Westmark Olive Pitter/Stoner

Having tried several highly rated cherry/olive pitters over the years, I have found every product I've purchased has a limited lifetime before the post which actually pits the target breaks from the arm that holds it. Not one has ever lasted more than 18-24 months (with regular usage, perhaps 20-30 times per annum). Having only pitted about 35 olives with this product, I can't predict its durability. However, I can say I have never encountered a pitter which more easily and reliably pits olives (cherries are not under consideration). Most combination pitters have a hard time with the occasional (perhaps 1 in 8) olive that has too large a pit to be expelled easily, binds up, and makes a mess of the olive. That's never happened with this product. Instead, the olives are all expelled with a minimum of effort and very cleanly. I wish this product were stainless steel (and not a cheaper metal, coated product) with a high promise of durability, but I've not been able to find that ideal. As it is, this is the best olive pitter on the market I've been able to find. Certainly the best on Amazon, which is to say, truly superior to the Oxo and Cuisipro products (which are getting 4 1/2 stars), as well as other good quality products not currently found on Amazon.

I harvest and process my own olives so of course they all come with pits. That's okay. I've yet to swallow a pit. However in the past when I wanted to make tapenade I had to laboriously and tediously slice the meat of the olives from the pits. VERY labor-intensive.So I purchased this handy-dandy "Westmark MATFER BOURGEAT Olive Stoner." It works fine and cuts the prep time for the tapenade in half. However there is one small problem. This marvel of German engineering zips the pit out smartly but on the bottom side of the bit there remains a kind of small cap of olive. So unless I cut that off, there is some small waste of olive. (I did cut them off.)I should point out that I used the device on processed olives. Perhaps on fresh from the tree olives the experience will be different. I will try the pitter on next year's crop.What makes this better than say the Oxo Softworks cherry/olive pitter, which is cheaper and also available at Amazon, is the leverage. It is about twice as much hand pressure to squeeze the Oxo pitter and it takes about twice as long to process olives. Maybe the Oxo is better for cherries. It has a "splash" guard that keeps juices from flying about. But for olives that isn't much of a concern. By the way neither pitter will pit Sevillano olives since they are too big to fit into the cup of the pitter.For now I can say the product is worth the plastic. Five stars.--Dennis Littrell, author of "The World Is Not as We Think It Is"

PROS:o Easy to useo Does the job quickly and easilyCONS:o Rather pricey for a single purpose utensilI have never used anything to which to compare this olive stoner, but it quickly and easily removes the pits. My only minor nitpick (and why I didn't give it 5 stars) is that there are two raised edges cast into the metal around the upper hole through which the plunger passes, they are meant to hold the end of the coil spring to be centered over the hole. It is easy to dislocate the spring when washing or handling so that one edge of the coil rides up over this little "lip" and it then gets partially into the path of the end of the plunger and causes the mechanism to stick when you attempt to squeeze the handles. It is easy to correct by simply realigning the spring, but it would be nice if the end of the spring were more positively retained in the correct position. As I said, a somewhat minor nitpick.I did have one olive with a somewhat larger pit that would not fit through the hole in the lower jaw, it started the pit out enough that I could finish the job by removing the olive and using the tip of a knife to finish extracting the pit. Out of a couple of jars of olives so far, that was the only "misfire". It sure beats smashing the olives with the flat side of a knife, which renders them suitable for a tapenade or something similar, but not for stuffing and/or for use on a veggie tray.As one reviewer mentioned, a piece of the fruit the same diameter as the pit is removed along with the pit, leaving a pit-sized hole in one end, exactly like what you observe on de-stoned olives that you can purchase in jars. While it may seem undesirable, it does provide an opening into which other items maybe be "stuffed", such as pimiento, garlic, blue cheese, etc..Overall, I am pleased with this and would recommend it.

I love it. I pitted about 50 olives with it as soon as I got it. Worked every time. If you have small olives you do need to be sure the olive is positioned correctly so the plunger goes straight in. I suspect not doing so is the reason for some other reviews claiming it doesn't work.This is going to be one of my favorite kitchen tools, because I buy unpitted olives in bulk. I used to have to laboriously whack each one and pry out the pit. No longer!Of course, no comment on durability yet, but it does seem to be made well, and it claims to be aluminum, not zinc pot-metal.

Edit on 08/22/2013: we have been using our pitter on a daily basis for a few months and all the aluminum coating is now wearing off, so I have no choice but to throw it away because my olives are covered with shredded aluminum sheet coating. I did wash the pitter in the dishwasher. Maybe that's the reason why. Very disappointed with the quality at that price point!Initial review: My kids love green olives and I use this tool every day to pit the olives for them. It works great. Just make sure not to leave your pinky in between the clasp when pressing! Ouch. Otherwise I do recommend it! Cleans well in the dishwasher.