How to Sharpen a Serrated Knife

By Megan Wahn

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Bread knives—or serrated knives—are one of the small number of kitchen knives we think home cooks really need to own. They have a special place in the knife block, though. Unlike a paring knife, chef's knife, Santoku, any other knife, really, bread knives don't have a clean edge that you can easily take to a sharpening stone. Instead they have a series of sharp teeth that curve slightly on one side and are flat on the other. They are the best knives for tackling a tough baguette or an especially ripe tomato, but you can't sharpen them like straight-edged knives. "It's because you have to approach the serrations in some really unique ways," explains Jonathan Broidea, president and founder of Japanese Knife Imports. Read on to find out how to sharpen a serrated knife.

You can, but the process is entirely different from every other knife you’re used to working with. Electric knife sharpeners, pull through manual knife sharpeners, whetstones, and other sharpening techniques that might work for a chef's knife won't work on a toothy serrated edge; Instead you’ll need a few pieces of specialized equipment.

Broidea's approach involves a thin rod (it can even be a wooden dowel), a strop or finishing stone, some high grit sandpaper, and a big black marker. He recommends first taking the black marker and coloring in and just above each of the serrations on your knife blade. "The Sharpie will help you figure out where you need to be angle-wise," Broidea says.

After you've colored above the serrations, wrap the rod or dowel in sandpaper to make a DIY sharpening tool and nestle it between the teeth. Then move the knife along the rod at each serration, grinding away at them until you form a burr on the opposite side. You can also just use a honing rod, if you can find one that would fit well in the serrations. Then, Broidea says, "on the backside use either a strop or a finishing stone to de-burr."

Knife sharpener Steven Chik of @steven_sharpens advises a similar approach to helping out your dull knife, but adds that you can use a ceramic honing rod, swiping along the flat side of the knife for regular maintenance. "That'll help prevent the knife from getting as dull as fast," Chik says.

Aside from sharpening and the regular maintenance of swiping a honing rod on the flat side of the blade, the best thing you can do to keep your bread knife razor sharp overtime is to just make sure you’re using it correctly. "Even without sharpening, they should last you a very long time," says Vincent Kazeuhito Lau, a knife sharpener at KORIN.

According to Lau, you can extend your knife's longevity by making sure you’re keeping it clean and dry, using the knife for its intended use (primarily bread), and making sure you’re not cutting on especially hard surfaces like your countertop. If you can use softer cutting boards like cedar, synthetic rubber, or end grain wood, even better.

Lau also recommends staying cognizant of how you’re using the knife to ensure you don't break it, like if you’re cutting into a particularly crusty bread and your knife starts to get wedged in.

"Make sure you're not bending the knife because the knife can stay bent permanently or completely or snap" Lau says. "If it starts to get stuck, just try to keep it parallel. Try to pull it out smoothly, but don't torque it, don't bend it, because that can ruin the knife."

Because decent serrated knives don't have to cost that much, it's not uncommon to just trade out one that's gotten dull. KORIN's Lau says, "What I find most people do is they'll use a bread knife for maybe a year or a few years, and then they'll replace it."

However, if you have a knife you like, or if you’ve forked over $100 or more for a higher end blade, you really should consider sharpening it periodically. The pros we talked to were mixed on whether it was better to do it on your own, using the method outlined above or to pay someone to do it for you. Broidea, who likes the idea of knife owners sharpening their own tools says, "It's really important to be comfortable with the things you work with. And that comes from being confident in your ability to use and care for them effectively." If you do intend to have a professional sharpen your bread knife, just make sure you ask before you show up with a dull blade because some knife sharpeners won't work with them. According to Chik, "serrated knives are a small fraction of knives that come in," so some shops decide it isn't a service worth investing in at all and don't have the equipment to do it. But if the service is accessible, he says, just do it.