Antique and Vintage Bread Slicers: Guillotines, Early Machines and Retro Hand-Crank Models

“Antique bread slicer” is used for three different things: old household slicers, early bakery machines and new slicers made to look old. They differ in age, purpose and how safely you can use them today.

Three groups under one search

Household guillotine slicers

The best-documented old household design in our sources is Danish. The Science Museum Group in the UK holds a 'Raadvad' hand-operated bread slicer from Denmark, dated 1880 to 1900, maker unknown. Its record describes a wooden trough and base, an iron chopping blade on a hinge, and hooks that fix the base to a table. The museum gives a width of 290 mm; height (460 mm) and depth (300 mm) vary with the position of the blade.

Raadvad's own history page says the works began making bread machines around 1890 and that few Danish homes were without one. That is why “Danish bread slicer” and “old bread cutter” searches often lead to this design. The brand and the guillotine principle have their own page: Raadvad and the Danish guillotine slicer.

The 1920s bread slicer

Searches for a “1920s bread slicer” usually mean Otto Rohwedder's machine. According to Lemelson-MIT, he began working on an automatic bread slicer around 1912, a fire in late 1917 destroyed his blueprints, and he sold his first machine to the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri, which sold its first loaf of sliced bread on July 7, 1928. Lemelson-MIT also notes that one of the first models of his machine is held by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The full story is on who invented the bread slicer.

These machines sliced whole loaves for sale in a bakery. They were never kitchen devices, and an old commercial slicer is a collector's or bakery item – today's equivalents are covered on commercial bread slicers.

Retro models sold new

Some slicers sold as “vintage” are new products with an old look. The best known is the chrome Zassenhaus Vintage, a manual slicer with a crank. Zassenhaus lists it (item 072006) with a serrated round blade made in Solingen, a die-cast and wood body, a crumb compartment and a base plate that folds up; details are on the Zassenhaus Vintage page.

Retailers give China as the Vintage's country of origin. The Küchenprofi Group, which runs the Zassenhaus shop, lists a replacement blade (item 000634) and a blade screw (item 001297) for it – parts we found no source for in the case of old guillotine slicers. The model has its own page: Zassenhaus Vintage.

What to check before you buy an old slicer

1. The blade. Look for rust, nicks and a loose fixing. For old guillotines and no-name crank slicers, we found no source for spare blades, so a damaged blade may end the slicer's working life.
2. The hinge or crank. A guillotine blade should come down straight without wobbling; a crank should turn without play.
3. The fixing. The museum's Raadvad slicer is fixed to the table with hooks. Modern crank slicers use suction feet; Zassenhaus asks for a firm, flat and smooth surface and clean suction feet.
4. Completeness. Check that the trough, fence or thickness setting and all screws are present.
5. Use or display. A slicer for the shelf needs none of the above. A slicer for daily bread needs all of it.

What we do not cover

We give no values, prices or auction results, and we found no museum or auction source that dates household slicers more precisely than the examples above. When the first household bread slicers appeared is not settled by the sources we read.

Old look, current specs

If you like the classic look but want documented data, a current hand-crank slicer is the safer buy.

Our pick: hand-crank slicerZassenhaus

Zassenhaus Classic

The classic rotary bread slicer: serrated Solingen blade, crank, beechwood base – no motor, no cord.

Why here: A classic-looking crank slicer with published specs: stepless 1–18 mm, serrated blade made in Solingen, die-cast body on a beechwood board.

Best for: Households that mostly slice bread and want a brand crank slicer with documented specs and a compact footprint.

Strengths

• Stepless 1–18 mm (about 1/25–0.7 in) – from thin sandwich slices to thick toast
• Die-cast and stainless steel body on a beechwood base, four suction feet
• Smallest footprint of the brand hand-crank slicers in our comparison

Weaknesses

• No carriage and no end-piece holder listed – the last piece of the loaf needs care
• Premium price class, several times the unbranded crank slicers
• Only the blade is documented as made in Solingen; retailers list the Czech Republic as country of origin

Type

Hand-crank slicer for bread

Blade

Round serrated stainless blade, made in Solingen (diameter not stated)

Slice thickness

1–18 mm stepless (about 1/25–0.7 in)

Size

11.8 × 10 × 7.5 in (30 × 25.5 × 19 cm)

Weight

5.3 lb (2.4 kg)

Carriage & holder

Beechwood base, no carriage or end-piece holder listed

Price class: Premium

View on Amazon*(paid link to Amazon, opens in a new tab)Ad · paid link · check price & delivery on AmazonLearn more Ad

The Zassenhaus Classic cuts steplessly from 1 to 18 mm (about 1/25 to 0.7 in), weighs 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) and has a serrated round blade made in Solingen; a replacement blade (item 003505) is listed in the Zassenhaus spare-parts shop. How it compares with other crank slicers is on the hand-crank bread slicer page, and the full brand story on Zassenhaus bread slicers.