Cherry Pitter! Best fruit tool purchase ever! I do have to say I really don't get the banana slicer one, maybe if you have kids....

I agree with you about the zester and juicer (though forks work well too). A cherry pitter is a must to make cherry preserves.

But a strawberry huller? A watermelon knife?!

Disclaimer, I work at WS so I bought my kooky gadgets at a discount. The pineapple slicer is the best invention ever. Hands down. If you like fresh pineapple there is no other way to go. The juice is left in the shell and I use that in my smoothie. I save the core for my juicer, and the rings are great. I also own the banana slicer. I bought it as a joke and use it every day. It is a pain to clean though, so you have to know that stuff up front. I have used the cherry pitter at work and if you are canning cherries, I can't imagine not using one, but it is useless for me at home, chew and spit the pit works fine for a handful at a time. I was sad to not see the mango slicer by OXO here. It makes quick work out of pitting a mango and you get so much more flesh than you do with a just a knife. Would I buy these things if I didn't get them discounted? Probably!

the banana slicer is hysterical! think it would be more effort to peel banana and aim it through the hole then to just take a butter knife and slice them off.

we use our handheld olive pitter at least a couple of times a week and it doubles as a cherry pitter for the short spurt of time that they are in season 'round here.

as for the others? i can see them being helpful during canning seasons, apple corer for those bushels of apples. huller for the baskets and baskets of berries.

I used to work in a kitchen store, and what irritates me the most about this kind of question is that people never consider accessibility issues. You can do all of this with a good knife? Great. Good for you. Consider the people who don't have the hand or arm strength, or have RSI, or arthritis, or just have a limited amount of energy and need small things to make life easier. In the long run, buying a tool to make prep easier is cheaper than always buying the end result already prepared. I got SO tired of people being snotty about the specialty tools and never being wiling to consider a scenario where they were necessary and welcome. (Of course, I was working in retail, so in general I got really tired of people being snotty.)

That being said, I've seen the "watermelon knife" and it's a POS. It's just a cheap stamped serrated knife with a watermelon pattern on it. I would consider it more of a gag gift than a specialty tool.

A cherry pitter doubles as an olive pitter. My two favorite things!

I say as long as you need it, use it enough to warrant its purchase, saves you time, and if you limit the number of specialty gadgets you own, it's fine. I'd never buy an apple slicer or avocado pitter, though I do eat both frequently. Those are easy to cut/pit without a specialty tool.

The pineapple slicer and the cherry pitter are must halves..at least in my kitchen..

If you're going to buy an apple gadget, I have no idea why you'd go for that odd thing, rather than an all in one apple peeler/corer/slicer like this: http://www.amazon.com/Industries-5920-Apple-Peeler-Slicer/dp/B001A6E91E (You don't have to let it do all three things.) I grew up with one, and I can't imagine the tedium of making something like apple pie without. (I don't actually eat apples often enough for it to be worth getting one for my kitchen with my fiance, though.)

I try not to buy unitaskers because I prepare and eat all kinds of different foods, and I just don't have the cabinet space. But if I were known for my world-famous banana cream pie? I'd love to have a banana slicer that makes them all completely even and beautiful. Conversely, if I had one of those McMansion kitchens with 50 cabinets, I'd likely buy any gadget that I might find useful. It's all a matter of perspective. :)

I really love to have an apple corer - it's a much tidier way of making my nana's "apple doughnuts" (cored apple, sliced, with cinnamon and sugar). If I were one to buy pineapple more often, I think that one would be handy too, but I just don't think I would use it enough to be worth it!

Libbet42 did make me think about the accessibility issues - reminds me of an episode of The F Word when Ramsay when head-to-head in the kitchen with a blind politician who used a slap-chop for everything, which really made me rethink the motility of cooking!

I have the pineapple slicer and a cherry pitter (not the one pictured) and I love them both. I have small children (6, 4, 4 & 2) and they love having their pineapple in little rings. And the cherry pitter, well that is just a fun thing for them to do themselves, whether they eat the cherries or are helping me back something. I agree about some of the others; a banana slicer!? I just give my kids a butter knife and they can slice their own banana.

We have a pie cherry tree and I can't imagine processing all those cherries without a cherry pitter. We went through three different models before we decided on one similar to the one above. It lives in a box on top of the cabinets most of the year but it's essential for a couple of weeks in the summer. Same with the apple peeler/slicer for when we get boxes of apples from my in-laws.

