After Slicing Dozens of Loaves of Bread, We (Still) Love These Serrated Bread Knives

There are a lot of specialized knives out there. You’ve got nakiris for slicing vegetables and Deba knives for filleting fish. There are boning knives for working around joints and cleavers for chopping through them. Heck, there’s even a beaked knife that’s synonymous with tourné cuts, the classically French (and infamously difficult) seven-sided oblongs they’re used to create. While we value every one of our skill-specific knives, there is arguably none more necessary or universally useful than the humble bread knife. 

Alongside a chef’s knife and a paring knife, the bread knife rounds out our must-have trio for any knife kit. Sure, it’s the go-to for cutting hearty boules and plush sandwich bread, but the bread knife’s utility doesn’t stop there. A great serrated blade can also take on rubbery-skinned tomatoes, trim the rind off watermelons and other hearty produce, carve big pieces of roast meat, and even out cake layers. 

Bread knives often get the least attention of our knives, though, as their serrated blades can keep slicing (or at least hacking) long after their edges have worn down and dulled. It can be difficult (or impossible) to sharpen serrated knives at home since each serration has to be honed individually for the best results. Finding a professional sharpener willing to do it can also be a hassle (and expensive). We don’t recommend splurging on a bread knife for that reason—instead, we suggest replacing your knife when its performance wanes, about every five to 10 years. Luckily, all three of our favorite bread knives are under $65 (and two are about $30). 

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Bread Knife

Tojiro F-737 Bread Slicer

$36 at Amazon View on Walmart

After nearly a decade and three rounds of testing, this knife has continued to earn our top spot. Its high-carbon blade was slim and relatively flexible (which made the knife feel light and wieldy), but it was still sturdy enough to cut even slices from dense, rustic loaves. Its edge was sharp and moderately serrated, making it great for cutting into soft loaves and tomatoes, too.

The Best Heavy-Duty Bread Knife for Sourdough

Dexter-Russell Basics 10-Inch Bread Knife With Black Polypropylene Handle

$18 $17 at Amazon View on Webstaurantstore.com View on Culinarydepotinc.com

This Dexter-Russell model is another knife we’ve continued to recommend since we first tested it. It's about $20, has a grippy handle, and is durable enough to stand up to the crustiest bread (sourdough!) and tough winter squash. It has a slightly taller blade than our overall pick, which helps add stability, especially when cutting big loaves.

The Only Bread Knife We’d Recommend Spending More On

Tojiro Bread Slicer 270mm F-687

$75 $64 at Amazon View on Cutleryandmore.com

The Tojiro F-687 had wavy serrations and a razor-sharp edge, making it a standout in our testing. It practically slid into whatever we cut—be it a crusty boule, the skin of a butternut squash, or a ripe tomato—like it was warm butter. It combined the sturdiness of our heavy-duty favorite with the finesse of our overall pick. While we don’t usually recommend spending much on bread knives (this model is just under $60 at the time of writing), we think its performance is worth every cent.

The Tests

• Rustic Loaf Test: We sliced half of a crusty boule with each knife and noted how efficiently it cut through the hard exterior and if it created even slices across the whole loaf.
• Baguette Test: We used each knife to slice half of a baguette. We marked down knives that tore through the top crust, squashed the soft interior, or needed extra pressure to cut entirely through the bottom. 
• Sandwich Bread Test: We cut half of a fresh sandwich loaf to analyze how the knives did against soft, enriched bread. We noted how easy it was to get consistent, clean slices with each model and if it compressed the tender loaf before slicing into it.
• Tomato Test: We sliced a ripe beefsteak tomato with each model and noted any time the knife squished the tomato or produced jagged edges. 
• Butternut Squash Test (Winners-Only): We used the top-performing models to halve and peel a butternut squash. We paid attention to how each blade’s level of flexibility helped (or hindered) us while we cut through the hard, dense flesh and worked around curves to remove the squash’s thick skin.
• Cleaning and Usability Tests: Throughout each test, we noted how we liked the weight and handle of each model and how comfortable it was to use overall. We also evaluated how easy the knives were to clean, hand-washing and drying them immediately after each test.
  

