A serrated knife also known as a bread knife acts like a saw; offering you greater grip, bite, and precision as you cut through your food.
Its teeth can cut smooth slices from foods that have tough skins without crushing or damaging them.
In this article, we’re going to show you the best serrated knife and everything you need to know about these mini-saws. Be sure to also check out our picks for the best Japanese Damascus chef knives for your kitchen.
Let’s dive in.
The Best Serrated Knife for Slicing Bread and Tomatoes: Misen Essential Serrated Knife Review
The best serrated knife for your cooking needs is the Misen Essential Serrated Knife, and the following outstanding features are why we love it.
First, it’s made of durable Japanese stainless steel that’s hard enough to cut through any thick-skinned food with so much ease and speed. When compared with most other knives out there, the steel blade has got more carbon content; making it powerful enough to last a long time.
We also love its ergonomic handle that gives you a firm grip: it feels very comfortable and sturdy in the hand. So whether you’re a professional chef or a home cook, you won’t have any difficulty cutting with this serrated knife.
And with a blade length of 9.5 inches, this Misen high-quality stainless steel knife has the perfect balance, weight, and size according to most reviewers. The scalloped teeth are perfect for cutting bread and tomatoes as they aren’t too pointed or wavy.
Despite its high-end features, the Misen bread knife is very affordable (about half the price of most other premium serrated blades).
While there may be a few other cheaper options, the cutting precision, optimal efficiency, and premium features of the Misen serrated blade make it worth having in your kitchen arsenal.
So whether you’re shopping for your first serrated blade or changing your old one, this workhorse will surely get the job done.
Why don’t you give this blade a try? You can use it for 60 days and return it if you’re not impressed with its quality. It also comes with a lifetime guarantee. You have nothing to lose.
What To Look for in A Serrated Knife
Now you know that the best serrated knife, let’s look at the factors we considered (and you should) in choosing this knife.
Blade length
You can get good serrated blades that are 7 – 10 inches long. However, to cut big loaves of bread or large items like watermelon, at least, you can rely on a 9-inch blade to do the job. The Misen knife’s blade is 9.5 inches long. Perfect length!
Knife shape
There are various shapes of knives ranging from flat (straight) to curved and offset: we discussed more in the type of knife section.
While the offset blade has the most artistic design, its shape doesn’t provide you with enough knuckle clearance to hassle-freely cut your food. So you may find that your knuckles grind against the chopping board as you make some strokes.
However, the curved and straight ones have ample knuckle clearance; the Misen Essential has a straight shape.
Price and maintenance
While getting an expensive knife may be worth it, it won’t last forever. Keep in mind that you’ll have to send it off to a professional to help you sharpen it on some occasions.
On the other hand, cheap knives may not be as durable. So it’s best to go for a budget-friendly knife that’s durable. The Misen is a very cost-effective investment.
Serrated edge
Some edges have more pointy teeth, while others have a wave-like design. You should also consider the spacing between the teeth
Why You Need A Serrated Knife
In most kitchens, cooks use chef’s knives more often than serrated knives. This is because the plain edge of chef’s knives can carry out a wide array of functions in the kitchen – cut, peel, shave, chop, slash, and more.
But oftentimes, a chef’s knife saw through foods by forcing the blade through; so the blade moves in one direction.
Cutting through hard surfaces neatly
A serrated knife on the other hand is designed for a special purpose. The knife is used in cutting through foods with tough skins like a loaf of bread.
The sharp edge of your serrated knife will grip the crust of the item you wish to cut and make an initial cut. The uneven edges of the serrated blade move over your food and incise it.
Traditional knives can’t do this. Instead, the plain edge of a traditional knife will compress the softer part of your item since you’re using force.
But with a serrated knife, the pointed serrations or teeth puncture and tear up the hard surface neatly, and will continue making smooth, clean slices even as it gets to the softer inner parts.
Superior edge retention
Another reason why you need serrated knives in your kitchen is that they stay sharper longer. The serrations offer more grip and bite into your food.
With traditional kitchen knives, you’ll probably need to sharpen them a couple of times a year, depending on how frequently you use them.
This isn’t the case with serrated knives. You’ll only need to sharpen the razor-sharp edge of the serrated knife very few times (probably once in a few years). And even when the teeth and gullets get dull, the knife will still be efficient at making thin slices.
This is because, during cutting, the chisel grind of the serrations doesn’t make so much contact with the food.
Best Uses for Serrated Knives
While a serrated or bread knife may not be as versatile as your traditional chef’s kitchen knives, it has some important functions that make it almost irreplaceable.
