serrated knife

I have a set of Miyabi 7000MC knives that I keep wickedly sharp on my WE. (They are the reason I bought the WE sharpening system). I also have a Wusthof 10 inch super serrated knife. I have found that the sharp thin blades of the Miyabi slice bread better than the serrated blade in most cases and make a very smooth cut. We buy a mostly of sourdough and multi-grain bread that is not as soft as the super soft white bread that mostly comes pre-sliced.
As far as sharpening serrated blades, DMT makes little round diamond sharpeners that are almost worthless because they are tapered ; meaning you have a very small area that fits the serration. The best way is by machine until Clay comes up with his solution. See Clay’s site: http://www.razoredgeknives.com/?page_id=12
Grizzly sells a 8 inch diameter 1/4 inch wide paper wheel that you can profile and use to hone serrated blades with a little practice http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-x-1-4-Shaper-Wheel-for-G5937/G5940 I have several of these and they work very nicely with a glue based greaseless compound http://www.caswellplating.com/buffing-polishing/buffing-compounds.html followed with wax based stainless steel buffing compound for a final polish. A quick strop with a bench strop on the opposite side helps remove or relocate the burr which is almost always present when sharpening one side with the cutting edge trailing.

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this guy doesa good job – i used it for sometime.
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Before you buy a serrated bread knife try a very toothy finish on a thin-behind-the-edge blade and see how you like it.

Do you have a knife in mind?

Nothing specific. Try a cheap blade that is long enough to slice and put a coarse but carefully deburred edge on it.

One thing I don’t like about serrated blades is that they tear up cutting boards. The scalloped rather than pointed serrations, e.g. on the MAC bread knife, are probably better in that regard. Still not as easy to sharpen as a plain edge however.

If a serrated knife is not a requirement for bread, what is it useful for?

Before you buy a serrated bread knife try a very toothy finish on a thin-behind-the-edge blade and see how you like it.

Do you have a knife in mind?[/quote]

Razibus: A serrated knife is good for people that treat knives like hand saws. The points may round off but there still is a rather sharp edge protected somewhat by the points. If you want a medium quality serrated knife, I would suggest the Victorinox http://www.cutleryandmore.com/victorinox-forschner-fibrox/serrated-bread-slicing-knife-white-handle-p128104 for example.
From my experience, the Victorinox knives hold an edge as well as most of the European stainless knives; although this statement may open another controversial discussion.

My wife likes to make layer cakes for special occasions and the center of the cake always rises more than the edge. This requires slicing a thin section off the top (my job in the process). I’ve discovered that even the sharpest serrated blade makes a mess, but a thin slicer with dimpled sides sharpened correctly will do a decent job. You cant get a much more difficult food to slice evenly than cake.

–Gregg

If I actually had a serrated knife worth the expense I surely would send it to you for that treatment.

The few things I have seen them be useful for are:

1. bread knife (with thick, heavy crusted bread)
2. steak knives that will be cutting on glass or ceramic plates all the time
3. If a knife will be used hard but sharpened rarely.