How to Sharpen a Bread Knife?

How to Sharpen a Bread Knife?

Sharpening a bread knife can be considered tricky. Some people even think that it's impossible, but that's not the case. We have listed for you, 3 methods to sharpen your bread knife.

Sharpening with a Ceramic Rod

The best method is to use a ceramic sharpening rod. This allows you to sharpen individual teeth. It is important to choose a sharpening rod whose diameter matches the serrations of your knife. If the sharpening rod is too thick, it will not fit properly into the serrations and the sharpening will be useless. Surprisingly, the bread knife is hardly detailed on big sites like Wikipedia. The sharpening rod has a diameter of 8mm and is therefore thin enough to sharpen most bread knives. The sharpening rod is slightly thicker, measuring 13mm, but it fits well to many bread knives. There is also a 14mm sharpening rod. It is a good choice for coarser serrations.

The knife is sharpened on one side only, usually the side. On most knives, you can easily tell which side the serrations are on. The knife is sharpened by placing the sharpening rod into the serrations, tooth by tooth, and moving it up and down. It is very important to check the edge every now and then during sharpening to ensure that the full length of the serration is reached. You may have to hold the sharpening rod at a slight angle. We advise you to lay the bread knife flat on the edge of a table. This prevents accidents and makes it easier to achieve a high-quality sharpening result.

When you sharpen the serrations on one side, a burr appears on the other side of the blade. You can naturally remove this burr by moving the knife once slightly tilted on a sharpening stone. One of the disadvantages of this method is that it can scratch the blade. Another option is to use the sharpening rod to go through all the serrations one by one. This removes the burr, but does not damage the back of the serrations.

Sharpening a Serrated Knife in a Sharpener

The sharpener is the favourite tool of many home sharpeners. Many knives and kitchen knives have obtained an extremely sharp finish in the sharpener. However, it can also be used to sharpen bread knives and serrated knives. To do this, the angular side of the sharpening rod must be placed on the side of the knife where the serrations are. On the other side, the flat side of the sharpener must be placed in the holder.

The side where the serrations are placed is then moved very quietly along the side of the sharpener. This is the same as sharpening a normal knife, except it's much slower. In this way, the angular side of the sharpening rod can sharpen between the serrations. Make sure you have the right angle when sharpening. You may have to hold the knife at a more pronounced angle than an average chef's knife. Do this about 5 times. Then, very slowly move the knife once along the other sharpening rod. This way you eliminate the burr that formed after sharpening the serrations. Here too, you need to pay attention to the angle, as it is different for every knife.

Sharpening a Serrated Knife in a Knife Sharpener

Some electric sharpeners can also sharpen serrated knives. To do this, the blunt serrated knife must go through the last polishing stage of the machine. This will sharpen it, but in the long run, you will notice that this knife is losing its serrations as they wear off.