Customer Reviews

Kyocera CSN-202-RD Adjustable Mandoline Slicer, Red

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Length:: 5:39 Mins

I use my chef knives for much of my food slicing but when I need a lot of uniform slices I like to use a mandoline. I have a professional model but I was looking for something for small jobs, like a few slices of carrots, potato or garlic. I like the idea of a ceramic blade so I decided to give this one a shot.

I liked this slicer okay but it could be better built, even at this price. I decided to make a video review in order to show it in action. Even though my mandoline is Black I decided to review this one as well since they both work the same way. I hope that you find it useful. Thanks!

Note:
I guess I forgot to turn my remote mic back on for the Bron mandoline piece. Sorry about that.

Bron Original Stainless Steel Mandolin Slicer
CUT RESISTANT GLOVES-100% KEVLAR®, Heavy Weight Textured Blue Latex Coated,large, (1 pair)

Although I also bought a "professional mandoline", I thought this would make a handy little item. Boy - was I right! I use this mandoline more than the professional. Why? It is convenient! It's very sharp (the porcelein blade is much sharper than metal), the hand guard is comfortable and easy to use, the whole device is dishwasher safe, and it takes little counter space and little storage space. I use it to slice veggies for everything from sandwiches to tostadas to soups to breakfast burritos. Here's what it does not do: Although the blade is "adjustable", only the biggest setting works correctly. The smaller settings makes mush of your veggies. Also, it is not quite wide enough. At the thickest part of a big round onion, it would have to be turned sideways. Finally, it only has 1 blade and so it only does the one style of cut. I highly recommend it. It is so easy to use that you will use it frequently. In fact, when you think: "Should I drag out the big mandoline?" You will say "No, I'll just use my little one (the Kyocera)".

2 great points about this mandolin: ceramic and dishwasher-safe. It is not the most aesthetically pleasing mandolin, surely the shiny metal ones look more professional and flashier. However, for the home-chef who favors functionality over looks, you won't be disappointed with this model. It also has a lip on the bottom making it easy to fit over the edge of a bowl.

One of my biggest pet-peeves about metal mandolins is that they are so difficult to clean. With all the nooks and crannies food gets stuck in and the risk of rust, you have to invest a comparatively significant amount of time in cleaning.

The ceramic blade stays sharp and is superior in my view to any metal blade: you won't have to sharpen it and it does not rust. The only drawback to ceramic is that it is fragile, so you may want to be careful where you store this tool. Haphazardly tossing it in the same drawer you throw your meat tenderizer might not be the best idea.

At ~20$, this tool is a great value. You will spend more on a quality metal mandolin and it will rust. Additionally, if you do happen to accidentally break the blade, it's only 20$ to replace.

Your first few experiences with this tool are likely to be delightful. It features a ceramic blade, which is much, much sharper than the machined steel blades found on most mandolins. It is small and light, making it quick and easy to use and clean. Adjustment is accomplished simply by rotating a rectangular piece of plastic on the underside of the tool to one of four positions.

Unfortunately, the faults in this tool will soon become manifest.

First of all, as many reviewers have said, it is dangerous. The guard that comes with it is worthless and it's difficult to imagine a guard for any hand-held mandolin being of much use; such a guard is, by necessity, too small and not held in a fixed line of movement relative to the blade. Second, this tool is dangerous even when not in use: there is nothing supplied to cover the blade when it is not in use, so if you have a drawer full of kitchen tools in which you dig to find things, your fingers will eventually meet the blade.

Second, there are only four thickness settings (3.0mm, 2.0mm, 1.3mm, and 0.5mm). This is somewhat limiting. That the thinnest setting is 0.5mm is especially disappointing: Be aware that 0.5mm is substantially thicker than "paper-thin," so if that's what you are buying a mandolin to do, do not buy this one.

Third, it is flimsy. Because it is constructed entirely of plastic, it bends while you use it. This is especially bothersome for the thinnest setting. When cutting thin slices, if the plane of the deck on which the food slides is not perfectly parallel with the plane in which the blade sits, you will end up slicing only part of the food, with your slice tapering out into paper-thin-ness and then into nothing. Cutting fibrous or dense foods is difficult at any thickness due to the flimsiness.

Finally, the blade, so sharp when new, dulled to the point of near inutility after slicing two bulbs of fennel and a bulb of celery root. The blade is neither replaceable nor even removable for sharpening, so as soon as the blade dulls, the entire tool is trash.

