Have you ever tried to slice a loaf of sourdough with a straight-edged knife? I’ll save you the trouble: It doesn’t really work. If you want clean cuts of bread and thin slivers of tomato for your sandwiches (and not a crumbly, splattered mess), you need a serrated knife.
But not every bread knife is up to the task of slicing crusty loaves or delicate produce without ripping apart the soft interior. The best serrated knives tend to have slightly flexible stainless-steel blades and can cut neatly through just about anything with very little effort. Which models fit the bill? Dozens of loaves were sacrificed in our quest to find knives that make the cut.
Our top picks
- Best bread knife overall: Tojiro Bread Slicer 270mm F-687
- A worthy splurge: Shun Classic Bread Knife
- Best budget bread knife : Mercer Culinary Bread Knife
New in this update: We tested a whole range of new knives including more models from longtime favorite brands Mac and Mercer. None were able to take a top spot, but the affordable Mercer Züm is worth a look.
Best overall: Tojiro Bread Slicer 270mm F-687
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Long blade makes slicing through wide bread loaves easy
- Curved shape offers extra leverage
Cons:
- Can spend less and still get a highly functional knife
Specs
Knife length: 16.14"
Blade length: 10.6"
Weight: 5.82 oz.
What we love: Japan-based Tojiro's knives tend to perform well in our product testing, and this bread slicer was no exception. It ousted our longtime top pick, the Mac knife, from the winning spot in our most recent round of testing because of its superior balance of performance and price.
The Tojiro's 270-mm (10.6") blade is long enough to cleanly slice through a wide loaf of sourdough or focaccia in just a few strokes, and its gentle curve gave our testers a bit of extra leverage when dealing with tough patches on the bottom of crustier loaves. The blade's scalloped edge is also incredibly sharp, able to glide through slippery tomato skin and produce paper-thin slices without snagging. The pakkawood handle is comfortable to grip thanks to its contoured belly, and we appreciated the sturdy, full tang construction.
What we’d leave: The only real drawback of this knife is its price tag. We’ve found with bread knives that cost doesn’t always correlate with quality, so an even less expensive knife could serve you just fine.
Best splurge: Shun Classic Bread Knife
Pros and cons
Pros:
- High carbon steel will stay sharper longer
- Beautiful knife
Cons:
- Pricey
Specs
Knife length: 14"
Blade length: 9"
Weight: 6.8 oz.
What we love: While chef’s knives are often praised for their steel quality and appearance, bread knives are typically prized for their functionality. While you don’t need to spend as much on a bread knife to get top-tier performance, we really loved the total package from Shun’s Classic line bread knife. It’s made from Damascus steel with a VG-MAX core, which is a much higher-carbon content steel than most bread knives. This means that the serrated edge of the knife is less likely to dull over time—key for a knife that needs to be maintained professionally to keep sharp edges. In testing, it sliced tomatoes beautifully thin, and even the crustiest sourdough provided almost zero resistance.
We also appreciated the height of the blade, which provided some extra heft and cutting force without adding extra weight. Finally, the Japanese wa-style handle was comfortable to grip when you needed a little extra leverage. Because there’s no palm swell or shape to the handle, it lets the user find the position that’s most comfortable for them. Shun’s bread knife might be pricier than our other top picks, but the price definitely matches the performance and knife quality. If you’re looking for a serrated knife that will stay sharper for longer, then this might be the right pick for you.
What we’d leave: The 9" blade was plenty long for most loaves of bread, but wider boules were tricky to cut all the way across without having to angle the knife. It’s hard to ignore how expensive this knife is. While it does have the highest quality fit and finish of our winners, its performance boost over our two budget picks might not quite be enough for some people. Still, if you’re picky about the details of knife construction and steel quality, this knife justifies its price point.
Best budget bread knife: Mercer Culinary Millennia
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great value knife
Cons:
- Not full tang
- Plastic handle
Specs
Knife length: 15.5"
Blade length: 10"
Weight: 5.9 oz.
