Bread knives are one of those kitchen tools where the expensive models get all the glory—and sometimes they deserve it. Our favorite overall bread knife costs close to $100 and glides through crusty sourdough like it’s nothing. But here’s the thing about serrated knives: the teeth do a lot of the work, which means a well-made budget option can punch well above its price. The real question isn’t whether you should splurge. It’s whether you even need to.
Our top pick
After testing eight budget bread knives, one was a clear winner. The Mercer Culinary bread knife produced the cleanest slices, handled tomatoes effortlessly, and had the best handle we tested—grippy, secure, and comfortable in a way that cheaper knives rarely manage. It costs under $20 and feels like it shouldn’t.
In this article
How we tested
I tested eight budget knives from well-known kitchen brands, each priced between $13 and $25, on the tasks that actually matter: slicing thick sourdough, cutting sandwich bread, and tackling tomatoes—the classic stress test for serration sharpness.
Our top pick: Mercer Culinary M23210 10” Bread Knife, $17
Mercer
Culinary M23210 10” Bread Knife
The best budget knife we tested, and it isn’t particularly close. From the first cut into a crusty sourdough loaf, the Mercer produced cleaner slices than anything else we tested. The 10-inch blade is long, sharp, and well-balanced—it glides through crust and crumb without tearing, and dispatches tomatoes into neat quarter-inch rounds with almost no pressure.
The handle is a standout, too: textured and rubbery in a way that feels genuinely grippy rather than just plastic-with-ridges. It’s the only knife we tested that felt fully secure even with slightly damp hands. At under $20, it performs like it should cost twice as much—and it’s the one we’d reach for every time.
What we love: Cleanest cuts of the group; effortless on tomatoes; long, balanced blade; superior grip.
