Something I find about the knives I prefer is the blade is very thin. Other knives have chunky blades, which means you need to apply more force to dig them into the thing you're cutting. A bread or carving knife with a thin blade makes minimal displacement of the material sideways, which means I need less pressure cutting and am less likely to mangle soft items.
Some of the knives sold as bread knifes tend to have very pathetic serrations. I prefer those that are more like a first fix saw, with identifiable teeth. This kind of thing:
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On that note, mitre box and tenon saw? Or a nice Japanese pull saw?
Theo