Now commercial places are often using diamond coated steels for knife sharpening, does this do away with having to send them off once in a while to professional knife sharpeners for thinning? And what is it about tomato skins that makes them difficult to cut into when the knife seems sharp enough for well cutting everything else?
My tomato cutting knife has a serrated edge that copes very well with cutting though the skin.
You need a better knife.
I run a steel over the edge of mine every so often to keep it sharp, and that means I can slice tomatoes into 2mm slices if I want.
The knife BTW is over 40 years old. I bought it when a student, and it gets used daily. The edge is a little wavy now, and I keep thinking I ought to straighten it.
Andy
A traditional honing steel removes very little metal from the blade, I think it massages as much as grinding, resulting in a secondary bevel at a slightly more obtuse angle than the primary bevel. Ceramic and diamond "steels" cut better but used in the same way they will result in the same obtuse bevel, so the primary bevel will still need to be ground back occasionally.
I guess it's the combination of thin but tough skin over soft flesh, and the willingness of the pips to explode all over the place, that needs either a pretty sharp or slightly ragged knife edge. I use a "Kitchen Devil" knife I bought 30 years ago (from ASDA, nothing swish) that takes a good edge, I whet it occasionally (when tomato skins start to resist) on the fine side of a traditional oilstone. I've had a couple of knife honing gadgets with ceramic inserts that are supposed to make the job easier but they didn't produce an edge as sharp or long-lasting as a stone.
Best knives I have - better than sabatier - are pro cook
No idea but up until comparatively recently there was a knife sharpener who went around the local streets. It was good for scissors and some knives, but more modern blades, he said were not ever designed to be sharpened by his machine. I imagine that only a very narrow part of the material was ever hardened to be able to be sharpened so once it was gone, it was pointless. Brian
Yes have you noticed that some knives only seem to have one side formed to make the cutting edge? Also tomatoes are rubbery and that its why you get them cogging as the simply stretch. Brian
The knife is not truly sharp unless it will cut a tomato without any hesitation. Tomatoes skins being elastic shouldn't make any difference.
I suspect diamond steel gets it sharper faster with less skill (but more wear of the blade).
I prefer oilstone for sharpening knives myself. I expect them to slice a single sheet of newspaper under their own weight when properly honed.
A well sharpened samurai sword will cut silk that is dropped onto it.
That blade really is properly sharp at a molecular level. It will also chop through a bale of rice straw the size of a man in a single blow. On very high grade blades you can see the layers of different steels that give it the ability to take an edge and be resilient at the same time.
Myth
I have set of Global chefs knives - both sides formed for the cutting edge.
Two light passes passes through a knife sharpener that has grinding wheels running in water bath and any of then from a small blade to the biggest carving knife will thinly cut soft tomatoes with ease.
Knife sharpening is a funny subject .I've found that sharpened random knives, including some poundland steak knives, usually have no trouble cutting any nonfrozen foods.
The worst blades have consistently come from a well respected supplier of table cutlery.
But beware the mediocre blades or just plain fakes that are made to look like that.
I have tried many of the knife sharpen systems available but ended up with the Lansky. Easy, repeatable sharpness. My breakfast every morning is a tomato open sandwich on home made brown soda bread. I have no trouble slicing a tomato. If I feel the sharpness has deteriorated its a simple job to reinstate it, I use Henckel knives. Son invested in v. expensive Japanese knives and a Japanese diamond honing rod. I see very little diffence between his knives and mine
That's nothing. According to Terry Pratchett, Death's scythe is so sharp that it will cut through stone, six feet in front of the visible blade.
My understanding of a steel is that it reforms, not removes, the metal of a cutting edge. I would worry that a diamond hone removes metal rather & would lose grit in use.
That is easier to make with automatic machinery.
I think that is a characteristic of the more commercial varieties as I have grown some that have thin, easily cut, skins.
A bit like Pullman's subtle knife then one side sharp enough to cut through any matter and the other sharp enough to cut through universes.
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Don't believe that. The steel clearly is a form of file.
Yep, part of the process of making them last longer in the retail chain.
Histology laboratory microtome knives for slicing tissue samples embedded in paraffin wax blocks are seriously sharp.
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