Swissmar Börner VPower V-Slicer Mandoline – Professional Kitchen Tool with Adjustable Thickness – Precision Food Slicer for Vegetables, Julienne, Shredding – Includes Safety Holder & Inserts - White

A couple of days ago, I had a recipe that required a lot of slicing, so I pulled out this mandoline for its first test. I needed to do a lot of thin slicing. Every time I cooked this recipe before, I pulled out my sharpest high-dollar knife and started slicing with a lot of fear. This time, I pulled out this mandoline and set it on the lowest setting. I sliced thinner than I had ever been able to with the highest-quality German-made knife. It was easy and fast to set up, and it performed its intended function quickly.

Why did I wait so long to buy one of these? To tell you the truth, I was afraid of the blades. Yes, this is definitely a "slicing machine," and it does it remarkably well. I've been putting it through its paces over the last couple of days and as long as I am careful, I will have remarkably evenly sliced and diced fruits and vegetables and retain my fingertips.Why use a mandoline slicer over a knife? A mandoline makes quick and extremely even slices of just about anything you throw at it. You can slice a ripe tomato into beautiful, thin, perfectly even slices faster than you can take the serrated knife out of the drawer. You can make translucent-thin slices of radish or chop an onion for sautéing. And there is very little mess as everything is contained under the mandoline and doesn't go flying around as it is being cut.This Swissmar mandoline is made by Borner in Germany. Everything about it is solid, well thought out and precision made. I purchased the product in white, but it also comes in orange, red, and green.Here are some things you should know:1) The instruction book is quite thick as it comes in 24 different languages. English is on the last two pages. Go directly to the back and read the instructions, they are important.2) There are also pictographs. Some are very helpful, some are quite small....too small to be really useful. A larger, easy to understand version is on the Amazon product page.3) The product page on Amazon has a video by the manufacturer. I found it quite helpful4) The main part of the mandoline is a molded slab of plastic with a handle on one end and two very sharp, permanently attached blades angled into a V in the middle. The "Plain Insert" is a sturdy, V shaped piece of plastic that is inserted into slots at the bottom of the main part of the mandoline. When inserted fully, and clicked into place, the "Plain Insert" rests against the sharp blades and acts as a "Safety" to close and secure the device for storage and cleaning. The "Plain Insert" can be pulled and clicked into four slicing positions that provide different thickness of slices for varying textures of food.5) In addition to the "Plain Insert" there are two additional inserts: a 3.5 and a 7mm slicer for cutting strips, julienne, shreds, and cubes. The "Plain Insert" is removed from under the mandoline and one of the others is inserted in its place. Each of these inserts has two positions, one providing a slightly thinner version of the other.6) There is a plastic holder for the two inserts that snaps on to the back of the mandoline for safe storage.7) There is a large, round "Safety Holder" or finger guard. It is absolutely imperative that it is used! Cleverly designed, it is a large, dome-shaped plastic disk that has multiple prongs on the bottom and a large tab on the top. You secure the food on to the prongs and, as you guide the finger guard over the blades, you provide slight pressure to the disk on the top. By providing the slight pressure, the tab pushes most of the food through the blades and there is very little waste that remains on the prongs. Arrows on the finger guard ensure that it is moved in the correct direction.8) As you slide the finger guard (with the food attached to it) over the mandoline with a light back and forth motion, the food is silently sliced and lays in neat piles under the device. The first time I used it, I was slicing a large radish that was totally obscured under the finger guard, and it seemed as if it had almost immediately vanished into thin air! I picked up the finger guard and just a bit of the stem end of the radish remained attached to the prongs. Where was the rest of it? I picked up the mandoline off the counter and there, underneath, was a little, perfect pile of translucent radish slices.9) Tomatoes require an adjustment for a thicker cut. I also found that one needed to "start" a tomato by slicing a small bit off the end so that the blades could "grab" the fruit and start slicing. Four back and forth movements slices a large tomato.10) The 3.5mm insert was good for mincing an onion, the 7mm blade chopped it finely.11) There is a way to dice that requires turning the finger guard 45° before the first cut and then 90° back prior to the next cut. I have yet to master this technique and have strangely cut a potato into peculiarly shaped pieces.12) Cleaning up requires some attention. Everything detaches and rinses easily but the blades are exposed and possibly dangerous. For this reason, the manufacturer recommends that the "Plain Insert" be placed into the "Safety" position prior to washing the device. I found that I needed to rinse the blades prior to inserting the "Pain Insert" back into mandoline or I couldn't get the blades clean enough. The manufacturer also recommends rinsing the two additional inserts and letting them air dry in their holder which is snapped to the back of the mandoline. This makes very good sense.13) This mandoline is not dishwasher safe.I'm quite happy with this purchase.

