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See why.Serrated Paring Knives
We put the serrated equivalents of our favorite paring knives to the test.
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
Our favorite paring knives from Victorinox and Wüsthof are nimble and durable enough to handle most small-knife tasks, but we were curious about their serrated equivalents. We purchased both, plus three other serrated paring knives (priced from about $6 to nearly $60), and used them to segment citrus and slice delicate cherry tomatoes. Serrations are intended to bite into food and then carve a neat, controlled path by using a gentle sawing motion. Two knives utterly failed. Their thick, dull blades struggled to slice through orange peels. Ineffective and unsafe, they went through the flesh off-kilter and required multiple passes to get through tomatoes. But three other knives impressed us with razor-sharp serrations on thin blades that allowed testers to race through tasks neatly and safely. They easily pierced soft tomato skin, nimbly removed the peel from grapefruits and oranges, and segmented the citrus with ease. A traditional paring knife is still an essential piece of equipment for detail work like trimming silverskin off roasts, coring apples, and scraping vanilla beans, but we determined that a serrated version made some tasks even easier. Even the best straight-edged blades squish soft tomatoes a tiny bit, and serrated blades are superior for nicking off tiny bits of orange pith. We’re convinced: Our new serrated winner won us over with its pleasant heft and superior slicing ability. Our Best Buy offers a near-equal blade on a sturdy, lightweight frame, all for a bargain price.
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Blade: 3 stars out of 3.
- Handle: 3 stars out of 3.
It cuts through food “like absolute butter,” said testers. It had slightly more heft than its competitors and razor-sharp serrations that glided through tomatoes, around orange peel, and between citrus segments with ease.
Recommended
- Blade: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handle: 3 stars out of 3.
This slim and lightweight knife is both comfortable in hand and incredibly effective. After nimbly cutting into citrus skin, the serrations really locked the blade in place and offered superior control as we segmented the fruit.
- Blade: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handle: 2.5 stars out of 3.
The heavily textured black rubber handle offered testers a secure grip but felt “sticky” to some even when dry. It had no problem maneuvering along the curves of citrus and segmenting the fruit, and it easily pierced tomato skin, but its cuts through tomatoes were slightly less smooth than the best blades.
Not Recommended
- Blade: NaN stars out of 3.
- Handle: 1.5 stars out of 3.
Testers unanimously disliked this knife, which was slow and inefficient at every task. Not only was the handle slippery, but the blade itself was dull and required extra force. It squished tomatoes and veered off the top when we were peeling oranges instead of following the fruits’ curves.
- Blade: NaN stars out of 3.
- Handle: 1 stars out of 3.
This dull, thick blade felt slow and imprecise. After wedging into a piece of fruit, the blade drifted to the right and every slice ended off-kilter. One tester said, “I feel like I’m cutting a rubber orange.” The longest knife in our lineup, this model felt unwieldly and unsafe.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.