Review on Swissmar Borner Power Mandoline V 7000 by Fred Reid

My mother bought me this product for Christmas. I was very excited because I had done a lot of research on mandolins and this had to be the best. What I received was a difficult to use, cheap feeling product that didn't live up to any hype. Normal V-shaped blades are micro-serrated rather than truly sharp. This is not visible even if you enlarge the image on Amazon. I never felt like I was using "incredibly sharp stainless steel surgical blades". Each veg was a struggle to get through. Many times I had to pull and push the veggies and then repeat - I couldn't get a single clean cut in one motion. Even the soft interior of the zucchini created a charge. Also, if you try to use the edges of the blade, the veggies will be pushed towards the V and then get stuck there - so they'll keep pushing and pulling. Assembled blades are awkward to install and dangerous to cut. "Safety holders!" you say. Chunky design and hard to get hold of to food. When I held (or rather tried to hold) my veggies this way ), I could barely get it to move, let alone cut. I found that my hand wanted to slide from the keeper right onto the blade. I tried very hard to avoid this, but gave up on the keeper. The carrots, I tried to cut weren't as quick and easy as I had hoped. In fact, they butchered quicker for me, making julienne is cleaner by hand with a *very dull* knife. Same goes for matches. Regarding the material is the metal used in the blades and bits malleable which is not good.the plastic of the body is thick and hard enough to withstand the force.but if you have veggies or water in your hands feel it t feel slippery. I had to use the mandolin horizontally after it would shift every time I tried the slanted approach. I haven't seen any coloring from Mando since I got the red model. The line was easy enough to clean, but I'd recommend a brush with a handle for better cleaning. I was afraid the little notches would get caught on my sponge. In general, look elsewhere for the mandolin. I didn't particularly like the V-shaped design. The material has failed. The blades were dull and brittle to the point of danger. The design made things worse, not better. Choose a solid single-reed mandolin that's really sharp and has a great grip - everything this one doesn't have!