Mercer Culinary M22610 Millennia 10-Inch Chef's Knife, Black

Features:
  • Ergonomic handle – a combination of Santoprene for comfort and polypropylene for durability
  • Textured finger points provide slip resistance, grip, and safety
  • Protective finger guard
  • The highest quality Japanese steel allows for easy blade maintenance and rapid sharpening for a razor-sharp edge
  • One-piece high-carbon, stain-free Japanese steel
  • NSF
  • Limited lifetime warranty
Ultimate bread knife

I needed a better bread knife and chose this one based on a recommendation from America's Test Kitchen. It has rubber grips and just feels good in your hand. It is very sharp and produces smooth cuts with almost no crumbs. I decided to test the sharpness and control of the knife by slicing bread very thinly. The pictures show the result of a slice of bread about 1/8" thick that you could practically see through. With a little more practice I can probably get it thinner because I think the knife is capable of doing it.

following that I saw it recommended by other sources as well

I purchased this knife based on America's Test Kitchen review, following that I saw it recommended by other sources as well, and finally, the reviews here at Amazon were outstanding. The knife is a solid 5 stars based only on my comparison with other knives I own. The primary purpose I purchased this knife for, slicing crusty homemade bread. After taking out of shipping pkg I washed and started cutting a couple slices off homemade loaf that had been sitting out 2 days, meaning the outer crust was getting pretty hard. On the 2nd cut, I wasn't paying close attention and cut my index finger. The blade barely touches and it was instant 1/8" deep cut, which happens to be about the depth of the serrated edges. I know this sounds weird but on the first cut and other cuts, it really felt like this blade wanted to dive deep into the loaf with each sawing motion, I mean this in a good way it. I really think this is an outstanding bread cutting knife. Quality of construction for a production made knife seems outstanding, however, I'm taking no chances, this knife lives in a sheath in a draw that I keep no other knives in and is separate from other items, I wash & dry immediately after each use and return to it's home, I want to use this for a lifetime. This is great for anyone's kitchen and would be a very nice in-expensive gift. I strongly recommend purchasing

reviewers are right on

Was going to buy an expensive santoku when I just stumble across this knife. I though, what the heck, so many people loved this knife I am going to give it a shot. The old saw of "you get what you pay for" doesn't apply in this case. Sharp from the get go and with an occaisional touch up on a very fine whetstone it maintains a shaving edge. If this is the bottom of the Mercer line I can't imagine what the other knives are like. I know the handles get fancier but not sure about the actual blades. I love what I have an join the hundreds of reviewers who liked this knife.

Punches far above its price.

This very inexpensive knife comes highly rated by numerous publications for good reason; it cuts everything well. I already knew from experience that wider and fewer serrations cut better because there is more cutting edge and less teeth, which tend to tear bread apart, leaving a ragged mess. The other factor are the tips themselves, which can be rounded or pointed. I bought the rounded Shun because it matched my other knives, and for 95% of breads it cuts beautifully. But I recently started buying, and then baking myself, hard-crust round-loaf artisanal bread, which the Shun will not cut because the teeth are too rounded. The center of the loaf is virtually the length as the whole knife, so I cannot get enough sawing motion to grab and cut. But the Mercer retains the wide serrations that cut well, and adds pointed teeth that grab well, so it cuts 2-3x better than the similar and 10x more expensive Shun. The Shun is made from much better steel, and is prettier, but the edge on a serrated knife does not wear like a straight blade, and the cutting action comes from the design, not the ability of the steel to hold an edge. So this knife outperforms the Shun at a very reasonable cost.

Wow...! What An Awesome Knife...! Don't Know How I Did Without It For So Long....

I decided I would find and order the largest Chef's Knife when, once again, I was trying to cut up some large Cabbages and none of my knives being large enough to cut all the way through them cleanly. A 12" blade seems to be the longest blade available, so that's what I began searching for. To be honest, I didn't read any reviews, I just compared knives as it seems I have some very definite preferences as far as blade and handle shape, handle color and material, and of course, price. When I found the Mercer Millennia 12" Chefs Knife with the Black handle, it hit all the right check boxes, and was exactly what I was looking for so I ordered it up. When I first opened the box and saw it, I was like "oh, my God...!", hell, I almost had a heart attack, as I had never seen a 12" blade before and had no idea how large it really was until I had it right in front of me. I thought "well, it certainly is big enough... it certainly should do the job..." as I pulled it out of the box and examined it. I'm doing a bit of canning right now, so I still had some cabbages to cut up for homemade Sauerkraut that I make with some Dill and Garlic. So, I pulled out a couple of large cabbages and the cutting board and got myself set up. The very first Cabbage I sliced in half cleanly with just one stroke, and thought "yeah...! that's how you're supposed to cut cabbage...!". and it has made all the difference in the world, making the job so much more enjoyable and easy. It's sooooo sharp, I can use it to slice the cabbage easily into nice 1/4" shreds as well, just the way I like it, instead of using the Mandolin Slicer that I have. I also went out and got two very large pumpkins, as well, to ferment with some Pumpkin Spice to make some tasty Pumpkin Sticks to snack on this fall season. These pumpkins were 12" and 14" across, pretty large, and I was curious to see how the knife would handle them. For the first time in my life, I was able to cut the tops and bottoms off cleanly all the way across in one slice. It made slicing the rind off a breeze; then halving, and then quartering the halves was so easy, it was amazing. I love this knife, and wish I had gotten it 30 years ago when I first bought the house and had a kitchen to start doing cooking and canning in. It really is HUGE... but it's exactly what I needed... highly, highly recommended...! ;-)