What we love: Premium bread knives have their perks, but a good one doesn’t have to break the bank. The Mercer Culinary Millennia 10" bread knife is less than $25, and it’s the one we use most frequently in the Bon Appétit test kitchen. It has deep, wide serrations, also known as a wavy edge, as opposed to the pointy teeth you see on the Wüsthof or Tojiro. Instead of a wooden handle, like the rest of this list, the ergonomic handle of the Mercer is made from a combination of rubber and plastic, and while this knife isn’t full-tang (no knife at this price is), it still feels stable and comfortable to hold. Our editors have used this knife for every slicing task you can imagine: crusty bread, pineapple, ripe tomatoes, overstuffed BLTs—and it always gets the job done. This knife won’t slice through tough crust as easily as more expensive knives will, so it’s going to take a little more elbow grease on your part, but it’s a more than serviceable knife and our favorite inexpensive option.
Our food director’s two cents: “One of these bread knives came in the kit bag I got in culinary school, and I am still using it today,” Chris says. “It won’t split atoms, but it is dependable, and for this price, you will love it all the more.”
What we’d leave: This knife performed admirably for its price point, but it was the least sharp of all of our winning bread knives, requiring a bit more effort to cut crustier loaves. Some people also didn’t like the Mercer’s plastic handle, which wasn’t as comfortable as our other picks.
How we chose the best bread knives
We chatted with our test kitchen editors to learn about the blades they’ve reached for throughout their careers. Then we tested over 20 bread knives on crusty sourdough bread and winter vine tomatoes—perfect examples of that tricky firm-outside, soft-inside texture that serrated knives cut so wonderfully. We focused on evaluating the following factors:
How effectively it cuts
The ideal knife practically does the work for you, creating clean cuts with minimal downward pressure. In our testing, we found that thin knives usually got the job done best.
Weight
Your knife should have enough heft to cut through foods that have a firm exterior and delicate interior. A too-heavy knife, however, will be cumbersome to wield.
Shape of teeth
A serrated knife is defined by its toothlike edge, but there are a few variations on the design. A serrated knife can have rounded, scalloped teeth; pointy teeth; and even double serrations that feature a combination of the two. While scalloped teeth might seem like the least effective option, our testing proved that this is not always the case. In fact, knives with teeth that were too pointy risked snagging and tearing on bread interiors or tomato flesh.
How it feels to hold
We considered the knife as a whole—from the tip of its blade to the end of the handle. We looked for knives that had ergonomic handles that fit the natural contours of our hands and paid attention to the balance of weight between the handle and the blade. We wanted a knife that felt hefty enough to give us proper leverage when slicing hardier loaves, but not so heavy as to become unwieldy.
The ones we picked above were the most stable and comfortable to hold, the easiest to work with, and they made the cleanest cuts.
Other bread knives we liked
With nearly the exact same blade as MAC’s Superior series, MAC’s Professional Series bread knife is also a high performer. The slight curve on the spine gives you tons of leverage to get through crusty bread with little effort, and the sharpness of its rounded teeth lets it slice without snagging. The big thing that sets this knife apart is its fit and finish. With a full bolster (with enough room for a pinch grip), full tang construction, and three handle rivets, this knife is built to withstand heavy-duty wear and tear. Is it overkill for a bread knife? Absolutely. But for knife aficionados (and people who collect MAC Professional knives), the high price tag might be worth it.
Performance-wise, the MAC Professional bread knife easily sliced through the crustiest loaves and glided through tomatoes. It also felt great in the hand, even if it was a little heavy. Overall, the price-to-performance ratio kept this bread knife out of our top picks, but if money is no object, this is a great option to consider.
