Weston Manual Beef Jerky Slicer - 5" Wide x 1.25" Thick Cuts, Durable Aluminum & Stainless Steel Blades, Charcoal Gray (07-3801-W-A) - Perfect for Home Meat Processing, Jerky Making, and Deli-Style Slicing

I bought this jerky slicer after reading a lot of reviews. I recently started making both beef and pork jerky after watching a Meat Church video on making jerky. The inexpensive pork top loins from Costco seemed to be a good starting point since a failure would result in under $20 waste of ingredients. YouTube consumed a lot of my time so I could get a decent first batch. Trimming and slicing the meat was quite laborious with the partial freezing of the meat then trimming fat and slicing 1/8" or ¼" portions of the meat with lots of variation and inconsistent results. Still, it was fun.After about six batches of jerky, I noticed in some of the YouTube videos that folks were "cheating" the slicing process by using this apparatus to get consistent thickness of their jerky slices. I was not sold so kept watching more videos and then after my most recent jerky batch, I had such variation in quality of slices that I decided to go through reviews on Amazon.Lots of positive reviews and some negative reviews helped me take the risk of ordering the unit. Negative things that I was concerned about:- Meat getting stuck in the slicer- Super sharp blades that might compromise the integrity of your skin- Challenges cleaning the blades after usePositive comments that made me take the risk:- Consistency of slices- Quickness of slicing the meat- Ease of use- Slice without having to partially freeze the meatYesterday was my inaugural use of the slicer. I crosscut 5 pounds of eye of round in approximately 1" slices in a matter of 5 minutes, then ran each of those slices through the jerky slicer in about 10 minutes. It is amazing how quick and easy that was.My observations regarding the negative and positive points in previous reviews:- The slicer is super easy to use, and the non-frozen meat sliced fast.- When meat got stuck, I simply reversed the crank a partial turn then cranked normally, and the meat went through just fine without continuing to be stuck.- The slices were all the same thickness (bonus for dehydration times)- The blades are scary sharp. As an older person, my skin cuts very easily so I am hyper aware of sharp things. I came close a few times to cutting myself while cleaning the blades, but that awareness kept me out of trouble. Hopefully when I become more comfortable with the slicer, I will not forget to pay attention or there will be human blood in the sink ?- Cleaning the body of the slicer is a piece of cake. Cleaning the blades is scary. Why Weston did not include a cleaning brush puzzles me.I highly recommend this slicer if you make jerky in any volume. It is a time saver and adds some consistency that adds to the appeal of the finished product.