Sharp, sturdy blade producing expert cuts

Recently purchased as an addition for my culinary kit and so far it's exceeded expectations. This is by far one of the sharpest knives I've had the pleasure of using, so much so that immediately after taking it out of the packaging and holding it in my hands, i unconsciously felt the edge (as I do with all of my knives) with my thumb ever so gingerly and after drawing it mere millimeters...first blood. This 8" serrated knife is built with a very high quality, high carbon stainless steel held fast by a sturdy and surprisingly comfortable seamless combination polypropyl-santoprene handle. I ran some unscientific tests to satisfy my curiosity and was pleasantly surprised. Up against an older, heavier, 10' serrated knife (that was recently, and more importantly correctly, sharpened) I have at home, it produced cleaner cuts in a variety of breads, fruits, and vegetables. I even went so far as to do an extreme stress test cutting through thick cardboard, with a few well placed strokes, then easily reproducing those initial quality cuts. While this could be attributed to being a newer, better sharpened knife, I believe that a combination of the offset handle, and superior quality x30 hi-carbon steel, and gentler sloped teeth played a big role. It is a joy to use and I look forward to my next test...chocolate!

Perhaps the sharpest, best knife out of the package that we've ever purchased... Check the pricing before you order...

The only reason this review is five stars is because I cannot give it more... Would be a perfect ten if available... Each week, my wife helps a friend in the restaurant industry prep for the weekend... They operate a full grill Santa Maria style BBQ every Friday evening in a local brewery... My wife's normal task is cutting and chopping about sixty pounds of veggies for a house recipe salsa and thick sliced veggies for the grill... She also slices and scores a couple dozen loaves of French bread that will be toasted on the grill... She complained about every knife -- and there are many -- that was available in the restaurant inventory... I ordered this knife to try to mollify the complaints... Since we received this knife, no more complaints... That knife is unbelievably sharp right out of the package... Do NOT leave it loose on a counter or cutting table when done... It will cut anything -- including your fingers -- with just a slight bit of pressure... Since our first review, we have ordered and received two more of these knives... The knives are wonderful... Amazon's pricing is absurd... Now the pricing issue... If you order a knife with a red or yellow handle color, the Amazon price is $15.29 each... If you order other colors, the price goes up to as much as $28.06 for the white one... The white one is more that 80% more expensive than the red or yellow ones... When I chatted with Amazon about the pricing, their "representative" could not begin to offer a coherent reason for the pricing difference... I'm a large person... I expect to pay a little more for XXL shirts and jackets... They have more material in them than regular sizes... But that much difference because of the color in the handle... C'mon, Amazon...

Be careful.. it's really sharp!

This is one sharp knife. I have 8 stitches in my left index finger to prove it. That, of course, was my fault and the result of a momentary lack of attention while slicing a loaf of ciabatta bread. But I can say with very personal authority that this knife slices cleanly and almost painlessly. It has a great feel (on the handle end..) and makes quick work of any kind of bread. I highly recommend it.

GREAT VALUE AND EXCELLENT QUALITY WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK

Mercer Culinary produces cutlery that is on par with its more expensive competitors (cough, couch henkels, wusthoff) without breaking the bank. This is my second Mercer product, and I could not be more pleased with it. This knife is wicked-razor-sharp, and the edge retention is just astounding. I just filleted a whole stringer of walleye, and a few trout (about 25 fish) and I swear I could still cut a hair in mid air with this katana-sharp knife. I simply love it, but I would love it even more if they would have included an edge guard or a sheath of some kind with it; too bad that amazon does not allow to take fractions of a star because I'd probably take half of one off on account of this.

Must have for bread bakers

This knife was selected as the best bread knife on America Test Kitchen and they were not wrong. Don’t let the low price fool you. This knife is razor sharp. I bake all of our bread products so I slice a lot of bread. I made hamburger buns which are very soft and usually challenging to slice when first baked. This knife sliced through them in one swipe and didn’t even make one crumb. The handle is very comfortable and fits my medium sized hand very well. Also, the handle is just a bit offset to keep your knuckles from hitting the cutting board. Yes, I am a knife snob and this is a great one!

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