I bought this pastry blender for two main reasons: 1. From the pictures and the reviews, it looked very sturdy. 2. It appeared to be a bit more rounded than the one that I currently have.Overall, this cutter is great! It is incredibly sturdy. My old pastry cutter, which I've had for probably more than 5 years, is beginning to wear on my hands. I work on one pie dough at a time, and by the second one, my "cutting" hand was killing me. I rarely had problems with the butter getting stuck between the blades, but I had to exert a lot of effort when cutting the butter into the flour as I primarily work with almost frozen to frozen butter that's already been cut into 1" pieces. This meant that my old cutter twines were getting twisted terribly, making it more difficult to work with the dough.The handles the frozen butter superbly. I have not felt the need to sharpen the blades at all. The blades are much sturdier than on my old pastry cutter and it cuts through the frozen butter with very little effort on my part. While I did give this a 5-star rating, it is more of a 4.5 star rating, and here's why:* The spacing between the blades are larger than on my old model (see uploaded pictures). It may not seem like much, but I find that I am spending more time than I think I should because I'm constantly scraping the almost intact butter from between the blades. I didn't have to do that as often with my old one and I do find that I start working with the deluxe pastry blender on the frozen butter in a criss-cross manner and then I revert to my old pastry blender when the butter gets small enough. Not ideal, but my hands are not in as much pain as they once were. Don't get me wrong though - I'm still working much faster than I would have with my old one. This pastry cutter helped me make seven pies and 36 apple turnovers between Thanksgiving and Xmas.* Another item that another reviewer mentions is that the flour and butter gets stuck at the edges of the blades. I find that to be the same for me. I usually wash these things by hand, though they can go into the dishwasher, and I'm constantly finding that I'm missing left over flour/butter where the blades meet the rounded part of the cutter.* Lastly, this thing is big - which is good and bad. As another reviewer said, think about the size of the bowl you're working with. To that I'll add, think about the shape of the bowl as well. Even though it's more rounded, it's actually a bit too well rounded for the bowl I use. It means that I have to pretty much work in the center of the bowl for the most part instead of at the edges.These are all small details for me and would only be worth docking a half star. If you're doing a ton of baking that requires the pastry cutter and you're working with frozen butter, this is a good buy. It definitely does not put as much pressure on your hands and the rounded handle has an excellent feel to it. If my old one has lasted more than 5 years, I expect this one to last as long if not longer. It is definitely sturdier than my old pastry cutter.

LOVE IT. I spent a lot of time researching pastry cutters and finally decided to try this one due to the comments including:>Is solidly engineered so the handle will not break off vs other pastry cutters>Is sufficiently round at the bottom, allowing for full use of mixing bowl vs other very flat/square cutters that cannot conform to the curved bowl (this was a huge selling point for me)>Is heavy duty metal at the business end that will not bend over time vs other flimsy/wire-type cutters that bow out after a number of uses>Can be used on butter even when frozen! (The butter, not the cutter, though it would probably still work if frozen). Again, due to it's heavy-duty business endAfter making a number of batches of scones over the past month or so, I can confirm all of these points. Some people complain of the space between the "teeth" to be bigger than they desire. It hasn't been an issue for me (just turn 90 degrees and cut the butter again), and actually makes it much easier when it comes to cleaning; I can really get the sponge in between and make sure I'm not leaving any greasy residue behind.Very happy with my purchase.

Item arrived before the estimated time of arrival. Item is suitably large, well-made [with tight joints around the handle], well-designed [has a good degree of curve on the blunt blades for strength (which is not too curved that the tool becomes inefficient, and not too insufficiently curved that you can't get the bottom of your concaved mixing-bowl), and each blade is also sufficiently wide to prevent flex in the blades], and is of thick and good-quality stainless steel.But three complaints: a. The blunt blades are not well-aligned [I solved the problem by slightly nudging them into alignment]; b. there are some hair-line cracks on the outer-bend of the joints where the blades and the side-body join [I confirm that it was not caused by my slight nudging -- the cracks came with the packaging (this is most likely due to the fact that the stainless steel used here is quite hard and very slightly brittle, which is actually a plus-point) but please note that there is no fracture of the joint, though]; and c. there are only four blades [I understand that this is due to the design of having sufficiently wide blades to prevent flex while keeping the side-body's size acceptable... but I'm still complaining anyway].In any case, I'm still very happy with the item.

Its sturdy and does what it is supposed to do. Build quality is decent, overall not bad

I love that the handle is round and is stainless. Better grip for me and easier to clean than wooden handles.

I was reluctant after reading some of the reviews about the blades being too thick, BUT really wanted a sturdy pastry blender. Wow am I glad I got this one. I absolutely love it, it is perfect for pastry. It did not take long at all to cut in the butter and the pastry came out smooth without too much work, keeping it nice and soft. It is solid and handles beautifully. The handle is comfortable and the stainless cleans like a dream. I even used it to mash potatoes and it worked great (of course if you have a lot of potatoes your hand might get messy). Cannot wait to mash more stuff.

I've use it 4xs now to make pie crusts for Pican and Apple pies. I'm a big guy and brute at times and this has held up well. Looks like it'll last me a long time. The "blades" are somewhat think and have an edge to it but not sharpened, just enough to cut the fat you're using with the dough.Need to test it with frozen butter for a nice flaky turnover crust... I'll update when I give it a shot, but bet it'll kill it.Highly recommend!