I'm trying to figure out a good way to sharpen a straight edge bread knife while in the kitchen.
The blade is so flexible, there is really no way to manipulate it against a stone while just holding the handle.
I'v come up with ways to hang the edge over the counter and run the stone over it, and ways to spread my fingers over the blade like a pianist.
But I would like to come up with a good way to restore the edge while still in the kitchen. I suppose one of those disc type draw sharpeners might do....
The bread knife works well for slicing tomatoes when it's sharp, And it's tomato time!
"Flexible"? A "bread" knife? Something else, actually.
Non-serrated blade, just use a "rifle".. One of those straight-grooved round-rod cousins of a file.
Half-moon large serrations, nine-inch or more, and stiff as a power-hacksaw blade as any PROPER "bread" knife
has to be? More to life than "wonderbread". Just buy a new one very 30 years or so, cut anything breadish from a fresh Baguette, Batard, crusty Puglia round, to rock-hard ten year old Russian black..
Maybe more than 30 years?
Neither of my French nor German ones seems to want to go dull yet, even with the odd radiator hose attacked. Mind - at what good ones cost? Ignore anything under about $100-$140, but last a very long time they assuredly will do, so that's cheap, not dear.
A "Heathcotes" is about the cheapest decent bread knife, all crusts, ages, and shapes you are likely to find. Serrated one side only, so they can be "sort of" sharpened.
Tomaters one cuts with a ceramic blade, Russel "Green River", heavy Chinese or more presentable Japanese chef's knife, "Ginsu" or "Santoku", either one - so long as razor-sharp. Sharpening is dead-easy for any of those, BTW,
Go for the heavier and
homelier ones Asian Great'G'Mums as have been preparing food since early girlhood use AND NOT the "pretty" ones "as seen on TV". Them's overpriced and junk as well.
The ceramics - ten bucks or less - do the job well and are basically disposable. Just drop one on a tiled floor a few times if you doubt me!
Too acidic for the ancient Case "Old Forge" HCS razors of a wasted youth or the newer German Damascened or carbide-edged toys, tomatoes are.