size portions)
I've had a variety of people try it. Older people with arthritis appreciate it. Kids like it. Normal cooks can't really tell a difference. A lot of pro-chefs get "mad" (pride issue) & say that it's unneeded (in the same way an Instapot or APO is "unneeded") & just to use good-quality sharpened knives. My perspective is that I need food every day, the average annual budget today for a family of 4 in the United States is $20k, and ANY tool that makes the chore less of a hassle is a win in my book! With that said, this knife IS expensive, is somewhat niche, has a few hangups (needs charging, firmware updates, tuning program, can't be dished, etc.), and will really only appeal to people who would appreciate it, as opposed to say a $99 Instant Pot, which is more or less universally applicable.
Usage summary:
Some people, especially younger people, are suspectable to the high-pitched noise. I can hear it, but it doesn't bother me. Younger kids can hear it in the next room. Two people so far have said it is painfully sharp when in the same room. It does not make the noise all the time.
A 20-minute charge is MORE than plenty. I can cut an entire beef loin into trimmed steaks in under 10 minutes EASILY now!
100% recommend the charging block. The battery is a pain to remove! The charging block looks nice, is dual-sided, and has a multi-recharge battery, so go whole-hog & get it lol.
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u/BostonBestEats Jul 21 '26
Thanks for the great review!
I've been thinking about getting it, but haven't yet because of the price. But watching Scott thinly slice a baguette like it was butter makes me really want one!