Best bread knives

The best bread knives saw through the crustiest baguette without squashing it, leaving you with crisp, untorn slices that you can cut as thin as you like.

We've tested the most popular bread knives ranging from just £3 to £100-plus from brands including Global, John Lewis & Partners, ProCook and more.

Considering a bread knife's job is simply cutting neatly through crust, we were surprised how costly some of them can be. But we were pleased to find that even though our tests proved you have to pay a bit more for the best, you can find very good ones if you want to spend less than £50, or even less than £20. 

Find out which bread knives produced the cleanest cuts, were the easiest to use and had the most comfortable handles.

The best bread knives

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The bread knives we tested

All the bread knives we tested are listed in alphabetical order below. 

Only logged-in Which? members can view the best bread knives from our tests

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Dunelm Soft Grip Bread Knife

Only available at Dunelm: £4.

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Blade length: 20cm

Handle length: 12.5cm

Weight: 120g

Forest & Forge Bread Knife with Spalted Beechwood Handle

Cheapest price: £124.99 available at Lakeland, also available at Dexam.

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Blade length: 21cm

Handle length: 12.5cm

Weight: 160g

Global G-9 Stainless Steel Bread Knife

Only available at Global: £175.

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Blade length: 22.5cm

Handle length: 12cm

Weight: 160g

Complete your set of Global knives. See how this popular knife brand fared in our reviews of the best kitchen utility knives, best chef's knives and best knife sets. 

John Lewis & Partners Classic Bread Knife

Only available at John Lewis: £30 (in-store only).

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Blade length: 22.5cm

Handle length: 12.5cm

Weight: 150g

Kitchen Devils Control Bread Knife

Only available at Amazon: £10.99.

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Blade length: 21cm

Handle length: 13cm

Weight: 150g

Kuhn Rikon Colori Non-Stick Bread and Baguette Knife

Cheapest price: £20.95 available at Kuhn Rikon, also available at Amazon.

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Blade length: 26cm

Handle length: 14cm

Weight: 114g (172g with sheath)

Lakeland Hammered Steel Bread Knife

Only available at Lakeland: £39.99.

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Blade length: 20.5cm

Handle length: 14cm

Weight: 202g

ProCook Damascus 67 Bread Knife

Only available at ProCook: £109.

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Blade length: 23cm

Handle length: 12cm

Weight: 181g

Robert Welch Signature Stainless Steel Bread Knife

Cheapest price: £55.99 available at Lakeland (out of stock), also available at John Lewis (in store only), Robert Welch.

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Blade length: 22cm

Handle length: 13cm

Weight: 180g

Sabatier Triple Rivet Bread Knife

Only available at Dunelm: £13.

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Blade length: 21cm

Handle length: 13cm

Weight: 192g

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How we tested bread knives

To find the best bread knives, we put the most popular knives through the following tests. We bought all the bread knives we tested.

Ease of use

A knife's main job is to cut slices of bread. To test this, we used each one to slice through baguettes and farmhouse and sourdough loaves.

• The best cut smooth and even slices with complete ease.
• The worst squashed the bread, struggled to cut into it or tore the slices.

Comfort

The true test on whether a handle is comfortable or not comes from using the knife.

While cutting with the knives during the ease-of-use tests, we scored how comfortable each handle was.

• The best sat well in our hands and caused no discomfort.
• The worst made using the knife difficult.

Build quality

We considered the design and shape of all the knives' handles and blades, as well as checking them for any manufacturing flaws or faults.

• The best impressed us with the quality of craftsmanship and well-thought-out designs.
• The worst had a couple of manufacturing faults and seemed more shoddily finished.

Are electric knives good for cutting bread?

When we tested electric carving knives, we found they did a brilliant job when slicing bread. 

The electric carving motions of the knives makes it easy to slice smooth and even slices. 

Three things we learned testing bread knives

1) Shallow teeth can be better

There was a variety of teeth or serration shapes and sizes on the cutting edges of the knives we tested. 

While you may expect the larger teeth to be most proficient for slicing, we actually found that the bread knives with shallow serrations to be the most effective. 

2) Bendy blades are bad for bread

A flexible knife blade has its uses, but we found bread knives with a slightly more rigid blade were easier to control and cut more even slices. 

The more flexible blades wobbled a bit while in use, and the resistance from the bread tended to push them sideways, leaving you with a wavy slice.

3) Hold it in your hand first

We found a good handle can make all the difference. 

An uncomfortable or hard-to-grip handle can make even the sharpest knives unpleasant to use.

If you can, we recommend taking the time to feel the handle and decide for yourself if you like the grip. 

Can you sharpen bread knives?

Yes, but you need the correct tools.

Some handheld sharpeners, including a few we tested in our best knife sharpener guide, are able to sharpen serrated knives. Look for ones that state they're suitable for serrated edges.

The technique is a little different to sharpening a normal knife and can depend on the sharpener you pick.

All sharpeners should come with instructions. Make sure you read them before sharpening a serrated knife for the first time.