This is a ridiculously simple concept but so effective. The stand is metal with a removable white cutting board that sits in the bottom so that if you have a sticky loaf you can easily wash it. It is angled slightly upwards so has one side with short legs and one side slightly longer, which makes it a really comfortable cutting angle, and it has three narrow slits that run horizontally almost the full length of the unit for thin, medium or thick slices. The principal is that you put your blade through one of the slits at one side and match it up with the corresponding slit on the other. Put your bread short end down and then cut horizontally keeping your knife in the slots, whilst holding the bread in place with the other hand - well clear of the knife. The resultant slices are perfectly straight every time and it doesn't matter if you are right or left handed. Unless you have a particularly chunky bread knife it should work with whatever you already use - I didn't have to buy anything special. The base is plenty big enough. My loaves are made with 500 grams of flour and easily fit width-wise, and would almost fit sideways on so the next size up on my bread maker wouldn't be a problem. If you were cutting a wide flat loaf, like tiger bread, it would easily fit sideways. The only slight negative is that the taller feet are thin metal, so whilst completely sturdy they can skid about a bit on the work surface if you don't hold the bread against the side, but this was easily overcome and should certainly not put you off buying one. The addition of little rubber ends would have improved it to make it perfect, but that is only a small suggestion. It now means I can use all the loaf instead of being left with a horrible triangular lump that you can't cut a slice from without fear of losing a finger.