Glossary
Bread Slicer Glossary: Carriage, Fence, Serrated Blade, Suction Feet and More
Spec sheets for bread slicers use words that rarely get explained – fence, carriage, end-piece holder, undulated blade. This glossary translates them into plain English, sorted alphabetically, with the numbers from the manufacturers' data where they help.
The terms below are sorted alphabetically. Each definition is short and, where a manufacturer states a number, uses that number. Where a term describes a whole type of device, the page on types of bread slicers explains how it compares with the others.
How the parts of a crank slicer fit together
Most of the vocabulary comes from the hand-crank bread slicer. Picture it from the side: the loaf lies on a board or a carriage. You push it against the fence, also called the stop plate. The gap between fence and blade is the slice thickness, which you set with a knob – steplessly on brand models. One hand turns the crank, which spins the round serrated blade. Suction feet hold the base on the counter.
The words that matter most for safety are the ones around the last piece of the loaf. A thumb guard on the carriage keeps the pushing hand away from the blade, and an end-piece holder grips the stub that is too small to hold safely. Not every slicer has them: Graef includes both with the H9, ritterwerk sells the holder separately for the manus 3, and the Zassenhaus Classic lists neither.
The words around slicing guides
A bread slicing guide has no blade. It uses your own knife and sets the thickness with slots or rails, in fixed steps instead of steplessly. The figure to look for on a guide is the loaf limit: the height and width of the largest loaf that fits between its walls. The plastic Akebono PS-955 states one; most guides do not. All guides are compared on the bread slicing guide page.
Words that sound alike but mean different things
- Bread slicer vs. food slicer. A food (meat) slicer cuts cold cuts and cheese as well as bread and often has a carriage; a bread slicer such as the Zassenhaus Classic is meant for bread.
- Electric bread slicer. In a home kitchen this usually means a food slicer or an electric knife; the bakery machines sold under the same name are commercial equipment. The details are on electric bread slicers.
- Bread cutter. Used for slicers and guides, but also for dough tools such as the lame, which never touches a baked loaf.
On this site
Two of the terms are our own. Seller data only marks products for which only the Amazon listing is available; they are never our pick. And we say “compared by spec sheet”, not “tested”: we did not find an independent lab test of manual bread slicers, and how we compare is explained under how we compare. Answers to typical buying questions are collected under questions and answers, and the full overview starts on the manual bread slicer homepage.
- Bagel guillotine
- A small slicer that holds one bagel in a cradle and brings a blade down from above, usually behind a shield. It splits bagels and rolls once; it does not slice a loaf.
- Bow knife
- A serrated blade held under tension in a wooden bow. It is a hand tool, so the slice thickness depends on your hand unless you add a guide.
- Bread slicing guide
- A frame of plastic, bamboo or steel with slots or rails that keeps an ordinary bread knife vertical at a fixed distance. It has no blade of its own; the Akebono PS-955, for example, has five fixed steps from 10 to 30 mm.
- Carriage
- A sliding tray that holds the loaf and moves it past the blade of a slicer. Graef lists a removable stainless carriage with thumb guard for the H9; ritterwerk gives a carriage travel of about 20 cm (7.9 in) for the manus 3. The Zassenhaus Classic has no carriage listed.
- Commercial bread slicer
- A counter or floor machine for bakeries and stores that cuts a whole loaf in one pass with many blades at one fixed thickness. VEVOR lists its counter model with 370 W and 12 mm slices; it is not a household appliance.
- Crank
- The handle that turns the round blade of a hand-crank slicer. One hand cranks, the other pushes the loaf against the fence; there is no motor and no cord.
- Crumb tray
- A removable tray under a slicing guide or slicer that catches crumbs. The Akebono PS-955 and the Bambüsi bamboo guide both include one.
- End-piece holder
- A holder that grips the last piece of the loaf so your fingers stay away from the blade. Graef includes one with the H9; ritterwerk sells it separately for the manus 3; the Zassenhaus Classic lists none.
- Fence (stop plate)
- The adjustable plate the loaf is pushed against. The gap between fence and blade is the slice thickness, set with a knob or dial – on the Zassenhaus Classic steplessly from 1 to 18 mm.
- Food slicer (meat slicer)
- A slicer with a round blade and a carriage, built for cold cuts and cheese as well as bread. It can be hand-cranked, like the Graef H9, or electric, like the Cuisinart Kitchen Pro FS-75 with a range of 1/32 to 1/2 inch. The German word is Allesschneider.
