Bread knives for very crusty loaves

[Bada Bing]

I take it that bread knives come in saw-tooth style and wavy-edge.

I have a cheap old bread knife with saw-tooth serrations which actually works great, but I've lately been making bread with King Arthur's highest-protein flour (Lancelot), and it takes enough extra pressure to cut the loaf that I'm leaving gouges of some size on my cutting surface.

So I wonder, do wavy-edge bread knives do well with super-crusty loaves? I'm thinking the wavy edges might be easier on my cutting surface, but I don't need a knife that can't handle the bread itself.

[kengk]

I've had a Henckels bread knife for about 20-25 years. It works ok, have touched up the edge a few times. I bake a lot of crusty bread and also use it for slicing cooked meat on occasion if I want to cut off very thing slivers.

I need to do some research to figure out what ya'll are talking about with the different serration designs.

Count me a fan of Dexter Russell products though.

[tim irvine]

Yep, but many slices, each delightful. I will be interested to see how it holds up.

[Chemicalkinetics]

:) Just teasing you.

[tim irvine]

Figured...

Doh!

(__8 ])

[tim irvine]

Still adore my ten inch Dexter.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Ha ha ha, but you only have it for a month?

[kattyeyes]

I've had it about four months and I love mine (Dexter-Russell V-LO 9-Inch Carbon Steel Scalloped Offset Sandwich Knife), too. Chem, I found it after you and I were chatting about offset sandwich knives on another thread.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015HFTJY/r...

BiskyBoy, no problem with CKTG here.

[bkling]

I have the Tojiro bread knife shown here:

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/toitkbr...

I make very crusty bread and it works very well. Thin blade, minimal crumbs. People sometimes say you can't sharpen these knives but I use a very fine black ceramic rod, moving the blade from base to tip then from tip to base, doing that on each side a few times, and it keeps the knife very sharp. It's the best bread knife I've ever had including a 10" Dexter, 10" Wusthof, etc. Slices most things in one stroke where other knives took multiples.

[Bada Bing]

Interesting-looking knife! The video doesn't show them cutting crusty bread, but if you say it works, I'm interested....

[Chemicalkinetics]

Scalloped edge knives also has the advantage that they can be used to slice meat (without tearing) compared to the traditional bread knives.

Here is a video of Tojiro bread knife:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvNs4z...

I haven't done so for awhile, but I used to made crusty bread, and my Shun scalloped edge knife worked just fine.

[linus]

wow, these scalloped knives are new to me. if they do everything a serrated bread knife can do, only better, i should look into one.
do they make them offset and/or curved, like they do serrated breadknives?

[Chemicalkinetics]

<wow, these scalloped knives are new to me. if they do everything a serrated bread knife can do, only better,>

"Better" is a tough word to define. In my opinion, the serrated knives are still more aggressive, but the serrated knives have their problems of tearing things apart and having bread crumbs popping out everywhere.

Yes, the scalloped knives do come with offset as well as curved. Shun alone offer offset and/or curved.

http://www.cutleryandmore.com/shun-classic/offset-bread-knife-p16317?gclid=CI6Jtqu16LICFQWe4AodNEAAHg

http://www.cutleryandmore.com/shun-cl...

[linus]

those are some pricy breadknives. i shall have to research this further. thanks.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Those are examples.

[Chemicalkinetics]

It looks great. I believe it was on sale at one point. I would have bought it if I did not already have a bread knife.

[BiscuitBoy]

chefknivestogo website is not loading correctly, tried multiple browsers, multiple os/s (for me anyway).....anyone else see a problem?

[Chemicalkinetics]

Right. I agree with JavaBean. The scalloped edge (also known as reversed serrated edge) yield less crumbs. I have what you may call as the wavy edge bread knife from Shun. Mine handles crusty bread just fine -- for me anyway.

[JavaBean]

Hey Chem…Us being on the same page so often is getting out of hand. We really need to find something to disagree on. :)

[JavaBean]

Yes, my friend who's into breads has a Mac with scalloped edges. It cuts way better and with less crumbs than her forshners with saw teeth.

Btw, there was a recent post about the dexter ~ $30 that's worth reading.