The serrated bread knife is a problem child. The low, straight handle—in line with the straight blades—means you risk smashing your knuckles into the cutting board with every cut. And the ridiculously long blades may work for sawing through a baguette, but try a small tomato—you might as well use a machete! Plus, there are different types and sizes of serrations that work better in some situations than others.
The Milk Street Noko Offset knife is a complete redesign of the serrated knife to make it more useful and also easier to use. For starters, we raised the handle above the blade so there’s no risk of smashing your knuckles. We shortened the blade to 8 inches (about 2 inches shorter than most), which is still plenty long for a large loaf but more practical for small tasks—it’ll fit into a pie plate or cake pan and you won’t feel ridiculous cutting vegetables.
The thin stiff blade swoops with a pronounced curve, which means it offers a powerful slicing motion that puts every inch of the blade into play. And it’s easier on your wrist than the back-and-forth sawing of a straight-bladed bread knife.
The Noko’s blade’s serrations are also critical for success. For starters, many bread knives have single-sided serrations—the Noko is double-sided, which means that the knife cuts straight whether you are right– or left–handed. The tip and the butt end of the blade are smooth-edged to pierce and gain purchase on foods and to cleanly finish the slice. Finally, the dual-sided, shallow-gulleted serrations are just the right size for most jobs—we find many serrated knives to be either much too large or too small in terms of serration size.
We’ve chosen a warm-toned carbonized beechwood handle in a softened version of our signature lock-in ergonomic grip that’s on all Milk Street knives. It’s a bit rounder and better suited to how you handle a bread knife—more tight-gripped slicer than dicer. The wood handle also makes the knife a real looker at home on the kitchen counter as well as the breakfast table.