Norpro Deluxe Mandoline Slicer/Grater, Black, 12-in.

I must have read at least 100 different reviews for various mandolines here on Amazon before finally deciding on this one. What drew me the most was the versatility - with 5 different blades in all (regular blade, crinkle-cut blade, and 3 different sizes of cross-cut blades) you already have quite a lot of different slices available, but the BEST feature, IMO, is the fact that you can easily and quickly adjust the thickness of slices by moving the main "platform" up and down (in an infinite number of positions), thereby making your slice thickness vary from paper-thin to quite thick! I LOVE being able to adjust the thickness of every slice!The safety food-holder works fantastically well, with a kind of spring-loaded knob in the middle, which you push down with your palm, while holding the entire holder. This allows you to slice all the way down to the last, tiny shred, without using your fingers or wasting any food. Some foods may be too large to fit well, so you might have to cut large items down a little before using the guard. Also, I don't think it works the best on multiple items - such as several pieces of celery or several carrots at once - it does much better just doing one piece at a time. (as an aside, with celery, I had to stop partway through some slicing, to cut the "threads" which tend to not cut perfect every time - the slicer does a great job, but celery does sometimes let some of the long fibers go uncut)When I wanted to cut several pieces of things (such as celery, etc) I just ditched the safety/guard and held the food with my hand. BUT - if you do this, you MUST, MUST, MUST use (at the very least) one of those cut-resistant gloves (I bought these: BladeX5 57100 Classic Cut & Slash Resistant Gloves Cut Resistant Level 5 EN388 CE Approved, grey, Medium  and they work AMAZINGLY well! I literally could not cut through this material, even when I tried. (yes, I actually tried to cut them - I wanted to see how much I could trust them before I dared cutting without the guard!) You still have to be careful, and use great care when using this mandoline, as it is EXTREMELY SHARP, but using these gloves really helps a lot! When I want to do a handful of stuff, the gloves have, I'm positive, saved me from slicing off the side of my hand!The main blade is reversible, with the other end of it being the crinkle-cut blade. It is very simple and quick to remove, using a nice big knob underneath, so your hands never need to be near the blade when you are removing or reversing it. Also, being so easily removable makes it super-easy to clean, and I do believe I could take it to a professional sharpener any time I wanted. I have e-mailed the company to see if they offer replacement blades, and YES, you can order replacement blades if you need to!The cutter has worked fantastically well so far, with everything from carrots, to potatoes, kiwi-fruit, strawberries, cucumbers (even with the sometimes-tough skin intact), tomatoes (amazingly well!) and hard cheeses. It was not ideal for soft cheese (I tried it with room-temperature Muenster, which did not work the best - the cheese stuck to the blade - it may have worked better if I sprayed the blade with non-stick spray first. I plan to try that next time I want to slice or grate soft cheese).I am very happy with my choice, and am actually having FUN using it! LOL! (My husband thinks I'm crazy to be so excited about a "slicer" - though he agrees it is the best time-saver he's seen).Highly recommended! (But again, if you slice without the guard, be SURE to use those cut-resistant gloves!)

The mandoline part works excellently and the french fry/jullienne attachements are easy to put in. The blade is literally a razor, so cutting is pretty easy and it is adjustable so you get just the thickness you want. The thing I don't love...the food holder. This holder does not do a great job grabbing on to the food your are slicing. I tried making sweet potato fries, and as soon as the sweet potato hit the blades, the food holder slipped off the potato. Yesterday, I was julienning carrots, and I ended up with more shredded on the top side from the holder than the bottom from the blades. This means I end up using a kevlar glove to do my slicing. If you are only using it now and then or are only doing flat slices (not using the dice/shred attachments), fine. I'm not going to buy another, but I am going to see if I can get another brand of food holder. And, if I were to buy a mandoline again, I would get something with a better food holder.

This was a very good Mandolin for the money. I bought this and a food dehydrator at the same time, and it is ideal for getting a lot of same-thickness pieces. It works well to make julienne fries, or thicker sticks, as well as crinkle cut chips/sticks/etc. I have used this several times to essentially shred an onion, and that's considerably better than trying to cut the onion with a knife. It doesn't work very well for me with cheese, because of the tendency for the cheese to stick to the blade, and I tried to slice some garlic, but the cloves were small enough that they were a bit too fiddly to slice. However, bananas, plantains, pineapple, peppers, tomatoes, lemons, oranges, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, carrots, cucumber...all have worked very well for me.I especially like the adjustable blade - a couple of turns and it is thicker or thinner - huge versatility there. Not so versatile on the cross pieces (there are three) but then I don't know how many different widths you really need anyway. The folding rest really works well, though I haven't personally had much luck slicing into a bowl (but then, I've also not really needed to slice into a bowl, so I have only tried once or twice).I read the reviews for several different mandolins, and saw quite a few comments about one or another being too sharp, and warning about safety. The whole safety thing is a good warning, as I've sliced the tip of my finger on this, and it hurts a lot. If you sacrifice the safety of the handle/guide for the speed and ease of not using it, you risk cutting yourself. However, I'd say this is about as safe as a knife or a cheese grater, so...It is fairly easy to clean, though you probably want a brush to clean the cross pieces, as they're pretty sharp and have tiny spaces.

This mandolin is easy to use but the blade is not as sharp as I expected and it's just too bulky. It slips while I'm trying to slice thing and I end up cutting myself. I stopped using it because it was too frustrating.

I have had this since Christmas and it has been used to slice tomatoes, onions, carrots, and LOTS of potatoes. The blade has held up nicely, and the attachments work very well. The unit sits very solid on my table top, and have had no worries about it tipping or moving around on me. It does have grooves to fit to a bowl as well. It comes apart nicely for cleaning, although the guard is tough to hand clean. The only gripe i have is the thickness adjustment seems a little bit loose, but i solved that by installing a "locking nut" that I butt up against the other nut when i have my height adjusted. I did this just to make sure the height doesn't re-adjust itself in the middle of slicing. I would recommend this slicer, it has worked great for me.