Serrated knives are very specific tools. You can’t chop with them. You can’t dice with them. You can’t mince with them. You might even have had the unfortunate experience of using one of those terrible, cheap knife sets that are comprised exclusively of serrated knives (I’m positive there are uses for a serrated paring knife, but I haven’t found one yet). But there are certain food items—bread, tomatoes, watermelon, other crusty or waxy stuff—that simply require the use of a jagged-edged, high-quality serrated knife. I recentlyretested serrated knives for our product review, and I used double-serrated knives for the first time. They were a revelation.
The termdouble serratedis a little confusing. What’s being doubled exactly? What it means is that a knife has smaller serrations within the large scalloped ones that are typical of a bread knife. Their blades look a little like a shark mouth drawn by an astute and careful eight-year-old. What these knives do is subtle, but effective. Tiny, pointy teeth within the larger serrations provide a lot of extra places that the blade can cut into food, so the knife is less likely to catch on bread crusts or watermelon rinds. I won’t go so far as to say cutting aloaf of sourdoughwas suddenly like cutting a block of tofu, but the ease of using these slightly weird looking knives was a step above even the best serrated knives I’d used before.
I used two during testing—the Wüsthof Classic double-serrated bread knife and the Zwilling Z15 (so named because it took 15 iterations for the company to be satisfied with its design)—and both outperformed the competition in every task. “The distance between the shark teeth, the angle of the scallops, and the sharpening height have proven particularly effective for smooth cutting,” Thomas Rocker, Zwilling’s product manager wrote me. Interestingly, I was able to achieve smooth, complete cuts even though the blades on both the Zwilling and the Wüsthof were shorter than several other serrated knives that we’ve found to be top performers in the past. With a shorter blade, I would have expected more fits and starts trying to slice through something wide, like a large boule. But the extra dig I got from the “shark teeth” meant that wasn’t the case. And the thinness I could achieve on a bread slice—less than a quarter inch—was something I’d never experienced before.
So why wouldn’t everyone just get a double-serrated knife? Well, they’re expensive. As I write this, the Wüsthof costs $150 and the Zwilling $140. Compare that tothe Misen serrated knife(the previous winner of our serrated knife rankings), which costs $80, andthe very basic looking knife from Dexter Russell, which performs wonderfully and costs less than $20. That’s a categorical difference in price. One of the things about a bargain basement serrated knife though (and the majority of serrated knives, frankly) is that they are not long lasting.
因为它不需要一个统一的剃刀sharpness for the full length of the blade, a serrated knife can make it longer than an inexpensive paring knife, which has a lifespan of two or three years, but it will still need to be replaced after five or six years. You can sharpen serrated knives, but the process is not as easy or as effective as sharpening straight knives. Double-serrated knives, on the other hand, are designed to be a bit more durable. Rocker says, “the ‘shark’ teeth serve as a blocker for the ‘scallop’ teeth and the cutting board.” Keeping some of the teeth from scraping against wood or plastic preserves them for a longer time. Does that mean a $150 bread knife is for everyone? No, but it does mean that it isn’t as frivolous an investment as it seems.
I still think you don’t need to spend very much money to get a serrated knife that will feel comfortable to use and deliver quality cuts, at least for a while. But for a smoother ride through those craggy and waxy surfaces, you might consider doubling up.