Tojiro’s knives have been gaining attention for their high performance and budget pricing, and their bread knife doesn’t disappoint. It’s incredibly lightweight at only 4.3 oz., but it also sports the longest blade of any serrated knife we tested. While some people might find the knife’s almost shocking flexibility concerning, the thinner blade actually has an advantage over the competition: It requires less effort to saw through thicker loaves of bread. Its razor-sharp teeth cut quickly and cleanly, and with a thinner spine, even the crustiest bread provided almost zero resistance. It also sliced through juicy tomatoes like they were butter, and its light weight meant that it was easy to control the longer blade. This was one of the sharpest bread knives we tested, and because the blade itself is so long, it’s perfect for frequent bakers and large loaf lovers. We also appreciated its reasonable price, making it easy to replace when it starts to dull. The handle itself though, is on the smaller side, so people with larger hands might find it tricker to wield.
This German-made knife is another pricey blade, but justifieas that price tag with its interesting and super-effective design. While this one has a shorter 9" blade, it’s double serrated, which means it has mini teeth within the larger, scalloped serrations. All those extra sharp points give it better grip on waxy surfaces like the exterior of a tomato or watermelon and make for fast, easy slicing.
It’s also a knife that asks very little of you—during testing, the double set of serrations cut through hard crust with very little exertion from the tester and produced such thin slices of tomato that we could see right through them. One final advantage of a double-serrated blade: because there are more of them, each individual serration will wear less, so the knife stays sharper for longer.
The shorter blade did make it tricky to cut wider loaves straight across, though it was an adequate length for most batards and pan loaves.
Zwilling’s double-serrated knife is a good slicer, and its double-serrated edge is similar to the Wüsthof model we recommend. It performed well in testing, yielding thinly sliced tomatoes and perfectly straight slices of bread, but ultimately, this knife’s overall weight kept it from being a winner. A bit heavier than much of the competition, Zwilling’s bread knife was trickier to wield comfortably, and its longer handle made it hard to find a good balance point.
Sharp and with a comfortable handle, the ZüM knife from Mercer Culinary excelled in our testing. It neatly sliced through the tomatoes, piercing the tough skin easily without smashing the delicate flesh. It also perfectly sliced through the sourdough crust and crumb without snagging. The only thing we didn’t like was the 8" blade length, which was a little short for bigger sourdough loaves, but for around $50, it’s an effective budget option with high-end handle construction and a full bolster. Not quite our favorite budget pick, but a good alternative, and a good option for people who want a very comfortable handle.
Misen’s bread knife was a mid-tier performer in our tests, cleanly cutting through tomatoes and bread without any notable issues. We also thought the handle was comfortable and its overall build quality was high. The blade’s taller heel also meant it performed well slicing through larger sourdough loaves. However, its performance didn’t quite match our top picks, and our two budget models performed better at half the cost. We recommend either spending a little more for a nicer bread knife, or saving a bit of cash instead—unless you can find this knife on sale.
Senior test kitchen editor (and Bon Appétit’s resident baking expert) Shilpa Uskokovic loves this bread knife from Hedley & Bennett because it’s sleek and light. While it has a smaller 8.5" blade—the shortest blade on this list—its angled, serrated edge becomes more pointed at the tip, making it easier to maneuver and offering heightened precision for more fragile slicing tasks.
It’s relatively affordable at $85 at the time of writing, and it comes in a variety of colors. However, for all those positives, the Hedley & Bennett doesn’t offer quite the force you get from a longer blade.
This knife from Dexter-Russell was a top contender for the best budget spot thanks to its super sharp scalloped blade, which made easy work of slicing through tough sourdough crusts and delicate tomato skin. In the end, the Mercer edged out the competition because of its grippy, more comfortable handle, slightly sturdier construction, and (just barely) lower price tag. That said, this would be a good option if the Mercer is ever out of stock.
FAQs about shopping and caring for bread knives
How do I keep my bread knife in prime slicing condition?
You should hand-wash your bread knives—even if a knife is advertised as dishwasher-safe, the dishwasher can warp or damage the blades. But! If properly cared for, good bread knives stay sharp for much longer than paring knives and chef’s knives. Most of them will continue to slice effectively even after several years of regular use.
