Why Does A Tomato Knife Have Holes In It? (explained)

Tomato knives are specially designed small knives that come with serrated edges or holes to make the slicing easy. Cutting tomatoes is a tough ask, and such knives have to be sharp and made carefully to complete the job. That’s why usually tomato cutting is considered as a test for verifying the sharpness of any knife.

It is mainly considered that the skin of tomatoes makes the cutting tough, but actually, it is the juicy and squishy flesh underneath that is incredibly soft and full of liquid (water), making it hard to deal with.

A dull knife will shred its skin, while an ultra-sharp one will make a clean cut. Dealing with the smooth skin of tomatoes requires a little practice, and if you don’t have a suitable knife, you will fail in the kitchen.

How to Cut a Tomato Perfectly: Step by Step Guide:

You can slice, dice or wedge your tomato as there are so many ways of doing it depending on your requirement. So here is an essential guide.

• First of all, get a suitable knife like a serrated holed knife as you know that paring knives can mangle or tear the skin of the tomato.
• Now, place the tomato sideways.
• Make a fine but not so tight grip.
• Remove its top.
• Slice the tomato by using a sharp holed knife (prefer a large one).

To wedge the tomato, you can use a holed knife for cutting it into half and then to quarters. For an additional small size, you can again cut it in half.

For dicing a tomato, you can use your holed knife to make slices that are easier to chop.

You can also dice a tomato without its seeds, and for this purpose, all you need is a fine holed knife and a tomato (don’t forget the cutting board). Just make quarters of it and then slice under each part to remove or cut out the seeds and core. Now use your knife to change the remaining flesh in neat strips finely and then get diced tomatoes by cutting crosswise.

Now the question arises, why do we always prefer tomato knives for such cuttings?

What are holed knives?

Holed knives are simply knives having holes in them for whatever reason it may be. Some knives have holes to meet the purpose of being able to hang properly and easily.

Some might have it for aesthetically pleasing look, while most such knives have holes or holes to provide s better cutting experience to you in your kitchen. The types of knives we are talking about here have more than one hole in their blade, and using such knives can change your kitchen experience.

Different knives have different sizes of holes (i.e., variation in diameter). Such holes usually start from the base of the knife and extend towards its tip. Such holes are drilled in the blade to meet many purposes, but we have discussed the case below for tomato knives having holes.

Prevent Vacuum & Reduce Friction:

When you cut tomato, the juicy soft flesh of it creates a vacuum between the knife and tomato flesh making it really hard to cut it due to maximum friction offered.

The holes prevent the creation of vacuum and reduce the amount of friction between the blade of your knife and the soft tomato. Such holes work efficiently for chopping any kind of herbs, vegetables or meat, but it is more like a necessity for tomatoes.

Why friction comes in the path of perfect cutting? Imagine cutting a tomato through a simple blade knife; we assume that you must have done it at least once in your life (or more). The slicing in this case is not only unbalanced but also creates a friction between blade and tomato which by applying further force, create a splash or poorly done slicing in case of dull knife.

Even if the case is minor, friction will make knife and tomato bind together and thus cutting will be disturbed and slowed down, making slices uneven or diced poorly.

With soft and hard structure combined, as in the case of tomato, it is really easy to mess up the whole cutting just due to any simple factor.

Reduced Overall weight; Effective Slicing:

No matter what kind of knife we are talking about either a tomato knife or a simple paring knife, weight always has a strong effect on it. Having a sturdy and strong blade is the first goal but can it define the effective cutting on its own? No, especially when we are dealing with chopping, slicing or cutting.

Added strength comes with additional weight and that surely isn’t helpful in obtaining a fine cutting so you end up having a hurting hand and arm (a really intense pain follows in the case of continuous or prolonged dealing). How can this additional weight be dealt with? It is by either creating dimples or holes in the knife.

Both of these alterations make the cutting easy by reducing the weight of the knife (neither durability nor strength will be sacrificed) and you can also understand that holes are way more effective way of reducing weight rather than dimples, although both have their own distinctive benefits.

Less Material used: Cost Effective Knife:

Ultra-sharp and heavy knives demand extra and high quality material to be used thus for sharp and durable knives, the effectiveness is increased in the terms of cutting but not in the terms of cost. Holes knives not offer a better slicing but they also make such knives costing less due to less material in use. So it is a win-win for customers.

Easy to Carry Around on Outdoor Vacays:

It can be easily understood that a light knife will be easier to carry around specially if you are going to an outdoor camping, fishing, camping or just a day out that involves you making a really fancy dish (or just a salad).

Hole Tomato Knives, Better and Easier to Handle:

Most of the people like to carry a pocket knife (that is widely used in ordinary kitchen cooking too). Such knives have many properties but top one is being lightweight. These are also compact, versatile are easier to carry. Some pocket knives also have large holes near the handle or on the handle (or both). What is the reason behind?

Well, such holes are used to make such knives easy to open even with the help of just one thumb (in case one hand or both are busy). In pocket knife, the hole is not located in the middle of the blade as if it was; the knife would have been weak. But tomato knives are stronger and have different hole locations rather than pocket knives.

Easier to Hang and Thus Easier to Find:

Usually in kitchens, knives are hung by a strong magnet but if the knife is sharp and has heavy weight then hanging is risky, even with strong magnetics. So a side hole is one way to make hanging easy while the blade holes make it further easy to carry as one of their purposes is to make the knife lightweight.

If you deal in a kitchen where you need tomato knives frequently then you need to hang it at a clear spot for better and easy access and visibility. This purpose is well met by tomato hole knives (having hole in the handle and in the blade).

Enhanced Versatility and Enhanced Aesthetic:

Tomato knives are versatile and are unique due to what they offer overall, you just need to think outside the box and possibilities are here to strike you up. Tomato knives become more aesthetically pleasing due to the presence of holes as first impression is always made by the looks while effectiveness follows it.

If the knife is not appealing or looks ugly then no one is going to buy it no matter how useful it might be. Their structure also causes the aesthetics of the kitchen to upgrade and there are so many people who buy knives that look aesthetically nice even if they are of no use but tomato knives are both, attractive and effective.

Brand Specific Holes as their Recognition Mark:

Different brands make holes in tomato knives at different locations to provide easy identification. Each company has its own pattern of holes on the blade so differentiating one is really easy.

Different brands have different approaches to make them stand out differently and uniquely among others and the hole placement in tomato knives is one of such approaches.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that tomato knives are way more efficient due to its holes. These reduce the stickiness and reduce friction to a really low level, making the dicing wedging and cutting easier.

Tomato knife holes also make it easy to hang and carry around due to its lightweight while the aesthetics are also upgraded. Such holes also make the knife budget-friendly and we can say that, holes give a whole new direction to such knife usage.