PL8Professional Mandoline - Versatile Slicer with Adjustable Straight, Waffle, and Julienne Blades, Extra-Wide Stainless Steel Deck, Safety Hand Guard, Non-Skid Feet, and Space-Saving Design

I am really pleased that I purchased this mandoline.The things that I like about it:Blades are built in which is a great safety issue, they are adjustable, has a secure handle, is lighter in weight but stable, has a nice wide surface, easy to clean stainless steel surface. It's easy storage as it folds up. Sometimes I will place it in the dishwasher.Regarding the Hand Guard be sure there is no food blocking it. Sometimes I don't use the Guard, but I will slow down to a crawl when it gets to a certain point.This mandoline is doing the job my food processor could not; slicing 'Large' tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cabbage for shredding, and eggplant into strips. It makes excellent slices size slices to your liking.I would recommend this product.

I am just getting into cooking more home cooked meals since I work at home now and found it tedious and time consuming to slice and chop some of the things I was cooking to the point I was avoiding recipes that required a lot of slicing.A friend suggested that I get a mandolin but to skip the plastic ones and get a 'nice professional grade' model. OUCH!! When I saw some of the prices of the top end models I was going to just pass until I saw this one. It was still a little more than I wanted to pay but after using this a few times now I would have paid more!I love that there are no real blades to swap out and it is easy to clean with just a sink sprayer but after a day of using it it easily tossed right in the dishwasher and it's sparkling clean again.Changing between cuts is as easy and turning a know or sliding a switch and can be changed up very quickly and easily. The hand held part and the slider work flawlessly together and were very smooth no matter how much I jammed in there to slice. It only has 4 cut thicknesses which seemed low compared to some of the others but with a little practice and the pressure you use I can consistently get more than the 4.My first time using it it was so quick and easy I sliced enough potatoes to make two big trays of scalloped potatoes and some french fries in less than 5 minutes! It took me MUCH long to just peel the potatoes!!Solid, easy to use, quick to clean, and not having to mess with or touch the blades makes this perfect for me being a novice cook but I can see anyone using this and enjoying it.Normally I would do a PROS and CONS at the end of my review for something like this but there is no need here. Everything works great and if I come across something that I do not like or think it does not do well I will update this review.

This mandoline is every bit as beefy and beautiful as it looks, and it is very stable. The incorporated blades are important to me because I tend to cut myself when cutting anything at all and drop my knives a lot. Hopefully this will save my toes. By necessity, I’ve gotten very good at jumping away from falling knives and box cutters. All ten toes can testify. When first examining and testing the blade-closed position for storage I did manage to “catch” my finger in the gap between the closed blade and the deck while examining it for storage safety. No injury, but I did breathe in sharply and expected to see a cut. This is something to keep in mind. Even with it closed, be very careful.I was concerned that the combination of buttons and pull knobs would be a pain, but they are quick to manipulate while being well-made and placed. All of the knobs and buttons work easily, but are also quite secure and don’t feel flimsy. In fact, there is nothing about the PL8 1000 that feels flimsy. It feels and looks quite professional. The rear leg is also sturdy and beefy, easy to open or close, and the incorporated handle has a nice cushiony covering that feels durable. The designers did a good job with this mandoline. The only thing that would make it better was if it was all stainless steel. As a life-long klutz, I feel sure I will drop it at some point and it may break due to the non-metal parts – buttons, body, etc.The PL8 comes in sturdy, protective box with useful quick-start information on the back. It is well-packed for shipment. The price-point was a concern to me, but after seeing and using the PL8 1000 I think the price is spot on. I did a quick review of the manual, but it is so short that, while it was informative to a degree, it doesn’t give you anything thing more than the operational basics. The manual could be expanded bit to include a few tips, suggestions, and techniques without much trouble. The manual is quite small and the English portion is a very short five pages, but there is also a Spanish language version at the back.One thing that concerned me before purchase was the food handler guide. Since it’s attached in the picture I didn’t think it was removable. It is and that will aid when slicing tomatoes since a good cut requires a zig zag approach on a diagonal blade. It removes and reattaches easily when needed for use or cleaning. The guide also has nubs at the top and bottom to facilitate holding the veggies when cutting lengthwise. Nice. I got a cutting glove for the times I’m not using the guide. Today for testing I used a nitrile glove. Not great protection, but better than bare skin.Likes: the incorporated blades, the many choices in sizes and types of cuts, the professional quality and appearance, the speed of processing, the overall design, and the metal deck and legs. Clean-up was super easy. A rinse with my sprayer and I was done. I also like the video that shows the various things that can be done. I am slower and less clever at present, but that will change with continued use.Video found here:http://progressiveintl.com/products/professional-mandolinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjR-s5egilUDislikes: the food handler and the guide – especially the handler (zero surprise). If you lift the guide up to place food the handler falls out with a clatter so remove it first or hang on to it while lifting. The metal spikes hinder more than help. They are too few and don’t really seem to help while holding the food, even with the guide. Even then they don’t retract automatically and will come in contact with the blade if you are not careful. When not using the spikes and using the guide it works fine except that you have less cutting control. It seems to me the spikes on the handler should be spring loaded and offer at least five or six. I think I will mostly be using the PL8 1000 without the guide and handler, but with my cutting glove as I suspected before receiving. After a bit of research, part of my issue with the food handler may be my fault due to lack of experience. Time will tell. I still don't care much for it though.For me this mandoline is a learning experience. It is my first and it will take me a bit to learn the possibilities, but nonetheless it is a quality tool. I already dropped the food guide and it didn’t break – very encouraging. I will update this review and the stars once I know more.

I was looking at restaurant grade mandolins and came across this on Amazon. Since it was mostly metal I decided to give it a shot. I was very happy with the all-in-one design. There are no blades to change which limits the chances of cutting yourself. It cleans very easily and again, without having the remove the blade. It might take a little time to figure out how to hose down all the nooks and crannies but once you do it's a breeze.I also like the fact that the dials let you choose up to 5 thick/thin settings. I haven't had to go above or below the settings available. And the thinnest setting is prefect for making potato chips for frying or baking. I've only used the waffle setting once but it was very easy and worked great. Again, all there was to switch over to it was to turn the dial for the blade to the other side. My fingers were never near the blade during this.If you read this and other reviews and someone mentions the blade is dull and wouldn't cut anything, I can only tell you this was DEFINITELY not the case with mine. Right out of the box it sliced through a 3" sweet potato like it was a hot knife cutting marshmallows. I'm going to assuming this was a manufacturing issue that they have resolved. This is the best mandoline out there for the money. Don't spend a penny more or less. This is the one!