Some of these look way more difficult than just using a standard knife! However that cherry pitter can be a lifesaver when making anything that involves cherries.

Sweetie, we have the OXO mango tool you mention. It was a stocking stuffer and I wanted to just put it in the Goodwill pile because we don't have a lot of room for stuff like that. But my husband got a hold of it first, tried it, and LOVES it. I have to admit it does a good job, even though it isn't used that often.

I have that exact strawberry huller and you will pry it from my cold, dead hands! In fact, I was thinking about buying another one for this year's harvest; even with my 64-sf kitchen, there's always room to tuck in a strawberry huller. When you are staring down 30 lbs of strrawberries, fresh-picked from the farm, that huller is your best friend. And even if you are not: I was recently visiting a friend's house who has a 1 year-old little girl: she and her husband prepare all of their daughter's food, so right now, that means lots of fine chopping of chicken, vegetables, pineapple and strawberries. After standing at the counter hulling & chopping strawberries for a few days worth of meals, I went home and sent her a strawberry huller.

I also have the OXO handheld cherry pitter which is another lifesaver. As someone who has pitted 20 lbs of cherries with a paperclip, let me tell you: not a lot of fun.

I say, if you have the room and will actually use it, bring on the gadgets. Anything that makes cooking real food easier, more convenient and more fun is a good thing. The problem comes when people buy all sorts of cheap, plastic, will-far-apart-in-a-year tools that sit in a drawer then end up in a landfill. No one needs more of those.

Well, I think it's silly to pay $20 for a pineapple slicer when the much less expensive plastic ones work beautifully. Mine is a must-have kitchen tool. Some lazy days I wish it were electric, though.

The pineapple slicer is absolutely the best. I feel like people don't buy pineapples because they're such a hassle to cut up and core, but this takes so much of the work out of it and makes pineapple so much more enjoyable to eat. And you don't have to worry about getting icky bites!

my husband saw an advertisment for the watermelon knife just last night and had to laugh at it. He LOVES watermelon, and is in charge of cutting it. He has a favorite chef's knife and has never complained about it.

I couldn't live without my zester, and never thought I needed an apple corer, but I have to admit that it gets plenty of use in my kitchen as well....especially when I get the juicer out.

I'm surprised a mango slicer is not on here! I have the tiniest kitchen in the whole world but I can't imagine living without my mango slicer. It is the best invention EVER if you like mangoes.

I could do without most, but I have an apple corer similar to the one above. I do the rest with a knife & peeler, but coring the apples first saves a lot of time and it doesn't take up much space in the drawer. Neither does my strawberry huller, but it's much less effective than a knife for me. It will be in the garage sale this year.

I also have a small kitchen (who doesn't?), but I adore my apple peeler-corer-slicer. I really only use it once or twice a year when I make a huge batch of applesauce, but it makes the entire process so much easier.

I think the specialty gadgets would be great for those that are avid canners.

I bought a citris hand press juicer thing in anticipation of making a big batch of citris curd. Ended up using a fork, completely forgot about the gadget, it's sitting in one of my drawers collecting dust.

I have a good peeler, microplane, apple slicer and garlic press. Those are the extent of my special gadgets. A good set of knives will take you quite far.

My mother is obsessed with tv shopping and gadgets, so i am the ambivalent recipient of many of these. She got the watermelon knife for me and i like that it's a big knife, good for torting cakes, though i haven't used it on a melon yet. I bought an apple corer and lemon zester in Cctober with a wedding gift certificate. The corer is great for apple season, but seems to languish in the drawer the rest of the year. I'll definitely be using the zester this year to make citrus essences and liquors.

I own a citrus juicer, but i think i've used it once (lemon curd).

As a former chef who's still very fast with a big knife, I tend to be a bit of a snob about single-use gadgets (especially anything that claims to chop onions). However I do fancy one of those pineapple slicers, because preparing pineapple, especially if it's quite ripe, always turns into a mess with juice running all over the counter. Plus I could stick a shot of something and a drinking straw in the hollowed-out pineapple and pretend to be somewhere sunny.

I don't have any of these (very small house, picky about what comes in) but I have used my friend's strawberry huller at a picnic and it was great! I don't think I will buy one, but I love playing with other people's kitchen gadgets.

