Serrated Vs. Straight-Edge Knives

Wusthof has such a wide variety of knives that it becomes difficult to understand why you would need multiple types of knives and what type of knife is best for your needs.  Hopefully, this blog entry will help you decide between the blade types when purchasing your next knife.

Straight Edge Knives

These are the blades that have one continuous sharp edge. Their most useful application is what most of us think of when we think of using a knife: a strong, steady pressure.  The advantage of a straight edge knife is it gives you a very smooth cut, as opposed to serrated knives which actually tear food.  It is great for slicing, dicing, mincing, and chopping.

Wusthof goes one step further and includes the Hollow Edge Knife (also known as Hollow Ground) as another type.  This is a straight edge knife with hollow divots along the blade.  These divots create an air pocket between the blade and what you are cutting to allow the food to fall off the blade with ease and allows juices to flow when you cut fruit or meats.

Serrated Blade Knives

Serrated edges are blades that have some kind of toothed or saw-like edge ground into on the cutting surface. These are designed to pierce the outer layer of what you are cutting and then cut using a back and forth motion. They're great for food with a harder exterior and a soft interior, like tomatoes and bread.

The downside to the serrated blade, though, is that they can easily cause tearing, and does not cut as cleanly as a plain edge knife.  When serrated blades dull, it's much more difficult to sharpen and requires specialty sharpening equipment.  Wusthof has a sharpening service for their blades that can be found in the FAQ section of their website.

The following video was created by Wusthof to help demonstrate the different types of blades.