Very sharp, lots of settings. I use it frequently when I need to cut more than one carrot / potato / etc. The thin potato slices are PERFECT for homemade potato chips! The blades are very sharp so we pay close attention when we clean it. It doesn't seem to have little nooks for food pieces to get caught, so the cleaning is easy. It does have the ability to cube foods, too.....but it is not entirely easy. (I haven't found anything that can cube well.) Sometimes I try the cubing technique (which was not explained well in the literature, but I figured it out), and sometimes I just slice things into "sticks" and just use a knife to cube them where they fall on the cutting board. If I were doing cups and cups of items, I would have to stop frequently to pick up the slices from under the mandolin. It does about one large potato in slices before being filled underneath. I purchased this to make thin potato slices for chips, but love it when I am making soups or any other recipe which needs lots of slices, strips or cubes. I have not tried fruit, cheese or meats on this. It is well made...I have not felt that I was close to breaking it. If something were to happen to it, I would definitely buy another one.

When I tossed the first mandoline I bought into a bag destined for the Good Will, I swore I'd never waste my money on another one. Still, I'll admit, I've been tempted by those uber-expensive models they sell in the mall stores but not willing to take the chance. I don't remember how I ran across this one, but I'm so glad I did. As a vegetarian, I do a lot of chopping, dicing, and slicing. This little treasure has sped up my process and yielded more consistent results despite the fact I thought I'd developed pretty good knife skills over the years.Its main limitation is the maximum thickness of anything you want to cut up. With that limitation, however, you can achieve several thicknesses of slices and every where from a very fine to a fairly coarse dice. The coarse dice requires a different technique, but there are many demos on YouTube that will teach you how to achieve that result and many more uses for this mandoline.I will admit, I haven't had much luck using it in the proper way for carrots, celery, or radishes. You need to stick them in the holder, and they wobble and fall out. I just can't get that to work. I have developed a different way for carrots and celery that works well, but it requires being extremely careful. I hold a stick or two on top of the mandoline and push it back and forth across the blade until I get close to the end. That works very well. You probably shouldn't try it without safety gloves, if at all, but it does work and gives that great uniformity that makes for more even cooking.Ease of cleaning is an important consideration, and this one is designed to be cleaned easily. Maybe not as easy as it looks in those YouTubes, but easy. Mostly you need to rinse it off before food dries on it and check the "V" part of the blade to make sure nothing got stuck there as can happen with softer foods with skins. Compared with the nightmare of my first mandoline, that is a minor consideration.I realized how happy I was with this mandoline when I started to grab it for single-use tasks, like slicing an onion to put on a veggie burger. Hope my review helps you decide where this equipment might be what you are looking for.

I bought a Swissmar Borner V Slicer over 25 years ago, used it thousands of times and threw it in the dishwasher everytime. Just recently it formed a tiny crack so I replaced it with this - which is almost the same design but with more options. There are no height or thickness dials to loosen or strip out (which happened on other Mandolines I tried). This one has a clever notch design to adjust thickness. It is sturdy, easy to use, blade is very sharp. I'm looking forward to another 20+ years with this slicer! I note cleaning in the dishwasher is not recommended, but it is easy to hand wash - no little crevices for scraps to get caught up in.

This is an ingenious product and will work well on most vegetables and fruits. However, I wanted to turn new Wisconsin Russet Potatoes into french fries. The mandoline simply cannot handle these potatoes on their sides, and performs poorly when attempting to cut them on the short end.It's disappointing as I would bake/grill make more potatoes but struggle to get a consistent cut when done with a knife. I thought this product would change all that. I was wrong.Perhaps if I had old, soft potatoes it will work better. Only time will tell.

