The Victorinox Curved Bread Knife with 8-inch forged blade and POM handle is a better size for rolls and bagels than large loaves. This is a slightly new approach to serrated edges and doesn’t work the same way new owners may expect.
Instead of saw teeth, the Victorinox curved bread knife incorporates a wave-tooth edge. There’s less point here and therefore less drag and bite until the edge enters the crust of hard breads and rolls. The action’s a compromise between a straight slicing edge and a pointy, serrated blade. In the cut, there’s more slicing action and less sawing and snagging, which can be an advantage. You’ll need to use more care when starting the cut, because on truly tough crusts, the blade may skate at first unless carefully controlled.
The curved edge of the knife adds a little more trickiness to the action, since only a few teeth make that first contact during the beginning of the cut. At the end of the slice, that curved edge makes fast work of any hard bottom crust. A slight rocking motion evenly severs the bottom of the loaf.
Whether you’ll notice enough difference in the product to make this technical change worthwhile is probably dependent on whether you like the look of this forged knife and its full tang POM synthetic handle. Forged in Germany from high carbon stainless steel, the dropped bolster is strong but old-fashioned. The Victorinox curved bread knife is finished to the high standards of Victorinox but is just a little too small to be a good all-around choice for homemade bread.
