Our Longtime Favorite Bread Knife Is Only $37—and It Slices Like No Other

I bake a lot of sourdough bread, but I never considered the knife I was using to slice it until associate commerce editorial director Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm sent me the Tojiro Bread Slicer as a gift. I immediately noticed how swiftly it sliced through even the densest crust, and its extra-long blade meant I could bisect even the widest part of my loaves with ease. I wasn’t the only one who experienced this, either— commerce editor Grace Kelly fell in love with it the same way. 

“Riddley gave me the Tojiro bread knife when I first started here, and it was love at first slice (sorry). But for real, its sharpness and agility blew me away, so much so that I used it at my backyard wedding to hew hunks of sourdough for guests. Sadly, a guest ‘accidentally’ took it home with them (the perp still hasn't been found), and I had to buy a new one; but it's so affordable I almost didn't mind," she says.

While its affordable price point is a bonus, the main reason we love the Tojiro Bread Slicer is its amazing performance. 

"I've owned the Tojiro bread knife for a few years now and have been infinitely impressed with it,” Riddley says. “It saws through all sorts of loaves with ease and has a thin, flexible blade that's helpful for peeling butternut squash and even just slicing juicy tomatoes without smushing them.” Her experience lines up with our serrated knife testing, where editorial director Daniel Gritzer found it tackled delicate tasks easily and was still sturdy enough for tough jobs. 

The takeaway: Even up against knives that cost ten times as much, the Tojiro Bread Slicer comes out on top. It’s rare to find this combination of price and performance in a knife, and whether you buy one for yourself or for a friend, it will be well worth it.

To buy: Tojiro Bread Slicer, $37 at amazon.com

Good to Know

• Materials: High-carbon stainless steel, wood
• Blade length: 10 inches
• Total length: 15 inches
• Weight: .24 lbs

FAQs

Can you use a bread knife to slice tomatoes?

Slicing tomatoes is tricky—the outside skin is rubbery, but the delicate interior structure risks smushing. Serrated knives are designed to slice bread, but our favorite serrated knife, the Tojiro Bread Slicer, is lightweight and nimble enough to also slice tomatoes.

Why does my homemade bread crumble when I try to slice it?

Delicate sandwich loaves are tricky to cut because of their pillowy soft interior, and only a sharp and nimble bread knife is able to slice through the loaf without catching and tearing the crumb on its way through. In our testing, only a few knives were able to neatly slice through soft bread, with the Tojiro Bread Slicer as our favorite.