Many a sandwich has been ruined by overzealous buttering with fridge-cold butter. The anguish of torn bread may now be a thing of the past, though, thanks to a newly-designed butter knife. The ButterUp knife has a built-in grater to soften butter for spreading.
Given that cutlery is something we use every day, you'd have thought the potential for its innovation might have been exhausted. Nonetheless, a number of projects have shown that it's still possible to innovate this most simple of tools. Recent examples include the HAPIfork, which monitors the speed at which people eat, and Piltz Design's Picnic Cutlery, which is a modular set of eating utensils for easy storage and portability.
The ButterUp sets its sights on the difficulty of spreading butter straight from the fridge. Typically, cold butter won't spread easily and a single chunk of cold butter on a knife will serve to rip the bread to which it is being applied.
DM Initiatives created and tested a number of prototypes to see how the butter knife could be improved. The designs were based upon a cook's tip that cold butter is easier to spread if it has been run through a grater. As such, a grater was built into the knife. A row of holes on the non-serrated edge of the knife allows the user to pull thin ribbons of butter onto the blade. The knife can then be flipped over to allow the buttering to commence.
According to DM Initiatives, the grater aerates and softens the butter, making it easy to spread. In addition, the company says that a wider blade is used to better collect the grated butter and to provide more surface area for easier spreading. The ButterUp is made from stainless steel and is dishwasher-safe.
A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is underway for production of the ButterUp knife, and its target has already been met. Individuals can pledge from AU$12 (about US$11) to receive a ButterUp knife, assuming all goes to plan with the production and roll-out process.
The video below is the Kickstarter pitch for the ButterUp knife.
Source: Kickstarter