What We Learned

We Preferred Longer Blades

The height, length, and overall shape of the blade played a big part in how usable each model felt. Bread knives tend to have blades between seven and 11 inches long, and we preferred blades on the upper end of that range. Shorter models like the Henckels Statement 8-Inch Bread Knife and Hedley & Bennett Bread Knife—both of which had 8-inch blades—weren’t quite long enough to cut all the way across a large, bakery-style boule in one stroke. The Tojiro F-687 270mm Bread Slicer, on the other hand, had a 10.5-inch blade and made broad, smooth slices easy. 

Blade Height Influenced Dexterity and Stability

We found that the height of the blade influenced how nimble the knife felt overall. Our favorite Tojiro F-737 235mm Bread Slicer was one inch tall from spine to cutting edge. With its narrow and pliant blade, it felt light and maneuverable in hand and could be deftly wielded to carve off thin slivers of tomato or thick slabs of bread. The trade-off was that it could make irregular slices if our hand wasn’t steady or we weren’t paying attention to the angle at which we were cutting. 

Inversely, more height increased stability. The Dexter-Russell Basics 10" Scalloped Slicer’s blade was one-and-a-quarter-inches tall and naturally made more uniform slices as long as it was positioned correctly to start, but it wasn’t as good at detailed cuts (like peeling butternut squash). The Tojiro F-687 (our “splurge” pick, not to be confused with our overall favorite Tojiro F-737) was taller at its base and tapered toward its end, providing both sturdiness for broad cuts and a shorter tip for precision work.

Straight or Curved Blades: Either Work

The last major component of blade shape was curvature. Each model we tested this round had either a straight serrated edge or one that gently arced from base to tip. We didn’t strongly prefer one category over another, as both had pros and cons. 

Models with a straight blade, like the Imarku 10" Serrated Bread Knife, had slightly better consistency since the entire edge came down parallel to the cutting board. But straight-edged knives with handles that were in line with their blades could cause the user’s knuckles to hit the cutting board (although most were long enough that we could just cut with the handle over the side of the board to prevent this). Curved blades (including the Tojiro F-687 and Mercer Culinary Ultimate White 10" Wavy Edge Curved Bread Knife) provided more leverage for long slices and kept our hands off the cutting board, but needed a tad more care to make sure the bottom of tomato slices, for example, were cut all the way through. 

In addition to straight and curved bread knives, offset versions are also available. Their straight-edge blades are set an inch below their handles, adding leverage while keeping the users’ fingers elevated. While we’ve tested a few of these models in the past, we haven’t found one that we recommend yet. That said, we say go for it if you find one you like.

Moderate Serration Depth Was Best

Serrations were perhaps the most influential factor in a knife’s performance. The exact style of the serration itself tended to fall on a scale from sharp, pointy teeth on one end to wavy, rounded scallops on the other. Going into this round of testing, we thought deep, sharp serrations would be more helpful for grabbing onto tough crusts and biting into delicate tomato skins. What we found, though, was that sharply pointed edges tended to create rough cuts and tear up fragile ingredients. 

The Chicago Cutlery Walnut Tradition 10" Bread Knife, which had some of the deepest and most tightly-packed points, created a flurry of crumbs in every bread test as it essentially hacked through the crusts and soft interiors. It was also the worst offender when it came to squashing the loaves down as it struggled to slice into the top crusts and needed more sawing (the bottom crusts also required a lot of extra pressure to push through). Comparatively, the Tojiro F-737 and Dexter-Russell knives both had moderately shallow serrations. The models’ points were a little more rounded than the Chicago Cutlery model, allowing their sharp cutting edges (between the serrations) to bite into the bread without the crusts catching or ripping on the teeth.

On the other end of the serration scale were the Kai Wasabi 9" Bread Knife and the Tojiro F-687 knives, which had smooth, undulating waves along their blades. Unlike toothy points (that interrupted the keen edge of the other knives), the rounded scallops allowed the honed single bevel to flow continuously along the entire length of the cutting edge. This produced an extremely smooth slicing experience, where the knives just glided through hard crusts as well as resilient tomato skins. Interestingly, the broad serration of the Kai Wasabi actually decreased in depth toward the blade's center to only a subtle ripple. While its edge was so honed that it didn’t matter in our tests, this aspect made us question the knife's longevity. Since its edge was so exposed, it could lead to faster dulling.

What Else Can You Use a Bread Knife For?

