For a while now I've been using a really fantastic tool for slashing bread.
I have never seen these knives available for retail sale. Panera bread, who
I work for, buys these through Dawn Foods. It's a small serrated blade that
looks similar to a swiss army pocket knife. These knives slash just about
any bread dough and each blade lasts about 3 months. We buy them in boxes
of 10 and each blade costs about 14 dollars, which makes a box of them
about 140-150 dollars. If there's a Panera Bread around you, you might be
able to convince them to sell you one.
Another tool I've used is a razor blade tip inserted into an exacto knife.
This works well but is a bit risky; it's easy to cut yourself using this
method.
Roxanne