I bought this looking for something easier to store, set up, and put away than my Bron mandoline, but wound up somewhat disappointed. This is hard to store, and there's some problems with how the blades are configured.
This slicer measures 3-5/8" x 8", plus another 3-1/2" for the handle, so roughly 3-1/2" x 12" overall. That's smaller than the 6" x 16" Bron, but still pretty big, and takes a lot of room in the drawer. The bigger issue with storage is that there no way to protect the blade. The cutting guard doesn't attch in any way, and it comes packaged on a card, so there no box to keep it in. As a result, you have to hang it up or find a spot where the blades won't be damaged.
The blade configuration is the second big problem. Unlike the Bron, the vertical blades sit exposed about 1/2" in front of the horizontal blade. 40 razor sharp vertical nibs of somewhat brittle ceramic are not what I'd call a good idea. Hard to store safely--do you want ribbons sliced into your hand while fishing around in a drawer?--and hard to protect from damage.
Usage-wise, this is effective. As typical for Kyocera, the blades on this are extremely sharp. I have some Kyocera knives over 12 years old that are still razor-sharp, despite never haveing been sharped. The one caveat is that you can chip the blades if you aren't careful.
Like most mandolines, the blade guard serves more to guard against lawsuits than actually providing a way to protect your hand. Leave a stub on the vegetables you're cutting, and use a dishtowel or a cut-resistant glove to protect your hand. Because the vertical blades are exposed and not tucked under the main blade, you'll need to be very careful as you get toward the end.
Cut-wise, this works pretty well. You get a standard julienne cut. I don't know why it's call a wide julienne. The only quibble is that unless you use a lot of downward pressure, you tend to get ribbons instead of square julienne. Downward pressure is dangerous because of those exposed vertical blades. On a standard mandoline, you can adjust to compensate for that, but here you are stuck with the designed blade spacing.
In the end this loses a star for the exposed blades, and a second star for the lack of a guard for storage.
I have been using this product for a few years now. It is a very simple kitchen tool that does the job well enough in many situations. It julianne slices ginger, cucumber, carrot, and a lot of other things, especially for those that are used in bulk quantity or only for flavor. For example, when I make ginger-infused dry vermouth, I can use less ginger and still extract ginger flavor fully and quickly by julienne slicing ginger. If I'm slicing ginger by hand, I'd not bother julienne slicing and use more sliced ginger and infuse a bit longer. But this thing is handy in a situation like this. (Julienne sliced ginger is easy to remove by straining.)
For salad and garnish, I would still slice them by hand. The cut surfaces do not look as pretty compared to the results I can get easily using a very sharp vegetable knife (which is generally true for a lot of cutting tools of this type). The advantage of this tool is speed and simplicity. Again, I would not use this thing to make garnish, unless I'm cooking for a large party. But then a better option is a professional quality mandoline with a proper blade.
Among a few other good options for julienne slicing, I still rate it 4 stars because it is simple, easy to use, quick to wash and store away. Professional grade mandoline would require more work to set up and clean up. Hand cutting would require clean cutting board space. This tool requires not much more than two hands to work with.
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With this you get professional thin (amazon description says 1/8" but the one that arrived was 1/10" or 0.1" compared to 0.09" for the regular julienne slicer, I don't think that makes it much different to advertise this product as giving you a "wide" julienne... the size difference is so minute that you probably won't be able to tell) julienne cuts easily and fast! It is amazing.
The finger protector is not perfect but works fine when the vegetable gets to about 2 inches high or less. Obviously, it will leave about a 1/3 inch stump you'll have to either cut yourself or use it for another time. I say this because the julienne pieces are so beautifully uniform that you'd probably want to not mix anything else :)
What's great about this product is that the blade is made from ceramic with some kind of high tech diamond sharpened technology and it sure is sharp! And they don't rust or corrode and they advertise that it stays sharp 10 times longer than steel blades.
Highly recommend! My only regret is that I did not get the slicer together, I'm going to get the double-sided slicer, for vegetables like onions and peppers which can't be julienned.
I think I could make great hashbrown with this stuff in no time!!!
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I bought this and it does exactly what I wanted and expected.
There is a typo on the package and in the product description: the strips produced are not 1" wide, they are 0.1"=2.5mm wide. The typo is clear enough from the product picture where the little verticle teeth are spaced at 1/10th of an inch, but I thought it might be worth commenting.
Love these slicers!
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I have used this slicer several times a week for almost 6 months. It is still as sharp as the day I got it. I use it mainly to slice carrots and cucumbers. Slicing is fast and easy. I can slice an entire cucumber in less than a minute. I generally just rinse the slicer well and let it air dry. I put it in the dishwasher periodically or after slicing carrots (to get rid of the orange carrot color). The slicer comes with a small plastic thingy with little plastic spikes to use as a holder when the vegetable or fruit gets small (to avoid thinly slicing your fingers -I have no doubt that this would slice fingers quite easily, although I have thus far avoided testing that theory!). The little plastic guard works, but it takes me some doing to keep a carrot or other really hard vegetable from slipping off, as the little plastic spikes work better on softer foods. The slicer is very thin, so storage is easy, even in my cramped kitchen. I lean it against the inside wall of a cabinet, slicing side toward the wall. I wouldn't want to stick it in a drawer, as I would be afraid of slicing my fingertips off while looking for it. The only real drawback I see is that the thickness of slices is not adjustable. You only get paperthin. I will have to see if they make one of these for thicker slices, as sometimes I want a thicker slice.
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What a wonderful knife. Inexpensive, yet great quality! A very well built knife that holds a great edge. Will certainly buy more Forged Synergy knives.
