Did nobody read the article? There was an experiment done in 2003 that showed that no, newly-sighted individuals cannot distinguish objects based on existing tactile knowledge.
There is a TON of detailed and interesting information in the article I linked to. It is substantive, in contrast to the yes/no study described on the Wiki page.
Yet you felt the need to create a throwaway account in order to complain about any and all discussion in the comments which doesn't hinge on the original link...
There is an interesting, if largely anecdotal, paper from the 60s. There may be more recent work. http://www.richardgregory.org/papers/recovery_blind/1-introd...