You might recognize this gadget from your Thanksgiving table. It's an awesome tool to tear apart a cooked turkey. But an electric carving knife can earn its keep outside of the kitchen, too. Especially so if you're known to tackle the occasional DIY home improvement or upholstery project.
While a simple saw is a good addition to any tool box, it still requires a vice grip and some elbow grease to get anything done.
You might find you get more mileage out of an electric carving knife. Here are just a few projects we've done, or heard done by others, with an electric kitchen knife:
- Cut small wooden dowels to size for a tiered cake.
- Fit foam to upholster wooden bar stools, ottomans, headboards or anything else.
- Cut sound-absorbing acoustic tiles to fit a wall.
- To cut styrofoam in straight line.
- Sculpt floral foam for holiday decorations.
- Cut through foam batting insulation.
- Custom-shaping a foam pillow for stomach- or side-sleepers.
- Easily cut thin PVC pipes.
- Cut down bulky cardboard boxes for recycling.
- Cut a memory foam mattress to fit your bed frame.
Want to grab one? Here are a few of our favorite models:
- Sonic Blade Cordless Rechargeable Power Knife ($19.99, Sears.com)
- Back & Decker 9-Inch Electric Carving Knife ($16.75, Amazon.com)
- Cuisinart Electric Knife ($49.21, Amazon.com)
- Wolfgang Puck Electric Carving Knife ($29.99, BestBuy.com)
- Rapala Rechargeable Cordless Electric Filet Knife ($93.98, Amazon.com)
(Images: Quality Cornices, Flickr member S'mee licensed for use under Creative Commons, Amazon)
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I bought an electric carving knife out of desperation. I volunteered to make croutons for French Onion soup for about 150 people. Sawing by hand through one loaf of French bread was all it took to send me shopping. I love the knife and like the example uses listed above, I've used it for more than cutting food.
I have seemingly every kitchen gadget under the sun, but not an electric carving knife (seems to be something you don't think of til midday on thanksgiving!)
That said, I get a zillion times more millage out of a plain old Dremel than I do any tool for little projects and I'm not sawing wood with tools made for sawing meat.