Thanks. This will give me something to ponder. That broad, thin Santoku blade really goes through bread easily. I will give the bread knife another look and think on this some.sal wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:06 pmDoc Dan wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:54 amSal, I appreciate this thread. I have a question about the serrated bread knife. I bake bread at least twice weekly. I have not tried the Spyderco bread knife, but I have tried a number of them from other makers and they do not do well on hot bread. The best I have found is a very thin Santuko that is sharp enough to pick up hair and cut it. So, my question is, why is the serrated a Spyderco more efficient than other bread knives? Is the knife very thin bladed and thin behind the edge? Is it that the serrated pattern is more efficient? Also, how would it be more efficient than the Santuko?sal wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:28 pmHi VooDooChild,VooDooChild wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:12 pmThe other thread answered one of my biggest questions. That serrations on the "show" side direct the edge away from your other hand and body when cutting through something.
I guess I will ask, with all the other serration patterns out there, what are your thoughts on them? Is there another type of pattern you might give a shot at, or does the spyderege still outperform these other patterns?
We use a single size serration on our bread knife because testing in Japan by our kitchen knife maker indicated that on hot fresh bread, it worked better. We haven't tested this ourselves. Of all of the other serrations we've tested, we found that angles were very important, edge geometry was also important and the height and width ratio was important, as was the "pointiness" of the tooth. With those considerations, I would still opt for the set-up we are using. If something comes along that we think would perform better, we would switch.
I also maintain that sharpening those serrations with a sharpmaker for 10 -20 strokes on the corners of the white stone improves the performance considerably by softening the sharp teeth.
sal
Hi Doc,
I would suggest trying out a Spyderco bread knife. Also sharpen it a few strokes on the Sharpmaker. I can offer some theory:
1) Very thin blades make a big difference. It took many years for me to make the makers in Seki to do them the way I wanted. They felt they knew better than me how to make knives, since they were 2nd generation. Eventually the popularity of the brand and serrated edges convinced them to let me lead. I always appreciate their opinion. But now at least we discuss it.
2) I can only tell you that people that make hot bread say it's better. That's why I suggest you try it. It's quite thin and an excellent kitchen steel.
Gail is a excellent cook (I mean really good) and she kind of drove the bread knife design. Our next one will be a little wider which Gail says helps for directional stability. (CQI).
3) Serrations take a little more thought:
A) On a plain edge knife, the center of effort (cutting effort) goes in only one direction. Down at 90 degrees to the cutting table. It might vary
due to the moving motion of the blade?
B) On a serrated edge, the center of effort constantly changes in an arc, cutting the material from many different directions very quickly. The
center of effort to the material is 90% to the top of the shape of the serration, which is an arc.
C) The edge geometry, angles and arcs all make a difference. "When one of our serrated edges is proper and finely tunes, it will impress".
sal
Really good cook, huh? What time do we eat? :D Just joking.