Steak knife recommendations - straight vs. serrated edge?
flyingpiglet has said that she'd like some new steak knives to replace our aging, inexpensive henckels knives. That has raised the question about what type of blade is better for cooked steaks and chops- one with a straight or serrated edge? The majority of steak knives we've seen are serrated, but I also like the thought of being able to sharpen the knives which would argue for straight edges.
Thoughts or recommendations? She has read about @Meathead's favorite steak knives, but isn't convinced those are quite what she is looking for.
I just found out something I didn’t know, until I bought my new knife sharpener. Apparently you can sharpen serrated knife blades. One side of the blade is flat and the other side is the actual serrated part. My instructions said to place the flat side only, up against my belt to be sharpened. I prefer cutting my steaks or chops (as I’m eating them) with serrated blades myself. My Henckels steak knives are at least 10 years old and I’ve never sharpened them. They still cut fine. But I am gonna try sharpening them now with my new sharpener. This is the one I just bought.
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Last edited by Panhead John; November 27, 2020, 04:30 PM.
Thanks Panhead John . Now that you mention this, I remember reading something similar with my Work Sharp Ken Onion sharpener. So my desire to be able to sharpen the knives might not rule out serrated blades after all. Like you, I'll probably try it out on my inexpensive current knives as an experiment.
theroc you are correct. I had to do this to a bread knife and it came out great. We have cheap steak knives and I also had to do a few of those but not all of them. The ones I did worked like new.
Serrated blades are better for cutting on dinner plates. Since they won’t dull as quickly on the ceramic (well the concave inside serrated edges won’t anyway).
the spyderco sharp maker and several other systems do a good job on serrated edges.
I sharpen both sides of my serrated steak knives with with Spyderco mentioned above. Of course, it doesn't happen often due to the points being the only part to touch a plate.
BTW - I was gifted my steak knives as a high school graduation present in 1966. I thought it was a strange gift for a high school graduate, but as I got older, I learned about regifting.
We prefer straight knives. Something about a good sharp knife cutting the meat on your plate that seems so right. I wouldn't use anything but my straight knives for trimming up a brisket and wouldn't use anything else to slice it up when done. Just my opinion...
I have had Cutco table knives for 30 years. I got them right out of High School and I’ve only had them sharpened once. They do it for free. You just have to ship them your knives and they just charge you return shipping. I consider them both straight edged and serrated edge. They are not the largest knives but they do the job. Cutco does make a steak knife also. They are not cheap knives but I’ve had mine for 30 years and I’m sure I’ll have them for another 30 years.
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I had some cuisinart knives that were not serrated that I thought cut well. My wife replaced those with a new knife block set that has serrated and I don’t like the way they cut. It’s like they tear the meat rather than slicing through it. Perhaps it’s the knife edge and not the serrations. But this made me think serrated knives were horrible.
But, I also never use a serrated edge when I slice other types of meat (tri tip, brisket, pork loin, etc), which also makes me think non-serrated are better for steak knives at the dinner table. But that’s just my thinking behind.
I’ve looked for a decent sent of table steak knives, and most had the serrations. So, I’ll be reading this as it goes. Curious to see what others say and suggest.
If anything, I’ll by myself one knive that is for me only and let the family use the others.
I have a set of these. Expensive, but unbelievably good. If you want to drool check out their Omega series. Although these are out of stock on the manufacturer's web site, Amazon has them in stock.
A little off topic but still knife oriented....like most of you I have had a number of knife sets over the years. A lot of times these have been bought during Black Friday or some other event. Somewhat decent quality but two years ago I decided to bite the bullet and buy a better quality knife set so I do not have to do this every so often. I went with the Wustof Classic line and couldn't be happier. Doesn't have to be Wustof, but I guess what I am just saying is at some point you need to pay for a better qyality, longer lasting product vs. something replaceable after so many years. You pay for it one way or the other.
I don’t know if this makes a difference because it makes no sense except for etiquette. When we bring out the nicer plates once or twice a year to do something formal, the serrated knives come out as do the butter knives, soup spoons, regular spoons, salad forks and dinner forks. The rest of the time, the dinner fork, big spoon and big fork come out as well as the non-serrated steak knives for proteins. Ps - nothing we own is "fine silver or China" we just set it that way for the special occasions.
Last edited by tbob4; November 27, 2020, 10:25 PM.
I do think of them that way. I find my straight steak knives do a nicer job of cutting things fine - steaks, chops etc. I prefer the serrated for roasts.
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