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Short answer: non-serrated (straight-edge) steak knives are the better knife, and serrated steak knives are the more forgiving one. A straight edge slices cleanly and can be resharpened at home on a whetstone; a serrated edge saws through a tough or over-rested cut without any sharpening at all, but is fiddly to maintain and tears the meat fibres more.
Choose serrated if the knives live in a cutlery drawer and nobody in the house will ever sharpen them. Choose straight-edge if you already own a whetstone and care about a clean cut. And if you slice the steak in the kitchen before it reaches the table — as most restaurants do — you need neither: a sharp chef knife and an ordinary table knife will do the job better.
Steak is one of the most popular dishes in the UK, whether you are cooking one at home or ordering it out. It is also one of the few things on the plate that can genuinely defeat an ordinary table knife.
However, it can be a little challenging to eat with regular table cutlery, so you will need a sharp knife to make life easier — either a good steak knife at the table, or a proper chef knife to carve it in the kitchen first.
You will notice that these knives come in two types: serrated steak knives and non-serrated steak knives. But which are the best steak knives, serrated vs non-serrated?
Table of contents
Why Do You Need a Steak Knife?
Many people compare a steak knife to a utility knife on a smaller scale, and there are real similarities. The reason to consider a proper set is simple: the blade is sharper than ordinary table cutlery, so it parts the meat cleanly instead of dragging at it. A high-carbon stainless steel holds that edge for longer between sharpenings.
A steak knife earns its place beyond meat too — cheese, fruit and firm vegetables all cut well with one. For the full picture on what a steak knife is actually for, we have a separate guide.
What Are Serrated Steak Knives?
When you think of a steak knife, you will probably picture a serrated blade, as these are the more traditional of the two blade types. This type of steak knife has a scalloped edge like a bread knife: raised points with recessed curves — the gullets — sharpened between them. The points break the surface of the meat and the sharpened gullets do the cutting as you draw the blade back.
What is useful about a serrated edge is that it moves through food on a sawing motion rather than on downward pressure. Plenty of people prefer a serrated steak knife for exactly that reason: it gets through a tough cut without any technique at all.
Serrated blades genuinely do stay usable for longer, and it is not a matter of opinion. The sharpened gullets sit recessed behind the raised points, so they never touch the plate or the board and are shielded from the abrasion that dulls a straight edge. The trade-off is that serrated steak knives need far more care when sharpening, which is more awkward work — more on that below.
What Are Non-Serrated Steak Knives?
You may hear a non-serrated knife called a straight-edge knife; they are the same thing. Like their serrated cousins they are very sharp, but the edge is smooth, so they want a slicing motion rather than a sawing one. There is far less chance of tearing the meat, which is what a serrated blade tends to do.
Ask anyone who cooks steak often and they will usually prefer a straight edge, because a clean slice severs the muscle fibres instead of dragging at them — so the meat holds on to more of its juice and the cut face looks better.
That said, a straight edge does not stay sharp for as long as a serrated one, which makes it the higher-maintenance of the two. The upside is that sharpening it is far simpler and can be done at home, whereas many people send their serrated knives out to a professional.
Serrated vs non-serrated steak knives: which is better?
Non-serrated steak knives cut better and serrated steak knives cut for longer. A straight edge parts the fibres in one clean pass and can be resharpened at home in minutes. A serrated edge saws through a tough cut without ever needing sharpening, but leaves a rougher cut face.
| Serrated | Non-serrated (straight edge) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting action | Sawing | Slicing |
| Cut face | Rougher — the teeth tear fibres | Clean and flat |
| Stays usable | Years — the cutting points sit below the board line and are protected | Months of regular use before it needs attention |
| Sharpening | Tapered ceramic rod, one gullet at a time; most people send them out | Whetstone at home, 10 minutes |
| Best for | Households that will never sharpen anything | Anyone who already owns a whetstone |
Which One Should I Choose?
There are pros and cons to both types of steak knife, so it is worth thinking about your own preference, as that will largely make the decision for you. It is true that a serrated blade is the more common option — but common is not the same as better.
What is good about serrated knives is that you can cut through the steak with very little resistance and almost no upkeep. They are easy to use, and although they are more awkward to maintain, you will rarely need to.
The good thing about a non-serrated steak knife is that it slices rather than tears, so the fibres are cut cleanly and less juice is pushed out onto the plate. The catch is the work: depending on the knife, you may find it a little harder going on a particularly tough steak. As we have already mentioned, it is much easier to maintain, which does appeal to a lot of people.
Straight talk
We don't sell steak knives — here's what we'd use instead
Worth saying plainly: Santoku Knives is a Japanese-steel kitchen knife specialist and we don't stock steak knives or table cutlery. What we do stock is the knife that makes steak knives largely unnecessary, and the stone that keeps the straight-edge steak knives you already own actually cutting. Both are below.
Haruta 8" Gyuto Chef Knife
Best for: slicing the rested steak against the grain in the kitchen, so it reaches the table already carved and nobody needs a steak knife at all.
★★★★★ 4.87 out of 5 · 111 reviews
£89.99
A 67-layer stainless Damascus cladding over a Japanese VG10 steel core, hand-finished to a fine edge. An 8" gyuto has the length to carve a whole sirloin or a rib of beef in long, single strokes — which is exactly what a serrated steak knife cannot do. Slice across the grain at an angle, fan the slices onto the plate, and the steak knife question stops mattering.
Whetstone Sharpening Stones 400/1000 3000/8000
Best for: keeping the straight-edge steak knives you already own genuinely sharp — the maintenance job that makes non-serrated the better choice in the first place.
