POSTED BY

Lisa Katayama

AT 11:06 AM
Tuesday July 14, 2009

Design • Kitchen and Housewares

cavemen • knives • Matthias Kaeding

Ceramic knives inspired by cavemen

kaeding_neolithic_02.jpg

New York designer Matthias Kaeding has an interesting new idea for kitchen knife designs &mdash why not take it back a few years and resurrect designs from the Stone Age? His Neolithic knives, made with high quality ceramic, actually work really well for cutting, mincing, chopping, and slicing. Cavemen were really good at making durable utensils &mdash apparently, a lot of the prehistoric tools kept in museums today are still perfectly functional.

Matthias Kaeding's web site [via Dezeen]

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13 Comments

Anonymous Anonymous

#1 – 11:23 AM July 14, 2009

You've got that backwards.

Stuff that has survived from caveman times is very durable.

Most stuff didn't survive.

muteboy

#2 – 11:56 AM July 14, 2009

which is the sharp end?

The Lizardman

#3 – 12:54 PM July 14, 2009

@1 Figuring that out or failing to is how the human herd was culled in the past.

SamSam

#4 – 1:43 PM July 14, 2009

Looks very cool, but would be brutal to cut with for all but the most basic tasks.

I imagine that it would be pretty good for mincing small herbs. But try to finely slice a cucumber with that. You'd need to lift it all the way off the chopping board each time, instead of pivoting off the end like you do with a chef's knife. Also, the rest of your hand would always be in the way, instead of out of the way back on the handle.

They're really cool looking, though.

PaulR

#5 – 1:45 PM July 14, 2009

Yeah, I can totally see myself dicing onions with those 'kitchen knives'...

/Is it only me, or does anyone else think they're in the wrong space-time continuum?

stygyan

#6 – 3:41 PM July 14, 2009

Of course the tools cavemen used are still useful and functional. They didn't know what "planned obsolescence" meant.

hohum

#7 – 3:41 PM July 14, 2009

Inspired by Jacques Pépin's often comically-small knives, I've actually been using my tiny knives for more things lately, and they allow me to work pretty quickly and nimbly. I can think of a few things I'd like to chop with one of these…

Anonymous Anonymous

#8 – 6:10 PM July 14, 2009

Because if there's something that 9500BC was known for it's design and usability.

As objects of art, neat. As objects of cutting and slicing, ugh. Maybe handy for scraping down the inside of an animal skin.

SamSam

#9 – 7:31 PM July 14, 2009

@hohum: I guess it's personal preference, but I'd still race you at mincing even a tiny garlic clove with my 8" chef's and your tiny knife any day. I find I have much much more control over a chef's knife than a paring knife.

Anonymous Anonymous

#10 – 1:57 AM July 15, 2009

So glad that that stupid 'handles' fad is finally dying. Next up: is anyone else sick of those fucking wheel things?

Rickyneck

#11 – 2:05 AM July 15, 2009

Unless he took the time to crush the ceramic blade of a huge ceramic stones, they will not have any standards in excess of your knife.
Untreated.

LetsFaceIt

#12 – 2:48 AM July 15, 2009

If we must fit-the-times, this designer is on the right track. I wouldn't be suprised to see a Futuristic Kitchen Cave-Knife on, say, a Geico commercial. But in my home? Neh, I'll wait until the ones with spears attached to them come out.

Dio Genes

#13 – 6:13 AM July 15, 2009

If this were a good idea, why not just break the handles off your modern knives to "improve" them? Cute, but silly.

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