When your bread knife does eventually become dull, you’ve got two options: Replace it or take it to a professional sharpening service. We really, really don’t recommend home cooks try to sharpen serrated knives themselves. As Morocco says, “while bread knives can be sharpened, you need a special knife sharpener that most of us don’t have at home.” If you try to use a regular knife sharpener on a serrated blade, you’ll wreck it.
We don’t love thinking of knives as “disposable,” but if you went the budget route, you’ll be better off replacing it than servicing it. Sharpening may cost just as much as a brand-new blade. But if you’ve invested in a more expensive, premium option, like the Mac Professional or the Wüsthof, you’ll want to send it to a specialist to get professionally sharpened. If you don’t have someone near you that you trust, consider a mail-away service like Knife Aid.
Why are serrated edges better for slicing bread?
Because of their toothlike blades, serrated knives are able to grip and cut through hard bread crusts without crushing the soft crumb that lies beneath them.
What should you look for when buying a knife for slicing sourdough, specifically?
Cutting into a crusty loaf of sourdough can be tough (pun intended), so you want to choose a knife you can easily leverage. This usually means it'll have a bit of heft. Longer blades also tend to fare better because they can stretch across the entire length of a loaf and saw through it with fewer strokes.
Additional reporting and testing by Tiffany Hopkins
Bread knives we don't recommend
This bread knife from Made In is beautiful to look at, but wow is it heavy. The knife’s thick spine made it tricky to maneuver; it struggled to cut neat slices of tomato; and its scalloped teeth weren’t sharp enough to avoid snagging on thicker sourdough crust. Add in a premium price tag, and this knife is bumped out of our top picks.
Global’s great knives have won the hearts of many a BA staffer. That said, their metal handles are divisive—some people think they’re comfortable to hold and others find them too thin and slippery. While our testers say this knife is well-balanced and decently sharp, they ultimately disqualified it from our winners list due to its handle shape, short blade length (8.5"), and less-than-perfect performance in the tomato test, where its large teeth snagged just a bit on the tomato’s flesh.
The Opinel Intempora fell short—in some cases, literally—in a few areas. Its small 8" blade doesn’t allow you to cut through sourdough boules without changing the slicing angle. Its teeth weren’t quite as sharp as we’d like either. The Opinel didn’t mangle the tomatoes (a win!), but we had difficulty keeping the blade straight—the knife snagged on the fruit’s core, creating wobbly, inconsistent tomato slices. We do like the round polyurethane handle and the high-quality high-carbon stainless steel, but we expect better performance from a knife of this price.
This is a beautiful knife (just look at that gorgeously curved handle grip), but the Lamson’s teeth weren’t sharp enough. The knife snagged on crusty sourdough boules and required a lot of force to make cuts. Its 8" blade was also too short to cut through entire loaves, and it snagged slightly on tomato skin. Lamson does offer complementary sharpening for life, but for this price ($90 at the time of writing), we feel the bread knife should be sharper out of the box.
We struggled to make clean cuts with Zwilling’s entry-level Gourmet series. While it sliced tomatoes just fine, its teeth often caught on crusty sourdough loaves, interrupting the sawing motion and requiring more force to power through. During testing, its handle scales felt clunky, making the knife awkward to hold and even more awkward to wield, and it failed to perform as well as our two budget picks—both of which are significantly less expensive.
Considering it’s one of the most expensive bread knives we tested, we were hoping for better performance out of the Miyabi Kaizen 9.5" Bread Knife. Instead, it crushed most loaves of bread instead of cutting them, and it got stuck on tomato cores.
The Shun Classic Master Serrated Knife has a unique wavy edge that adds to the overall serration pattern. It excelled at slicing paper-thin tomatoes and was comfortable to hold, but its edge shape didn’t consistently cut through bread well. Its blade was also on the shorter side, making this knife less well-suited for large loaves.
