[jyl]

Here is what seems to be the practical test for knife sharpness, per the knife geek blogs.

Take a medium ripe tomato, place heel of blade on it, hold end of handle between your thumb and forefinger and, without applying any downward pressure on the knife, draw the blade over the tomato, from heel to tip. Supposedly the knife is supposedly to slice the tomato through, just from its own weight. Repeatedly.

I tested this with my longer kitchen knives. The heavier chefs knives sliced the tomato, but the flat of the blade gets stuck on the cut tomato so they don't slice it down to the board. The lighter, thinner slicers were inconsistent, some cut and others didn't, none had enough weight to cut all the way through. They all seemed to perform worse with each successive cut.

Is this a test that only a Japanese sashimi knife, very sharp and long and very hard but also relatively weighty, can pass?. Or do I just have crummy dull cheap blades?

Try it and let meet know. Which knives pass this test?

Other tests like shaving and making see through slices seem less demanding.