Starfrit Deli Slicer - Slices Meat, Cheese, Bread - 6.5" Stainless Steel Blade - Adjustable Thickness Knob - Nestable for Easy Storage | 2-in-1 Fruit and Vegetable

This slicer is a well designed marvel --- someone did an exquisite job designing and engineering this bargain priced machine. I'm using it to make uniform slices of my baking-machine bread. It effortlessly does the job and afterwards is easy to rinse & clean in the sink and then I just put it into the dish rack to air dry. Blade is wickedly sharp, so use care in removing for cleaning. It all folds up in a minute for storage with a snap-in place for the handle and sliding food pusher accessories to take up minimal storage space between slicing usage. The slicing thickness is easily adjustable with the turn of a knob - I'm using position 5 1/2 for my bread slices. I have a smooth granite kitchen counter so the suction cup mounting keeps it from slipping. I imagine this would also hold well on Formica or any smooth non-porous surface.

I've been baking bread weekly for over 7 years now and have always been frustrated with my inability to cut thin, even slices for sandwiches. I have gone through a couple of excellent, sharp Japanese-made bread knives searching for the perfect tool, but it wasn't the knives afterall, it was my technique, which I was never able to master.While in a deli recently, watching them cut meat thinly and evenly, I thought maybe this was the key to bread slicing, so I started looking online at electric meat slicers. The downsides of electric slicers were price and size. I have limited storage space in my apartment and really don't plan on slicing anything other than bread, so electric seemed like overkill.But, while searching Amazon for meat slicers I ran across this manually operated Starfrit Deli Slicer. It looks like a toy, so I was hesitant to buy it, but at this price-point, it was worth the risk. I love this machine. Yes, it's all plastic, except the blade, and the colors really make it appear toy-like, but it is well made, the user experience is top notch, it folds up neatly, easily and takes up very little space.It took a couple of loaves to get used to the ratio between the speed of the blade (hand cranked), and the speed at which I need to push the loaf to get the cut. What I determined was to let the blade do the cutting and guide, rather than push the loaf, and now I get a nice even, thin (you adjust the thickness to your liking) slice. After the bread has cooled a few hours, I get the slicer out, assemble it (takes about 2 minutes), and slice away. I would estimate that it takes maybe 15 minutes, tops, from the time I get the slicer off the shelf, to the time I'm putting a sliced loaf into the bag and getting the slicer back on the shelf. I haven't done meat yet. I don't expect to. This is an excellent bread slicer and I recommend it highly, especially at this price.

Got this because I make soft milk bread and using a bread knife is very difficult without squishing the bread or ripping it. This works wonderfully so far. I've used it so far on 5 loaves and they've cut nicely and evenly. Looks very bakery-made. Definitely worth the purchase. Now I'm not dreading to cut my breads after baking lol.Pros:- Easy to set up- Easy to clean- Easy to use.. pretty intuitive even if you don't look at the instruction manual- Light & compact so easy to take out/put away- Thickness adjustableCons:- Squeaks!- Sometimes the suction loses suction so lifts- Even the lowest thickness at 1 is still a bit "thick" for some cheese & meats- Not sure how to replace blade if needed to- No blade guard so it's an adult-only equipment meaning little people can't help- Crumbs gets INTO the gear so clean up requires taking all parts off. Not a difficult task, but still...- No crumb or slice catcher, you'll have to move the slices out individually after each passOverall:Even with the cons, I still think it's worth it over the mechanical ones. Yes the cons are a bit of a nuisance but it's not a deal breaker for me. I don't have the space to get a bigger mechanical one, but even if I did I find them quite unsightly so I won't be having it on my kitchen counter anyway. Which would discourage me from baking/using. While this is easy to pack away/take out, and easy to use so it' does encourage me to continue baking and using. I haven't tried on cheeses or meats yet but I feel like it'll be too thick given "1" is pretty thick already. It's relatively easy to clean but since crumbs get everywhere, I figure cleaning after using cheeses or meats would also be a task on it's own. I'm not sure if it's dishwasher safe - probably not, but handwashing would be preferred anyway considering it's really just 4 pieces lol my kids (11 & 6) want to help out but I don't feel comfortable letting them since there's no blade guard for their little fingers. Maybe if I watch over them like a hawk while they use it? But then that's not really helping... lol

Excellent!I make my own bacon and bacon after it is the hardest to cut. This slicer made my life so much easier!It is a must have! You do need a little room and a plate don't fit in the back to catch your sliced product.I used parchment paper and I sliced 9 pounds of uncooked bacon in 12 minutes.I LOVE THIS SLICER!

I had a feeling it would be bad I just didn't realize it would be this bad. It's not that small so you're not saving space. The suction cup is very temperamental unless you have a perfectly perfectly flat countertop. Without the suction cup working it's unusable. To be fully honest you're not getting a better slice than a knife and it's just taking longer. Just use a bread knife or a chef's knife to cut whatever you're trying to cut.