This knife has a lot going for it: The Shun Ultimate Utility looks almost like a toy shark and, accordingly, has plenty of bite—we loved how sharp its rounded teeth were. It flat sides and curved tip mean that this knife is able to both slice your sandwich toppings and spread mayo on a piece of soft bread. It also sliced tomatoes perfectly and slid right through the crust of the sourdough boules. But its tiny 6" blade, which is more similar to a santoku than a typical bread knife, made it hard to cut even slices. And when you factor in the price ($140 at the time of writing), we just can’t recommend it.
This model from Victorinox, the makers of one of our favorite budget-friendly chef’s knives, performed pretty well overall. Testers found that while the plastic handle looks flimsy, the knife cut really well and felt sturdy. However, this is an incredibly light knife—so much so that it verges on too light—and at more than double (or triple, at some stores) the cost of our affordable picks, it costs more than we think is worth spending.
The Victorinox Swiss Army 8" knife sliced bread okay, but it required more effort than most other models; worse, it crushed tomatoes. It was also too lightweight to maneuver comfortably.
Bob Kramer is a legendary knife maker, but the Bob Kramer Essential Bread Knife by Zwilling felt like overkill for a serrated knife. Its $400-plus price point is excessive for a tool with such a narrow set of uses (no matter how often you bake homemade bread), and because this knife is made from carbon steel, it’ll be prone to corrosion and rust. Does it work well? Definitely; it was one of the better tomato knives we used. But is it worth the sky-high price? In our opinion, no.
This knife from Wüsthof was sharp out of the box, but its short (8") blade and lack of heft kept it from earning our recommendation.
The Opinel Intempora fell short (literally) in a few areas. Its 8" blade was shorter than we’d like, which made it hard to cut through sourdough boules without changing the slicing angle. Its teeth weren’t quite as sharp as we’d like either. It didn’t mangle the tomatoes, but we had difficulty keeping the blade straight—the Opinel bread knife typically snagged on the core, creating wobbling, inconsistent tomato slices. We did like the round polyurethane handle and the high-quality high-carbon stainless steel, but for this price the knife lacked performance.
Though it was razor sharp, MAC’s offset knife was too short to effectively slice bread. At only 7.5", we had to maneuver it to make it through an entire sourdough loaf. We also didn’t like its offset blade, which made it hard to intuitively feel where the blade was compared to the handle. It did excel as a tomato slicer, but it would be hard to recommend it at this price point.
As sharp as this knife was, our biggest gripe was its price. It was considerably more expensive than our budget picks, but it didn’t offer a significant performance increase. While it easily sliced through crusty bread and tomatoes, the bulky handle scales were awkward to hold, and without a bolter, there was nowhere to pinch for a sturdier grip.
For how pricey this knife is, we were disappointed in how dull the blade appeared to be. Since it’s difficult to sharpen a serrated knife, initial sharpness is a key factor in picking out the best option for your kitchen. This knife snagged on tomato skin and tore apart the delicate sourdough bread brumb. Though the handle was beautiful and felt nice in the hand, this knife was the most expensive model we tested and had some of the worst performance.
A little too flimsy, this knife struggled to neatly slice through sourdough bread. Even though it was sharp, the blade tended to flex when cutting, creating uneven slices of bread. We also didn’t like the cheapness of the handle or the offset blade shape, but it did offer solid performance at a very affordable price.
Sharp, well-made, and great at cutting, there’s a lot to like about the Wüsthof’s Classic bread knife. It easily sliced through tomatoes, and it cut swiftly through crusty sourdough bread. But it’s 8" length struggled to span the entire loaf, and then there’s the price. As one of the most expensive bread knives we tested, we think there’s better performance for less mone—or, you can upgrade to the double-serrated version, which was one of our top picks.
The double serrations of this Ikon series knife performed as well on waxy surfaces as the Wusthof Classic double serrated knife above, but struggled a bit against crusty bread. The bigger issue is that this knife regularly retails for about $200 (30% more than the regular Classic series knife). You're paying for the Ikon finishes, which are lovely, but if you’re interested in double serration, we think the standard Classic offering (listed above) is a better bet at a slightly more affordable price.
