Long, moderately rigid, and up wardly canted with a wave-cut edge, this bread-knife blade is well equipped to slice across a large loaf in one stroke, to contend with the density of a dark rye or the airiness of a brioche. Bread knives with finely serrated blades work on the same principle as the wave-cut edge: They bite rather than slice into a hard crust, then quickly rip through the loaf's softer interior without compressing it.
Bread-knife blades range in length from 8 to 10 inches; all are bluntly tipped and are available in either stainless or high-carbon stainless steel. This is one of the few basic blades that, because of what it cuts, needn't have a full tang, A bread knife with a 10-inch-long blade which can also be used to slice a torte horizontally for later layering or to remove the sugar bloom from a baked sponge cake is recommended for household use.
A serrated bread knife is a must for cutting everything from New York bagels to baguettes, and it can also do the job when your regular knives are not as sharp as they should be, when it comes to slicing tomatoes or lemons, peeling pineapples and melons, cutting cured sausage or breaded chicken breast, or dividing anything that is hard on the outside but softer in the middle. The serrated edge of the knife is able to cut into the hard exterior without squashing the inside.
