Do you have a favorite bread knife?

Toast
Marni on 12 May 2008 at 10:15

Now that I have been baking these very crisp and crusty loaves, I find that my usual bread knife- a serrated Wusthof-Trident with an 8" blade- has not always been up to the job. I have a feeling there are a lot of preferences out there. Please share them. Thanks.

Marni

Marni, I recently purchased a terrific knife from Eric at Breadtopia. Like you, I found my old knife wasn't coping with the crusty loaves. This one is made by RADA Cutlery, stainless steel, and surprise, made in USA! Not too expensive either, A.

I have a Basic Essentials Stainless Steel serrated knife I keep here at work to cut bread.

At home I have a serrated stainless that I bought at the mega store in the kitchen gadget section.  I cannot remember the name of it.  I think I paid about $18 for each of them.

Both of them handled all my really crusty breads.

My SO picked up a knife similar to what Eric sells, but it has a plastic handle (frame?).  The blade looks like a hacksaw blade. 

ADDED:  The one I have at home is a Chicago Cutlery serrated.

I had the same problem with my old bread knife that I had stolen from my mother many years ago and that was as dull as a button.  I bought a Challenger from a Cash and Carry and it was like 13 dollars.  It works great and I'm so much happier now that I don't have to hack away at my bread anymore.
SYLVIAH  I use my J.A.Henckels knife for hard crusty bread.  I also hold my Boule, anything oval rounded shaped bread on it's side and slice down.  This helps me from applying to much pressure and squishing my bread...I use lots of sawing action with less pressure.  Oh yes, my electric knife broke..I need another one...I think they do the best job of slicing my delicate soft or hard crusted breads...because of the sawing and no knead : ) to apply pressure.

LamsonSharp offset bread knife, acquired from King Arthur. LamsonSharp also have a standard serrated bread knife with larger serrations than the offset. The offset works great for really crusty crust; not quite as well for softer crusts (I use my trusty Chicago Cutlery serrated on the softer ones).

sPh