1. They’re perfect for slicing bread
The primary and most staple use for which people get a serrated knife is to cut tough crusty bread. Their uneven and sharp serration makes slicing a breeze.
And slicing through bread has become the bread and butter function that they serve in the homes of many. However, they’ve got more uses; they can also slice through tender cakes because of their thinner blade.
In general, the best use for serrated knives is cutting through any food with a hard exterior and soft interior (in this case, a loaf of crusty bread and tender moist cake). Let’s find out more of their applications in the kitchen.
2. They’re also great for cutting fruits and vegetables
Whether your veggies are tough-skinned like tomatoes and eggplants or soft and fleshy like pineapples, your Misen serrated knife will seamlessly create thin slices of these fruits and vegetables.
And it’ll do a neater job than your regular kitchen knife.
You can also use it to easily saw through the thick skin of citrus. Its extremely sharp teeth make them pierce right through the delicate skin without crushing it.
3. They do a great job cutting steak
While they may not be designed to cut meat, they can carve up a roast.
Their sharp edges will pierce and cut through the grain of the roasted meat to easily make bite-sized cuts.
Even though the plain edge of your traditional kitchen knives can do this, some users prefer the ease the sharp edges of a serrated blade grants them in cutting these thick skins.
What You Shouldn’t Slice with Your Serrated Bread Knives
While you can cut roast with your serrated knives, don’t cut steak with this saw-like knife. It’ll leave your precious meat’s juices on your plate.
Also, don’t use them to cut ropes, belts, or pieces of fabric. They’ll cause fraying in these materials.
Types of Serrated knives
Basically, you'll find serrated knives in three patterns or styles.
Flat knives
This kind of serrated knives, as their name implies, have flat blades. And this also makes them not have ample knuckle clearance, and as a result, they can only perform one task; howbeit, perfectly.
The single task they’re good at is slicing bread.
Curved knives
This serrated knife construction gives you better knuckle clearance than a flat knife. Because of the curved edge, you can slice bread in a rocking motion.
However, bread isn’t the only item curved knives can cut. They’re the most versatile blade and can cut through fruits and vegetables.
Offset knives
These knives have a unique construction in that their blades reach 1 – 2 inches below the handle.
Although this design offers you enough knuckle clearance, the blade is too short (usually 6 – 9 inches) to slice through a large loaf of bread. And this length deficit can make it difficult to control your cutting.
Types of Serrations
Now we know the different styles of serrated knives, let’s explore the types of serrations you can expect in a serrated knife.
Pointed
A knife with pointed serrations will easily saw through hard crusty bread because of its pointed teeth. A blade with pointed serrations is also versatile in cutting through thick-skinned vegetables (like tomatoes) and hearty fruits (such as pineapples).
Scalloped
Scalloped or rounded serrations have a half-moon shape that makes the knife nicely saw through meat, vegetables, and soft fruits.
But scalloped serrations don’t do a great job in cutting hard crusty loaves of bread.
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Caring for Your Serrated Blades
The first thing you should know about the Misen serrated knife is that it isn’t dishwasher-safe. Actually, it’s unsafe to wash serrated knives in the dishwasher as it can etch and dull their blades over time.
That said, aside from sharpening and honing the blade, serrated knives don’t demand any special care; and sharpening them isn’t done often.
Sharpening is only required when your blade makes uneven slices when you use minimal force.
If you get your knife from Misen, the company can sharpen your knife for you for free. But if you get yours from other brands, you may have to do it manually or send it to a professional to get it sharpened.
So you’ll have to hand-wash it. In doing that, refrain from soaking the blade in water as such practices can loosen the handle. Instead, wash the knife with warm soapy water using mild dish soap and a soft sponge. Then dry it immediately.
Sharpening The Serrated Edge of Bread Knives
You can get your knife manually sharpened by using a ceramic honing rod. But with this process, you’ll have to sharpen the blade tooth by tooth.
So to do this, you’ll begin from the knife’s back end and work your way to the front. Place the ceramic honing rod in the gullet (the serrated grove). Then slide the rod through the gullet toward the cutting edge of the blade.
Repeat this for each gullet.
When you’re done, remove the burrs (scraped steel that rests on the surface of the knife) by moving the knife’s flat side across the surface of the honing stone set.
Also, sharpening your serrated knife can be done with an electric sharpener as you’ll probably not have the time to manually sharpen the serrations on the blade.
Also, check that your electric sharpener has a slot for sharpening serrated knives. Even if yours has such a slot, you still have to be careful as some sharpeners may only work on the tip of the serrations. And such sharpeners may damage your blade’s bevel.
