Best Bread Knives (A Classically Trained Chef Called One ‘Perfect’)

For our team at CR, which included Paul Hope, a classically trained chef, Cupid’s arrow struck us the moment we entered our labs to test 10 popular bread knives to see how well they cut through loaves of sourdough, pumpernickel, and challah bread, as well as beefsteak tomatoes. From a distance, all of the knives looked like a perfect catch, but finding a quality knife that cuts smoothly and feels effortless to hold took time and patience as we analyzed each one’s handle, width, and blade length, and even noted how many strokes it took to cut through each item. 

But our efforts were well worth it. Two of our testers called one of the knives “perfect,” and a $16 knife impressed us so much that we didn’t think twice about ranking it above several that cost significantly more (including one for $189). Here are the knives we consider the best thing since sliced bread. Yes, we went there.