Do Bread Knives *Have* to be Serrated?

[Mitchell Knives]

For breads with a hard crust, I prefer serrations.

With softer varieties, it doesn't seem to matter as much assuming the knife is sharp and has decent geometry.

YMMV.

 

[tomsch]

I typically use my Tajiro ITK 270mm bread knife especially on crusty bread. I learned the hard way where I ended up with chips on my Konosuke HD2 gyuto when I used it to cut up hard sourdough. Took a bit of sharpening work to bring the edge back.

 

[GPyro]

If your only using the knife to cut bread, how dull are those serrations going to get?

I cut the bread, not the cutting board.

....maybe a sawzall would be an option. The blades are replaceable.

 

[Rob Babcock]

If your only using the knife to cut bread, how dull are those secretions going to get?

I cut the bread, not the cutting board.

....maybe a sawzall would be an option. The blades are replaceable.

This sounds like a setup but I swear it's true! Today a woman stopped in my shop and asked if did serrated knives. I said sure we do, she said she'd be right back. So an hour later she returned with a Gerber bread knife. She and her husband got it for a wedding gift thirty-odd years ago. It clearly had been serrated but there was almost no sign of the serrations. I had to look very closely to see which side they'd been cut on! I have diamond wheels so I cut new serrations and deburred them, alternating between a Scotchbrite wheel on the back to flip the burr and a hard felt to hit the serration side. The husband picked it and was really surprised by how sharp it was and that it was the same knife they dropped off. If running water can create the grand canyon I guess 30 years of cutting bread can wear away steel. Hubby said it had never been sharpened since they've owned it.

 

[GPyro]

Lol.
It amuses me when you go to these steak houses and they bring you the little loaf of bread on the cutting board. The cutting board often looks as if people were using it with a chop saw with all the deep cuts in it.

 

[Selfe Made Knives]

How much bread are you lot cutting to need to sharpen the serrations? I've been using the one I made for nearly 2 years now, and never considered having to sharpen it.

 

[Rob Babcock]

How much bread are you lot cutting to need to sharpen the serrations? I've been using the one I made for nearly 2 years now, and never considered having to sharpen it.

I suspect a lot of that bread cutting didn't involve a cutting board.

 

[Selfe Made Knives]

I suspect a lot of that bread cutting didn't involve a cutting board.

Gahh, makes my bones shudder to think. Glass and marble. Ergh...

 

[Square_peg]

Slip stones will sharpen serrated knives.

 

[Rob Babcock]

The diamond wheels are pretty quick which is nice to keep the work flow efficient.

 

[RPZIP]

How much bread are you lot cutting to need to sharpen the serrations? I've been using the one I made for nearly 2 years now, and never considered having to sharpen it.

I think it has to do with technique. If you are sawing bread, letting the edge do the work, and easing off as the blade touches the board it should last a long time. Flip side is people who buzz through and drive the blade hard on the cutting board at the finish. Bet their blade edges don't last very long.