In summary, there is little or nothing that I can do with this tool that I cannot do as well with a knife and the knife is less dangerous.

Highly recommended! This mandoline slicer works exactly as described -- on the 0.5 setting the slices are paper-thin, and even thinner if you do not press down too hard. The blade is very sharp; the food doesn't get stuck in it. The cutouts on one end make it very secure when slicing over a bowl. Very easy to clean. I bought this slicer because I have had such good results with my Kyocera ceramic vegetable peeler, and this slicer is another hit!

While not perfect, the Kyocera Adjustable Mandoline is the best device of its kind on the market, perfectly adapted to perform the small slicing tasks that are too time consuming or skill intensive for the average home cook to execute with a chef's knife.

Molded of lightweight plastic, the Kyocera is notable for its wickedly sharp ceramic blade set on a diagonal in relation to the direction of cutting. This blade cuts through most produce with incredible ease, producing perfectly clean and consistent slices. Depth adjustment is accomplished by rotating a square rod beneath the cutting surface, thereby raising and lowering it to settings of 3mm, 2mm, 1.3mm, and .5mm.

The Kyocera is also a breeze to clean, with its plastic and ceramic construction, meaning it can be rinsed off and placed in the drying rack after use. The combination of easy set up and easy clean up makes this a device that many home cooks will turn to before lugging out the full-sized mandoline.

The limitations of the Kyocera are fairly minor, but are perhaps significant enough to warrant 4.5 stars instead of 5:

1) The usable width of the blade measures approximately 2 7/8", or 7.5cm wide, making it unsuitable for the processing of largish tomatoes, onions, or some potatoes.

2) While the ceramic blade sails through most produce, it is not equal to the best steel-bladed mandolines when slicing tomatoes. At the 3mm setting the Kyocera does fine, but at even thinner settings (3mm is already quite thin) the Microplane 47001 Adjustable Slider Food Slicer or the Benriner Japanese Mandolin Slicer produce better results.

3) As many reviewers have pointed out, the included hand guard is useless window dressing, incapable of securing ingredients. The Kyocera also lacks any kid of rubberized, non-slip surface. The use of a cut-resistant glove is advisable. Two commonly available ones are the Microplane 34007 Cut Resistant Glove and the Victorinox Cutlery UltraShield Cut Resistant Glove, Medium is highly advisable when using this device.

Despite these shortcomings, the Kyocera is a fantastically useful tool, and well worth its $25 retail price.

I bought this slicer primarily on the number of good reviews. I was very disappointed with the slicer once I received it. First this is very small and made of very flexible plastic. It is way too flexible and flimsy. The ceramic blade while sharp isn't as sharp a good SS blade. I would guess its more durable though. The thickness selector is very stiff small square bar you turn on the back. The markings are the same color as the plastic bar and very difficult to see. If you don't get the bar to stop squarely, the thickness is off.

I am pretty good with a knife, and I have a full sized mandolin, so it took me a while to come up with an excuse to buy one of these. I and glad I did because it is great. The blade is incredibly sharp, the size adjustments are easy to use, and set a good functional widths, and the whole thing works really well. The hand guard is either useless, or I have no concept of how to use it... Either way, I took some beautiful 0.5mm cross sections of my thumb before I realizes how sharp and fast a cutting cut I had.

When I got this, my first thought was "Look at that sad piece of plastic junk." It looks flimsy and cheap.

I was proven wrong when I took an onion to it. It was sturdy, stable, and made short work of any vegetable I could find. Cleanup is fast and it doesn't take up much space. It turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for in a mandoline.

A few notes:

The included handguard is worthless. It doesn't hold food. So chuck it into the garbage and just learn to be more careful around sharp objects.

There is no blade guard for storage. There really should be. Like the rest of the thing, the blade looks like cheap plastic even thought it is not. I carefully saved the safety sticker that came with the blade and I put that back on after I've washed and dried the thing.

Mandolin by name - but really its a gentrified truffle slicer. Very few thickness settings, but enough to accomplish the small tasks - mostly quick and perfect sliced garlic, small onions, a rib of celery or carrot. Basically it is helpful when you need "mirepoix / mise en place" for two. Obviously the hand guard is a joke, and it cleans up quick and easy in the sink.

I'm not going to go into detail on the blade - if you know anything about these things, you know that Kyocera ceramic blades are the best in the business.