If the knife...

[mqphoto]

I was board about one hour ago and came up with an idea. I wanted to see how all my knifes performed on chopping tomato and not slicing. Well some of them hade no issue at all to chop through the skin of tomato and some hade a bit of difficulty and my question is why is that?

What is the first think you look for? Sharpening technique? Geometry? Toothy edge?

 

[Krassi]

All inclusive!
Its a Mix of all that makes one knife a great cutter and another a piece of metal.
You have to combine all to make one knife great

 

[mqphoto]

I agreen it's a mix but I think there one reason to blame more than others =)

Who is guilty?

 

[TheLimpWhisk]

By chopping are you referring to a downwards cutting action with no lateral movement?

 

[mqphoto]

By chopping are you referring to a downwards cutting action with no lateral movement?

Yes correct, the absolut first touch between the edge and the skin of tomato.

 

[Salty dog]

You might consider the board in the equation.

 

[IndoorOutdoorCook]

How not to use a knife 101

 

[osakajoe]

How not to use a knife 101

笑 +1
With chapters like
How to retain less juice from your tomatoes
The Gallagher technique

 

[LifeByA1000Cuts]

The sharpness to reliably do that (chop skin on tomatoes with not the slightest slicing motion) would be impractical to maintain on a general purpose knife even for most members here I guess.

...

Got curious, tried doing a true push into a few spare cocktail-sized roma tomatoes I had around. Even a freshly croxed usuba has trouble. So does a freshly unwrapped new ... drumroll ... razor blade!

... Theoretically, a toothy edge might not fare too well if it is really toothy - but that would be akin to bursting a balloon with a needle.

 

[brooksie967]

Nobody is commenting on the tomato itself. If it's anything less that FIRM it's going to be dramatically harder to do this.

 

[malexthekid]

Nobody is commenting on the tomato itself. If it's anything less that FIRM it's going to be dramatically harder to do this.

Good point. Like to see someone try it with an over ripe tomato.

 

[LifeByA1000Cuts]

Or cut a third of a tomato off sideways, lay it messy side down on a board, then try to cut it up further lengthwise into strips. No more liquid pressure working against you. Working for you, that is. Don't make the mistake of thinking "knife must be blunt" and proceeding to unsafe sharpness tests - i've had arm hair sharp knives fail at this!