★★★★★ 4.87 out of 5 · 119 reviews
£59.99
Two double-sided stones covering 400, 1000, 3000 and 8000 grit. The 1000 grit resets a dulled straight-edge steak knife in a few minutes; the 3000/8000 puts a polish on it. This will not work on a serrated edge — that needs a tapered ceramic rod worked one gullet at a time, which is the honest downside of the serrated option.
Haruta 5" Utility Knife
Best for: the closest thing we stock to a straight-edge steak knife — a short, sharp, pointed blade for trimming, portioning and cutting at the board.
★★★★★ 4.87 out of 5 · 111 reviews
£69.99
Same Japanese VG10 steel core and Damascus cladding as the gyuto, in a 5" blade. Be clear about what this is and isn't: it is a kitchen knife, not table cutlery, and we would not send it to the table with a guest. But if what you actually wanted from a "non-serrated steak knife" was a short blade that slices cleanly through meat, this is the one. Trimming a fat cap or silverskin first? The Haruta 6" Boning Knife is £79.99.
Making the Most Out of Your Steak Knives
While your prep knives may be proudly stored in a block or on a magnetic wall knife rack, steak knives are usually thrown into the cutlery drawer with everything else. That is not the best way to treat them. A wooden drawer organiser stops the blades knocking against other utensils, which is what dulls an edge prematurely.
Clean them properly too, and keep them out of the dishwasher. Hand washing takes a couple of minutes and it noticeably extends the life of the edge. Cut on a proper chopping board rather than a china plate, which blunts any edge quickly, and if you keep your kitchen knives in a knife block the same care rules apply.
Sharpening is where the two types really diverge. A straight-edge steak knife sharpens on a whetstone like any other kitchen knife. A serrated one has to be worked one scallop at a time, because each gullet is its own small curved edge — and since serrated blades are usually ground on one side only, you work that side and then lift the burr off the flat side.
For that reason a lot of people choose to have their serrated knives sharpened by a professional. If you want to do it yourself you will need a tapered ceramic rod, thin enough at the tip to sit inside the smallest gullet. Avoid electric pull-through sharpeners entirely — they grind flat across the teeth and will wreck a serrated edge in a single pass.
Final Thoughts
Serrated and straight-edge steak knives are not really competing on the same ground. Serrated cuts for longer with no upkeep at all; straight-edge cuts better and asks for ten minutes on a stone every few months.
Steak knives are sold as singles and as sets, though not by us — we make Japanese-steel kitchen knives rather than table cutlery. Which type you choose will mostly come down to how you eat and whether anyone in the house will ever sharpen them. And if you carve the steak in the kitchen before it reaches the table, the question stops mattering: a sharp chef knife does the job better than either.
Steak knife FAQs
Are serrated or non-serrated steak knives better?
Non-serrated steak knives cut better; serrated steak knives cut for longer without maintenance. A straight edge parts the meat fibres in one clean pass and leaves a flat cut face, and you can resharpen it at home on a whetstone in about ten minutes. A serrated edge saws through a tough or over-rested cut without ever being sharpened, because its cutting points sit below the board line and are protected from contact. The trade-off is a rougher cut face and a fiddly sharpening job that most people send out. Pick serrated if nobody in the house will ever sharpen a knife; pick straight-edge if you already own a whetstone.
Are all steak knives serrated?
No. Serrated is the more common style, particularly in restaurants and in supermarket cutlery sets, because it works indefinitely without sharpening. Straight-edge steak knives are widely made too and are the preferred choice of most steakhouses that grind their own edges. A steak knife is defined by being a sharp table knife, not by having teeth.
Can you sharpen serrated steak knives at home?
Yes, but it is slow work. A serrated edge has to be sharpened one scallop at a time with a tapered ceramic rod sized to fit the gullet, working only the ground side of the blade and then removing the burr from the flat side. A whetstone will not do it and an electric pull-through sharpener will destroy the teeth. Straight-edge steak knives, by contrast, sharpen on a 1000-grit whetstone like any other kitchen knife.
What is the best knife for cutting steak?
For cutting a steak at the table, a sharp straight-edge steak knife. For cutting a steak in the kitchen, a chef knife is better than any steak knife: the extra blade length lets you slice a rested steak across the grain in one long stroke rather than sawing at it. Slicing in the kitchen and serving the steak already carved is standard restaurant practice, and it means the table only needs an ordinary knife.
Do serrated steak knives stay sharp longer?
Yes, and it is geometry rather than opinion. The cutting points of a serrated blade are the raised teeth, and the actual cutting edges sit recessed in the scallops between them. Those recessed edges never touch the plate or the board, so they are shielded from the abrasion that dulls a straight edge. A serrated steak knife will keep working for years of ordinary use; a straight edge needs attention every few months.
Related guides
- How Do You Sharpen a Serrated Knife? — the tapered-rod method, if you went serrated
- How to Sharpen a Knife Using a Whetstone — the 10-minute routine for straight-edge blades
- Which Is the Best Meat Slicer? — for carving before the steak reaches the table
- Steak Knives: Why Are They Important? — what else a steak knife is good for beyond meat
- Japanese Knife Care: Complete Chef Knife Care Guide
- Can You Put Chef Knives in the Dishwasher?
Building the kitchen kit around the steak
Every knife we make uses a Japanese VG10 or AUS-10 steel core under a hand-finished Damascus cladding. Browse the full range as single knives or as a set.
