November 7, 2010 - 11:05am
Bread knife
My generic bread knife is either not long enough or sharp enough for my Norwich sourdough. I seem to be crushing the loaf. The other issue is I can't slice straight. Do the ones with guides work well at all.
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http://www.newwestknifeworks.com/Product/Fusionwood-Knives/Super-Bread-Knife/
I dont know if its the price but damn this knife looks good.
yeah, that's gorgeous. But a 20 buck bread knife from Dexter-Russel, mundial, or the like will do just as good a job.
As for a guide, practice. Put one long edge of the loaf parallel with the board, and the end your cutting perpendicular, and cut. Few hundred loaves, and you'll be perfect.
to soften the crust with its own moisture. Then it will slice easier.
Most grocery stores have a generic ham slicer for 5 to 10 dollars. They work just fine. Another excellent budget choice is the Rada bread knive. A lifetime guarantee, made in the USA and excellent for ... well, I used to sell them for $10 and make a profit on them. Check eBay.
As dschiedt said, the key is practice. Here are a few tips - let the blade do the cutting, don't force it through the bread. Use the whole knive to cut making long strokes - that will help equalize the wear on the blade and is less effort. Cutting warm bread is usually a mistake, for many reasons.
There's a few more tips, and some videos, at my website http://www.sourdoughhome.com/slicing.html
Enjoy!
Mike
Rada knives are available online at: http://www.radacutlery.com/
When I was selling Rada knices at the farmers market, their minimum order was $100. You couldn't just buy A bread knife.
If you like tomatoes, their tomato knife is the bomb. Also, a friend with a bagel shop swars by their bagel knives. They are cheap and outlast much more expensive famous name German knives.
-Mike
Wow! so are you saying these Rada knives are good for all types of breads (ie: do they cut well through hard crusts), and I don't have to spend $200 on the latest German model of bread knife???
What is the handle made from?
--Rick
Check this one out (http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-Gourmet-7-Inch-Offset-Handle/dp/B00005U1TW/ref=sr_1_23?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1289191682&sr=1-23). It's super sharp and has a deep blade.
Glenn
Try a cheap electric knife. 10 bucks at wal-mart
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-and-Decker-Slice-Right-Electric-Knife/14913105
The knives at this sight are excellnt. They are hand crafted and beautiful besides being sharp. I have used my bread knife to slice everything from hard crusted bread to tomatos. www.betterbreadknives.com .
gene
i've been using the Victorinox Fibrox knives for years now. This is my favorite bread knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47547-4-Inch-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B00093090Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289259994&sr=8-1
My biggest problem with it is that it's so sharp that it took a chunk out of my bread index one time.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50131065
I went to Ikea after the dentist yesterday. I liked the idea of the meat slicer. I found I could get a pretty even slice on both the loaf and boules. I am not sure if my crust is that crusty 4 days later but I really did like slicing with it. I will see how this weekends loafs go.
was a rescue my brother made for my mother, she had a rather cheap combination knife sort of meat carving knife/French chef's knife thing, and it wound up with a huge knick out of the blade, so Brian sat and using his chainsaw file set (clamps on the blade, and uses round files and can be set at different angles) notched the rest of the blade at the same depth, and that was the best knife we had. Cut meat, sliced ham, sliced bread, and tomatoes without a problem. Still have it, along with three knife blocks of other knives, and its still the first one I go to!
Brother alwasy told me that slicing bread was not my forte, I can't slice straight for love nor money, but you can get or make a bread slicing guide that is adjustable for the width of your loaf. Not that works well for me either, no counter space. So you get what my mother called mother in law slices, thick on one end and thin on the other!
people have with cutting straight is that a lot of bread knives have just a single bevel , meaning beveled just on one side instead of both. As far as length, I would consider 9 inches to be the minimum, longer would be better.
I also have the popular Victorinox 10 1/2 inch knife, and it suffers from the same problem. With proper attention, one can control the tendency to veer to one side, but with really stiff or hard breads, like vollkornbrot, it is almost impossible to get right. It is a good value, especially with the free shipping from Amazon, but if I were to buy another, I would spend beyond my means a bit and get something else.
Here is another thread on bread knives. Check it out http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26183/best-bread-knife-maybe