As we noted in our tests, bread knives are good for more than just bread. Here are a few other tasks where we like using a bread knife:

• Slicing tomatoes
• Peeling winter squash
• Slicing off citrus skin
• Cutting through whole bell peppers
• Slicing roasted meats (smaller serrations are better here)
• Halving biscuits
• Portioning cake slices
  

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Bread Knife

The best bread knives are as adapted to huge, crusty boules as they are to small, delicate tomatoes. Since they can be more troublesome to sharpen, we prioritized models affordable enough to replace every five to 10 years. Blades that were at least nine-and-a-half inches long had the best adaptability. We didn’t have a strong preference between straight or curved models, but we liked edges with moderate serrations that were neither too pointy nor too shallow. Narrower blades (around an inch tall from spine to edge) tended to be lighter and more dextrous, while taller blades felt sturdy and helped create even, consistent slices. The “best” knife is subjective to how it feels to each individual, so we recommend looking for one that feels balanced and has a handle that is a comfortable size and shape for your hand.

Our Favorite Serrated Bread Knives

The Best Bread Knife

Tojiro F-737 Bread Slicer

$36 at Amazon View on Walmart

What we liked: With its slim blade and comfortable wooden handle, this handsome model felt like a natural extension of our arm when wielded. Its blade had slightly rounded points, and it effortlessly cut through thick crusts just as well as it sliced tomatoes and soft sandwich bread. Its flexibility was a bonus when removing the thick skin of a butternut squash, as it could gently move around curves to peel off the skin. For its quality and adaptability, this knife is a steal at about under $30.

What we didn’t like: Although its serrated edge was sharp and capable of most tasks, the blade of the Tojiro F-737 is supple and bendy. The only time we saw this affect our slices was when we tried to cut through the neck of a butternut squash—the blade struggled against the hard flesh and bowed, creating a curved cut. While we think you could work around this by using another knife for especially hardy ingredients, we recommend going with our heavy-duty choice if you plan on using your knife regularly for robust tasks. Also, the handle is relatively narrow, which could make it uncomfortable for larger hands. Because the handle is in line with the straight blade, it could also cause the user’s knuckles to brush the cutting board at times (although we naturally tended to use it with the handle off the side of the cutting board).

Key Specs

• Weight: 105 grams
• Overall length: 14.75 inches
• Blade length: 9.88 inches 
• Blade height (at tallest point): 1 inch
• Number of serrations: 39
• Edge type: Straight
• Materials: High-carbon stainless steel and natural wood
• Care instructions: Hand-wash and dry immediately after each use

The Best Heavy-Duty Bread Knife for Sourdough

Dexter-Russell Basics 10-Inch Bread Knife With Black Polypropylene Handle

$18 $17 at Amazon View on Webstaurantstore.com View on Culinarydepotinc.com

What we liked: Where the Tojiro F-737 brought finesse and attention to detail, this budget-friendly Dexter-Russell model offered sturdiness and stability. Its blade was also made with high-carbon stainless steel (which would help keep it sharp for longer), and it was a tad taller, which helped keep slices consistent from top to bottom. The serrations on the edge were slightly deeper for handling tough exteriors, but it sliced soft bread without squishing or flinging crumbs around. Its handle was textured and larger than the Tojiro F-737’s, making it a better choice for bigger-handed folks.

What we didn’t like: It wasn’t as precise for thin cuts as our overall favorite, and it couldn’t flex around curves to take the peel off the butternut squash in our test.

Key Specs

• Weight: 135 grams
• Overall length: 15.25 inches
• Blade length: 10 inches
• Blade height (at tallest point): 1.25 inches
• Number of serrations: 36
• Edge type: Straight
• Materials: Stain-free high-carbon steel and polypropylene
  

The Only Bread Knife We’d Recommend Spending More On

Tojiro Bread Slicer 270mm F-687

$75 $64 at Amazon View on Cutleryandmore.com

What we liked: This knife cut like a dream no matter what was beneath it. It had an ultra-sharp edge embellished with wavy scallops rather than sharp points. We were amazed by how it practically glided through thick, crusty bread and shaved off thin slices of tomato. The Tojiro F-687 had the longest blade of the lineup and was slightly curved for better leverage on wide loaves. It had the stability-adding height that we appreciated from the Dexter-Russell and some of the flexibility of its fellow Tojiro winner. It also had a little more weight (although still well-balanced) and a larger handle for those who prefer that in their knives. 

What we didn’t like: This model was more than twice the cost of our overall winner. However, for someone who wants the best qualities of our other two picks in a single knife, we think this knife’s value surpassed its price tag.

