NUO: Student Design Pairs Rocking Knife With Self-Guiding Board

A knife that starts as a flat sheet of stainless steel and a wooden board with a hollow at its center: that's NUO, a student project that treats the blade and the cutting surface as a single system rather than two separate tools.

Designer Münire Çalışır developed the set at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle. The premise is simple. Chopped herbs scatter across a flat board, and the cook spends time sweeping them back into a pile for a second pass. NUO's answer is a shallow depression in the board that keeps ingredients gathered in one spot while the knife works.

The board is ash, dark and circular, with pronounced wood grain and a substantial edge. The hollow does more than contain the herbs. It also gives the blade a resting place between cuts, which means the recess earns its place functionally, not just as a sculptural gesture. The project description says the board is intended to guide the knife's rocking movement, so the surface participates in the cutting action instead of sitting passively underneath it.

How is the knife made?

The manufacturing route is the most interesting technical detail. The blade begins as a water-jet-cut sheet of stainless steel. A central pressing operation turns that flat blank into a three-dimensional object, forming the handle and the blade in one component. Nothing is attached afterward. The grip emerges from the same piece of metal as the cutting edge, which is why the finished knife resembles a folded disc with an open center and a broad bar across the top.

According to the project description, the cutting edge's radius supports a natural rocking motion, and the knife's own weight reduces the effort needed to cut. Those are stated design intentions, not independently tested claims, but the pairing of a curved edge with a hollowed board makes the intended hand motion legible.

How does the grip work?

The handle design breaks from convention. Fingers curl through the opening beneath the grip while the thumb rests along its upper surface. The hand sits directly above the cutting area rather than extending sideways from a long handle. It looks more like a small sculpture than kitchen equipment at first glance, yet the grip reads as approachable.

Open questions remain. An all-metal handle can look beautifully resolved in photographs, but photos can't show how it performs with wet hands or whether different hand sizes fit the opening. Those ergonomics matter more than appearance for a specialized tool that has to earn its counter space.

What is the board actually for?

The board's concavity is central to the concept, which means it isn't a candidate to replace a large flat prep surface. Its sensible role is focused work, like herbs, where keeping a small pile together is the entire point. The most quietly practical choice is the blade rest built into the working surface. It acknowledges the pauses in real cooking, when you reach for the next ingredient or turn to the stove. That attention to the whole task, not just the cut itself, is what gives the sculptural form a functional reason to exist.