A Silicon Valley based startup, KnifeRobot, is featuring a new product on Indiegogo. The KnifeRobot Auto Sharp is a robotic knife sharpener that is hands-free and automatic. If you want to sharpen your knife, you simply place it inside the machine, press the “work” button, wait for about five minutes, and the knife emerges with a razor-sharp blade. The KnifeRobot will come in both a home kitchen model and a chef’s version. The home kitchen model is portable, and typically sits on top of the counter, while the chef’s version is built into the cooking or preparation area.
To date, the three-member KnifeRobot team, which includes a founder and two programmers, has raised nearly $65,000 from 192 backers. This means the KnifeRobot team has exceeded its $20,000 goal by nearly 325 percent, and the campaign still has 21 more days left to go.
The KnifeRobot Auto Sharp is a type of CNC (computer numeric control) machine. It contains a shape sensor, a microscopic camera, and coarse and fine belts. When you insert a knife, the shape sensor detects its shape, and then the coarse belt sharpens each of its sides. The microscopic camera detects the burr, which is a beveled edge a knife tends to get after sharpening. Finally, the fine belt removes the burr from each side of the knife.
If you want to back the KnifeRobot Auto Sharp, you can pre-order the home kitchen model for around $300. The built-in countertop chef’s version will cost you a pretty penny though — a cool $5,000. KnifeRobot is also offering limited edition home models for around $600. The company estimates that it will fill these pre-orders in October 2017. Before you back any project on a crowdfunding site, however, please keep in mind that backing a project is not the same as buying a product from a store. It’s a good idea to use caution and as always, do your research.
U.S. emergency rooms treated 8.25 million knife-related injuries from 1990 to 2008, the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health reports. When a knife is dull, it is more difficult to cut with, and it will slide off of foods like fruits and vegetables more easily. The extra force you need to cut with a dull knife makes them more dangerous than sharp ones.
