Reviews you can trust.
See why.The Best Bread Lames
For the best-looking bread, you need the right scoring tool.
By Published Oct. 27, 2022
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
The best lames score bread dough nicely and are easy to use and grip in different ways. They also make it easy to attach and remove blades. Our all-around favorite lame is the Baker of Seville Artisan Bread Lame. It’s a cinch to configure and can be held comfortably in different ways. Best of all, it can be adjusted so that the blade is either curved or straight, making it a great option for both simple and complex scoring alike. For the most intricate scoring, we also love the Wire Monkey UFO Bread Journey. It’s a little tricky to attach and remove blades on this lame, but it provides unparalleled control for the most detailed designs.
What You Need to Know
When you’re making crusty white or sourdough bread, it’s important to score, or cut, the dough before baking. Scoring is first and foremost functional: It allows your bread to expand properly, in a predetermined way, as it bakes. If you don’t score your dough, the loaf will develop odd ruptures and blowouts as the moisture inside it heats up. But scoring is also decorative: Cutting lines, patterns, or shapes in the dough will give your finished loaf an attractive, professional-quality look.
You can score dough using any sharp blade; a paring or even utility knife will do. But if you bake a lot of bread, it’s worth getting a dedicated tool called a lame, which can make the task easier and the results better-looking. The word “lame” (pronounced lahm) means blade in French, and indeed, a lame is basically a razor blade attached to a holder. This particular type of razor blade is much thinner and sharper than any other blade you might use, so it slices through sticky dough far more nimbly, dragging less and creating cleaner, more well-defined lines.
We tested a variety of lames on different types of bread doughs to see which features mattered. Here’s what we learned.
What to Look For:
- Easy Blade Attachment/Removal: Because a lame’s blade is incredibly sharp, we prefer to handle it as little as possible when attaching it to or removing it from the holder, the better to avoid cutting ourselves. Some lames required fussy, finicky, or slightly risky tinkering to attach the blade; we liked models that made the process simple, quick, and safe.
- A Holder That Exposes Both Cutting Edges of the Blade: When scoring, we generally cut with the top corner of the blade. We preferred models that exposed both sides of the blade, as these were easy for both righties and lefties to use. Straight blades that were exposed on both sides had an added advantage: they were also more convenient for users of either dexterity. Once one corner got dull or gunked up by dough, we could simply flip the ...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Our favorite lame is inexpensive and ingenious. A simple screw system makes it easy to attach blades in either curved or straight configurations. This innovation allows you to have the best of two worlds, slicing dramatic ears when the blade is curved and making more intricate designs when the blade is straight. Its handle is a single continuous piece of metal, so we were able to grip it securely and change hand positions readily. And we loved that it came with its own case, making it easy to store safely. Our one tiny quibble? Because the body of the lame is made of solid metal, it’s a bit heavy, so scoring doesn’t always feel as effortless as with other lames.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
This cleverly made bread lame has a curved blade holder on one end and a straight blade holder on the other, allowing us to use either or both when scoring. It was easy to attach blades safely. And while wide, its textured plastic handle was easy to grip in different positions and securely. Unfortunately, only one corner of each blade is exposed at a time, so you’ll have to rotate the blade manually once the corner you’re working with dulls, and lefties will not be able to use the curved blade effectively. For righties, however, it’s a great and versatile option. An added bonus: Both ends come with blade covers, so you don’t have to worry about accidental cuts.
Recommended
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
A cult favorite in the bread world, this diminutive lame has a unique design that made it a breeze to score even the most complicated patterns and designs on our loaves. Unlike conventional lames, which have a longer stick-like handle, the blade for this lame is held in place by two wooden discs that screw together. The discs nestle into your hand as you score, giving you superior control over the blade. The only downside is that it can be a bit of a pain to attach and remove blades; you have to unscrew the two discs in order to do so, which can be a slightly unnerving experience if the blade is still inside.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
This lightweight lame had a cute plastic baguette for a handle. The ears of the baguette stuck out slightly, giving our fingers something to grip as we scored. But the baguette itself ended a tiny bit farther away from the blade than we’d prefer, making it harder to get closer to the blade for control when we did more complex scoring. It was pretty easy to put on and remove the blade–just pinch the top and bottom (unsharpened) edges of the blade and insert over or pull off the thin metal dowel sticking out of the handle. The curved blade made great, well-pronounced ears, but was a little harder to direct for more intricate scoring. You can store the lame in the cardboard box it came with, a handy bonus.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This handsome but pricey lame felt fairly nice in our hands, though its decorative metal guard sometimes stuck into our palms a bit. And we were able to hold its sanded wood handle in a variety of positions. It was relatively easy to change blades, if a touch finicky, requiring us to remove and tighten two different screws. And its straight blade was great for both simple and complex scoring, though like other straight-blade models, it produced slightly less pronounced ears than models with curved blades. Only one side of the blade is exposed at a time, so you’ll need to rotate the blade manually if you want to use a new corner to score. Zatoba makes a lefty version of this lame, but lefties should also be able to use this one by simply flipping the lame over so that the screws face downward.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Simple and lightweight, this French lame did a good job of scoring both simply and more intricately, though because it had a straight blade, it made ears that were a tiny bit less pronounced than those made by curved blades. We liked that it came with a blade cover. And while it took us some practice to get the hang of undoing and snapping together the plastic blade guard to attach blades, once we did, we appreciated how safe the method was, requiring very little handling of the blade itself.The downside? Its handle was a tad short, so testers with larger hands had a hard time holding it comfortably.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This inexpensive, bare-bones lame is fairly typical of the kinds of lames you might see in professional bakeries. It’s as simple as it gets, with the merest suggestion of a handle and the most basic method for attaching blades–just pinch the blade at its top and bottom to curve it and then insert it over the metal stick that juts out of the handle. We’d have liked the handle to be a touch thicker and more grippy, but we were surprised at how much we enjoyed using it as it was–its minimalist, lightweight design made scoring feel particularly effortless. It’s great for scoring dramatic ears but a bit harder to use for complex scoring.
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.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.
0 Comments