My first Swissmar Borner mandolin was purchased 20 years ago. As a former chef, I had purchased mandolins for over $200 and returned them because they were a disappointment. When I received my first Swissmar mandolin I was disappointed and thought it was a cheap piece of crap...until I tried it and realized that they put all the money in the blades. You can slice a ripe tomato in slices so thin you can see through it...great for pizza! I kept that unit for 15 years and threw it out figuring the company had updated the unit and made the body as awesome as the blade. It cut as well after 15 years as the day I bought it...then I found there had been no change and bought another of the same unit 5 years ago. I have that unit to this day but when I saw they FINALLY updated the body I jumped at it.First of all I LOVE the new safety feature that protects the blade flat...I now have a grandson and always worry he will find it in a drawer and cut himself...and those blades are sharp. Unlike the old unit where you flipped the plate over for thick or thin, you have several options for thickness. The grip feet at the base are nice and the holder for the other two blades is an improvement. Although it's still plastic, it doesn't look as cheap as the older model and the plastic is better quality.The blades are the gem here and it remains the same. You can still slice that tomato paper thin or nice and thick or in between. I paid a fortune for my food processor but this is what I break out 90% of the time.When my daughter found out I bought this unit she begged me for my old one...I ordered her one of these instead.Now if they would only make this in stainless steel I would pay the high price tag...maybe someday.In the meantime enjoy a really well made mandolin for a bargain price...and please don't ignore the safety holder...20 years ago I thought I could do without it until it took a good chunk of my knuckle...now I might start slicing a carrot or cucumber without it but once I get halfway I put the guard on...these blades are REALLY sharp. I have always put it in the dishwasher and never had a problems with warping, rusting or dulling.

Amazing tool for this newbie chef. I purchased this based on a product review on America's Test Kitchen which rated it highly on performance and safety. Apparently, safety is extremely important with all mandolines since it is so so very easy to slice of a portion of your hand along with the food. ATK rated the Swissmar highly in part because you can change the blades with touching any sharp parts and that you can store it while in a safety position so that you don't accidentally cut yourself while moving it either in or out of the cupboard.I find that there are dishes that I now cook on a regular basis which I would never have attempted before because I don't have the knife skills to attempt the recipe in one lifetime. With this mandoline, I am able to very efficiently go through a lot of veg in a small amount of time and that the veg is exactly the same thickness which makes for even cooking times and spectacular presentations. The blades are extemely sharp and will go through the veg like butter. I do find that I have to pause on a very periodic basis to remove the veg from underneath the mandoline. I really dislike placing this at an incline by leaning it against a bowl or placing it on top of the bowl. That just doesn't provide enough stability to make me comfortable because I do sometime have to use a little bit of force at the end of a long stroke when I'm slicing squash of eggplant lengthwise.As with anything that is extremely sharp, you do have to be very careful. There is a hand guard that is provided that will hold the food as you slice it. I would highly recommend its use especially as you get closer to the end of whatever you're slicing. **** Melissa Clark from the New York Times has an excellent suggestion. Please purchase a cut resistant glove along with the mandoline **** I really really love my mandoline and with this suggestion, intend on using it even more often.

Swissmar is best in the world, I watched so many review videos about it, ordered it and find it extremely useful. But please remember, the blades are extremely sharp. I was saved just buy luck '. Please be careful. But otherwise it's excellent product, don't look at the price, it wil last a lifetime

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I kinda love this tool! I mostly use the plain blade and slice onions, mushrooms, celery and peppers to fry up for a morning omelette. The super thin slices are paper thin for those vegetables. I have also used that setting for beets, to make beet chips which are amazing! It is trickier though with hard vegetables like beets, rutabegas, and yams to keep the slices that thin; it takes more force (using the holder of course!) to push them against the blade, and this can make the plastic under the item flex downward slightly so the slices come out a little thicker. The holder is a must for most vegetables or you risk shaving the skin off your fingers. One tiny radish can be sliced into about 20 thin slices. I don't use the other attachments much because they are more awkward and the multiple "daggers" that stick up seem scary. I have used them to make coleslaw though. I always rinse everything under the tap as soon as I'm done slicing. Beets and carrots leave a slight stain, but if I put dish liquid (Dawn) on the stains they will get fairly cleaned off. I use this mandolin almost every day. It stores easily in a cupboard, and the uniform slices are great for making vegetables stretch further. Good for pizza toppings and salads too. Tomatoes are best not sliced quite paper thin, but the next thickness up is good. I used to use a food processor to slice vegetables, but the mandolin does a cleaner cut. Great tool for garnishing salads or meals in general

Very good product, was using earlier model since 2 decades. New upgraded, sturdy, easier model. Options are convenient to handle. Best gift to home kitchen, rather must have. Enjoy fresh restaurant style salads, curries, chips, what not....

Excelente