The mandoline looks nice witht the stainless steel, however, it's not usable. Unless you have large hands, the food holder is hard to grasp which made it unusable to me. The horizontal placing of the food blade made it difficult to cut anything hard like carrots. You would need to exert more pressure than using a knife. I tried to use it several times thinking maybe I am not using it right. After using it several times on different vegetables, I have concluded that it's easier to just use the knife. The only thing that it can cut better than a knife are paper thin slices of cucumber. Otherwise it would be safer and quicker to cut with a knife.It's a waste of money unless you want to cut something that has the firmness of a cucumber without being too firm or soft.