- GS mark
- The German “Geprüfte Sicherheit” (tested safety) mark, awarded by a testing body. ritterwerk lists the TÜV Rheinland GS mark for the manus 3.
- Hand-crank bread slicer
- A manual slicer in which a crank turns a round serrated blade while the loaf is pushed against an adjustable fence. Also called a rotary bread slicer; it is one of the two families of manual bread slicers.
- Lame
- A razor tool for scoring raw dough before baking. It is sometimes found under bread cutter searches but does not slice a baked loaf.
- Loaf limit
- The largest loaf height and width a slicer or guide takes. The Akebono PS-955 states up to 200 mm high and 140 mm wide (about 7.9 × 5.5 in); most crank slicers state none.
- Manual bread slicer
- A kitchen device without a motor that cuts a loaf into even slices, either with a round serrated blade turned by a hand crank while the loaf is pushed on a carriage against an adjustable fence, or with a frame that guides a bread knife at a fixed thickness. Wikidata lists it as “bread slicer” (Q21043216).
- Seller data only
- Our label for products for which only the Amazon listing is available, without a manufacturer data sheet. Such products are shown as options, never as our pick.
- Serrated blade (wave edge, undulated)
- A blade with a toothed or wavy edge that cuts through a hard crust before it presses on the crumb. The Zassenhaus Classic has a round wave-cut blade made in Solingen, the Graef H9 a 190 mm wave-edge blade, the Cuisinart FS-75 a 7.5-inch undulated blade.
- Shokupan
- Japanese pan bread, sold by the number of slices per loaf. The Akebono guide's steps match those cuts, from 12 slices at 10 mm to 4 slices at 30 mm.
- Slice length
- The longest cut a slicer with a carriage can make across the food. Graef states 150 mm (about 5.9 in) for the H9.
- Stepless adjustment
- A thickness setting that can be set anywhere within its range instead of in fixed steps. The Zassenhaus Classic (1–18 mm), the Graef H9 (0–15 mm) and the ritter manus 3 (up to about 20 mm) are stepless; slicing guides use fixed steps.
- Suction feet
- Rubber or silicone feet that hold a slicer on a smooth countertop. The Zassenhaus Classic has four; Graef lists four rubber suction feet for smooth surfaces; the ritter manus 3 combines steel feet with four silicone suction feet.
- Thumb guard
- A shield on the carriage that keeps the pushing hand away from the blade. Graef lists a built-in finger guard on the H9's stainless carriage.
Sources we read
- Wikidata: Q21043216 bread slicer
- Culinaris: Zassenhaus Bread slicing machine Classic (technical data)
- GRAEF: Allesschneider Manuale H9 silber (product page, German)
- ritterwerk: Allesschneider manus 3 (product page, German)
- Globalkitchen Japan: Akebono bread slicer PS-955 (technical data)
- Abt: Cuisinart Kitchen Pro FS75 food slicer (specifications)
Keep reading
- ExplainerTypes of bread slicersThe types of bread slicers explained: rotary hand-crank, slicing guide, bow knife, guillotine, food slicer and electric knife – how each cuts and what it suits.
- Buying guideHand-crank slicersHow a hand-crank bread slicer works, what the spec sheets say about thickness, blade and carriage, and which rotary slicer fits your loaf – no motor, no cord.
- Buying guideBread slicing guidesBread slicing guides compared by spec sheet: thickness steps, loaf size, knife or no knife, plastic or bamboo – and when a guide is the wrong tool for your loaf.
- OverviewQuestions & answersCommon questions about manual bread slicers answered briefly: are they worth it, is the Zassenhaus worth it, do loaves fit – with sources and links to the guides.
- About usHow we compareHow our bread slicer picks come about: which spec sheets we read, how we label listing-only products, what we never claim and how the site is funded.
Who compares here
manualbreadslicer.com Editorial Team
Bread slicer comparisons & explainers
We are the editorial team at manualbreadslicer.com. We compare hand-crank bread slicers, slicing guides and their electric alternatives using manufacturer spec sheets, manuals, retailer data and primary sources such as Lemelson-MIT – with sources on every page. We do not run lab tests, and we say so openly.
- Spec sheets & manuals compared
- Sources on every page
- No lab tests – stated openly
- Publisher details in the imprint