I dedicated part of my Sunday night at CES 2026 to chopping vegetables on the showroom floor during the Unveiled media event. However, this wasn’t just an ordinary cooking demonstration: My knife emitted vibrations each time I sliced into a tomato.

While this may appear to be an odd challenge from Cutthroat Kitchen, believe me — it’s more functional than it seems. Set to launch this month from the culinary startup Seattle Ultrasonics, the C-200 UltraSonic Chef’s Knife features an orange button on its handle that activates its eight-inch Japanese steel blade to vibrate approximately 30,000 times per second. This enables it to cut through food more effortlessly than a conventional knife, as well as keeps crumbs from adhering to the blade. Furthermore, it should require sharpening less often.

Interestingly, the C-200 only oscillates a distance of 10 to 20 microns during vibration — which is one-fourth the width of a grain of salt, according to a PR representative — so it remains completely unseen and unfelt during use. It appears and feels like a traditional chef’s knife, though it is somewhat heavier. The sole reason I am confident that Seattle Ultrasonics wasn’t pulling a fast one on me with an ordinary knife is that it would occasionally emit a sharp pinging sound when utilized while wet. It produces the same high-pitched noise as a wine glass when you glide a wet finger around its rim.

I wouldn’t claim that the C-200 performed drastically better than the lovely new chef’s knife I received for Christmas, but it surely sliced like a dream. I experienced no difficulty in cutting paper-thin slices of tomato with a gentle touch. A representative from Seattle Ultrasonics compared it to biking as opposed to riding an e-bike, explaining that it makes your experience significantly easier.

The C-200 has taken six years to develop, and the company asserts it is the first ultrasonic knife available for home use. Commercial variants are costly and cumbersome; the smallest alternative is akin to the size of a shoebox. To keep the C-200 compact, its circuit board had to be folded within the handle.

The C-200 boasts an IP65 rating for water resistance, allowing you to clean it by hand like any typical chef’s knife. Its removable battery can be recharged via USB-C.

The first sold-out production run of the C-200 will begin shipping later this month, and the second batch of reservations is now available on the Seattle Ultrasonics website ahead of a March launch. It is priced at $399 by itself and $499 with its wireless mahogany charging tile, making it a notable investment for serious home cooks. In its favor, other high-end Japanese chef’s knives come at a similar price point and lack the vibrational feature.