Key Specs

• Weight: 167 grams
• Overall length: 15.25 inches
• Blade length: 10.5 inches
• Blade height (at tallest point): 1.5 inches
• Number of serrations: 34
• Edge type: Curved
• Materials: Molybdenum vanadium steel and reinforced laminated wood

The Competition

• Mercer Culinary Millennia 10" Wavy Edge Wide Bread Knife: We’ve liked this affordable model every time we’ve tested it. It had a grippy handle and sturdy spine similar to our heavy-duty pick. If the Dexter-Russell knife is out of stock, we’d recommend trying this one.
• Mercer Culinary Ultimate White 10" Wavy Edge Curved Bread Knife: This bread knife performed almost as well as the Dexter-Russell model with its moderate serrations and long, curved blade. Similar to its Millennia counterpart, we’d suggest the Ultimate White as an affordable alternative if our heavy-duty favorite is unavailable.
• Henckels Statement 8-Inch Bread Knife: This model was only eight inches long and too short to tackle most large boules. Its serrations were very shallow (as in barely there), and it had trouble finding purchase on tough crusts. It also had a thick spine that made cutting evenly thin tomato slices difficult.
• Hedley & Bennett Bread Knife: We really liked this knife's comfortable and well-balanced feel. It had a sturdy, sharp blade that effortlessly cut into crusty and soft loaves alike. Its shorter length and tapered tip made it harder to cut consistent slices, though, and the price tag was more than we’d recommend spending on a bread knife.
• Imarku 10" Serrated Bread Knife: Although this knife had a long, sturdy blade and handsome wooden handle, it didn’t stand out in its performance. It tore into the skin of the tomato rather than slicing it and needed more sawing to break into tough crusts.
• Mercer Culinary Praxis 10" Wavy Edge Curved Bread Knife: The Praxis model was more expensive than the other Mercer knives but didn’t perform as well. It needed extra pressure to get through the thick bottom crust of the rustic bread and produced uneven, rough tomato slices.
• Kai Wasabi 9" Bread Knife: Like the Tojiro F-687 Bread Slicer, the Kai Wasabi blade was extremely sharp and slid into bread (even tough, crusty loaves) with ease. Its long, wavy serrations tapered off in the middle, though, leaving its edge susceptible to faster dulling. We also preferred the F-687’s ergonomic handle over the Kai’s cylindrical one.
• Chicago Cutlery Walnut Tradition 10" Bread Knife: This model’s narrow and pointy serrations produced a flurry of crumbs during every bread test. It required a lot of sawing to break into the crusty bread (squishing them somewhat in the process) and produced jagged edges on the tomato slices.
• Opinel Parallele Serrated 8" Bread Knife: The shape of the Opinel knife’s blade was vaguely reminiscent of a machete, with the tallest part of the blade being close to the tip (rather than tapering off from the bolster). It struggled to bite into the crust of the rustic bread and pulled to one side during the tomato test, creating crushed and uneven slices throughout each test.
• Miyabi Kaizen 9.5-Inch Bread Knife: With patterned Damascus steel crafted in Japan, this knife was a looker and an outstanding performer. The heavy, smooth handle made it feel like a “serious” knife, and the cuts were breathtakingly smooth. However, the price tag (nearly $200) and limited availability (it’s occasionally out of stock) took it out of contention for a top spot when we initially tested it.
• Misen Serrated Knife: The thick, deep, and widely-spaced serrations confidently cut into crusty loaves, but the blade was on the thicker side, which made for clunky slicing. This knife struggled to slice tomatoes and soft bread in our original review. At $70, it's pricier than our overall favorite.
• Our Place Serrated Slicing Knife: This knife had very sharp, shallow serrations but wasn't as nimble or precise as our favorite knives when we first tested them side by side. We did like its handle, which was comfortable to hold and comes in multiple colors. 
• Five Two 9” Serrated Knife: While aesthetically pleasing, this knife struggled with delicate tasks like slicing tomatoes and soft sandwich bread in previous rounds.
• Mac Knife Superior Bread Knife: Less nimble than our top pick and less durable than our heavy-duty choice, this knife landed somewhere in between when we originally tested it. While its performance was fine, it was also pricier. 
• Made In 9-inch Bread Knife: Though it went through tomatoes with ease, this knife needed a lot of sawing back and forth to cut crusty bread in prior testing.
• Shun Classic 9-inch Bread Knife: This was a beautiful knife that was razor sharp when we tested it the first time, but its high price tag kept it from being considered a winner. 
• Shun Classic Offset 8.25-inch Bread Knife: Though it was also razor sharp, the shorter blade on this expensive knife made it hard to neatly slice through wider loaves in previous tests. 
• Zwilling Pro 9-inch Bread Knife, Z15 Serration: We appreciated the unique serration pattern on this knife, which helped it glide through the bread, but it was another pricey model that didn’t outperform our top picks when we tested it the first time.
• Global Sai Bread Knife: This knife sliced well when we tested it previously, but it was another expensive option, and users had mixed feelings about its dotted handle. It's sometimes out of stock.
• Zwilling Kramer Euroline Stainless Damascus Collection 10-inch Bread Knife: Bob Kramer’s knives are legendary, but this collaboration with Zwilling is extremely expensive. Its performance was good, but so was our favorite bread knife from Tojiro (which was 15 times cheaper).
  

FAQs

What is a bread knife?

Bread knives are just that—knives used for cutting bread. Their blades are long and serrated, which helps them slice cleanly through crusts without pressing down on a bread’s delicate interior. They’re also helpful for cutting soft items like tomatoes or cakes as well as ingredients with tough exteriors like watermelons or winter squash.

Can you sharpen a bread knife?

Sharpening a bread knife, like sharpening any serrated knife, is a process that takes a lot of time, attention, and practice to do yourself. It entails sharpening each individual serration, ideally to its original single-bevel angle. Some professional services offer serrated knife sharpening, but we think it's easier to just replace your bread knife when its performance starts to falter. The good news is that a bread knife should last you five to 10 years if cared for properly.

How does a serrated bread knife differ from a chef's knife?

Bread knives are serrated because of how they're used to slice bread: in a sawing motion. This back-and-forth action combined with the jagged teeth of the bread knife pierces and slices through the bread's crusty exterior without smushing its soft interior. This serrated blade also makes them great for cutting soft items (like tomatoes) and hardy items, like winter squash; in both cases, the serrations grasp the skin and help the knife get traction before slicing. Chef's knives, in contrast, feature a smooth blade that's versatile enough to tackle a variety of cutting tasks (like mincing garlic, chopping onions, or slicing up an apple). While you can use a sharp chef's knife to slice a tomato or peel butternut squash with great success, if you have a dull blade, it'll mash or slip—less than ideal.

What does a bread knife look like?

A bread knife usually has a blade between eight and 11 inches so that it can cut through wide boules in a single stroke. Its edge is serrated to help slice through both tough crusts and soft bread, and the shape of that serration usually falls somewhere on a scale from sharp and pointy to broad, wave-like scallops. Sharp serrations are better at sawing through tough crusts, while scalloped edges rely more on the sharpness of the edge to gently slice into soft bread, pastries, and produce. We prefer knives with moderately shallow, slightly rounded serrations for the most versatility.

Why should you use a serrated bread knife to slice sourdough?

Sourdough bread has a particularly hard crust. A sharp bread knife's serrations grip the crust, slicing through it easily and sawing off even, clean slices. A chef's knife can squish and tear at your loaf and require a lot more effort to get through the bread.

What's the best way to clean a bread knife?

Any knife should be washed by hand, including a bread knife. Cleaning a knife in the dishwasher will dull its blades quickly. Plus, our favorite bread knife from Tojiro has a wooden handle, which will become dried out and crack and splinter under the heat and moisture of a dishwasher.

Why We're the Experts

• Ashlee Redger is a freelance food writer who has been reviewing equipment for Serious Eats since 2022. She’s tested boning knives, portable induction cooktops, and more.
• Before that, she interned at America’s Test Kitchen, created consumer products and restaurant menus for national brands, and developed hundreds of recipes for home cooks.
• Daniel Gritzer tested our original lineup of bread knives in 2016. His two top picks were the Tojiro F-737 Bread Slicer and the Dexter-Russell Basics 10" Scalloped Slicer, both of which we still highly recommend. 
• Daniel is the editorial director of Serious Eats and has worked for the site since 2014. He's a previous restaurant cook, has worked on organic farms, and is responsible for many of your favorite recipes on this very site.
• Rochelle Bilow, our commerce editor, tested a second round of bread knives alongside the previous top performers in 2022. At the time, none of the newer models (including the Our Place Serrated Slicing Knife and Five Two 9” Serrated Knife) beat our overall and heavy-duty favorites, which have now stood up to almost a decade of evaluation.