I use a cherry/olive pitter all the time, and another unitasker I have is a corn stripper. I got really tired of getting corn all over the place and also worried I was going to stab myself slicing the knife down the cob, so it's totally worth it during the summer. Oh, strawberry huller too. I have an old tiny little tweezer type one, which takes no space, and is so worth it. It gets on my nerves when people slice off the top third of the strawberry to get the stem off--so much wasted berry!

I have a pineapple slicer from Crate & Barrel and it is one of my favorite gadgets! Cutting a whole pineapple was intimidating for me and I would always get bits of the core in the chunks. The slicer is easy to use and mess free and saves me money now that I don't have to buy the pre-sliced pineapple.

I don't have any of these, but I will say that I'm intrigued by the fruit guards. I bring kiwis, bananas and other squishy stuff to work all the time, and they always get squashed. Plus, part of me has a certain amount of nerdy enthusiasm for something like a kiwi guard, I think I'd like to see a kiwi in my lunch bag secured in its own little kiwi spaceship.

Plus, go to the fruit and banana guard website ... funny stuff.

I have an apple corer/slicer -- bought on a whim, and even as I left the store, I was like, "That is wasted money." Instead, I started eating tons of apples. It's really made me turn to a healthier snack much more often. So that was $10 well spent.

Depends what fruits you like to eat I guess. I'm all for a knife when possible but dang is an apple slicer easy! Just push down on a whole apple and done. But then, I eat lots of sliced apples. Same would go for a pineapple corer.
To be honest, I've cooked/baked my whole life professionally and at home and never knew about hulling strawberries til a couple years ago! Now, if it's for a garnish or decoration I might do it, but with my paring knife.

I have a very minimalist kitchen, but oh how I wanted a cherry pitter the one time I had a ton of cherries from the farmer's market! God I made an unholy mess pitting those things. I kept checking online (this site, among others) for clever ways to pit cherries (yes, it took long enough to warrant checking). I used a paring knife, a vegetable peeler (don't), and a paper clip (really, never mind). If I EVER have that many cherries again, I'll stop and buy the pitter on the way home.

@SQUIGGLE - I LOVE our corn stripper! I adore summer corn, and my mother makes The World's Best Creamed Corn. So, when I get drafted to help with that, it saves my hands, the counter tops, and keeps the kitchen neat (can anyone keep those kernels from jumping all over the place?).

Also, will never be without a pitter. Mine is just a hand-held punch, but if I ate cherries as often as I'd like to, I would totally have the counter-top jobbie...

I own the $5 version of that pineapple slicer and it is amazing!

ditto mango slicer and corn stripper and cherry pitter, also love my apple slicer/corer as I have scads of kids. the pineapple thingy is intriguing....

I have the watermelon knife - not because I needed, but because it made me smile. It actually is pretty awesome at cutting watermlon - better than my chef or slicing knife. It kind of cracks me up and makes me happy every time I pull it out, and that's good enough to earn a place in knife drawer.

One thing I have, that I didn't see here, is a soft fruit peeler. It looks like a normal carrot peeler, but the blade is serrated. It's awesome. Peels peaches, apricots, mangos, kiwis like a dream.

I may have to get the pineapple slicer and strawberry corer after all these positive comments.

One of my favorite things to do is sit down with half of a fresh melon and my melon baller and eat to my heart's delight. Then tip the melon half like a bowl and drink the juice. That's one unitasker I don't mind buying.

Another surprisingly useful one that I bought was a corn stripper. I prefer the taste of fresh corn over canned or frozen but slicing with a knife was a complete mess. I am surprised at how well the corn stripper worked.

I almost never buy any kitchen gadgets unless they can do, like, eight things, but I love my cherry pitter to pieces. The one that I have, though, pits four cherries at once and is only around $15 at amazon. None of these $60 gadgets for me.

I think it comes down to what you use most often. I remember my friend taking out one of those lemon doodads (like a handheld juicer for juicing a single lemon or lime) and thinking that I couldn't imagine having one. Just as I had that thought, my friend commented that it was her favorite tool in the kitchen and she couldn't imagine life without it. I bought one on sale, and it turns out I was right with my first thought--I never use it. But I <3 my apple slicer and would fight with anyone who tried to take it away from me!

Can I just say, I'm really glad to see how many people are NOT being snobs about this one (or at least cheerfully admitting when they are!)! Much friendlier thread. =)

I don't have any specialty tools right now, but I totally think you buy what you'd use. I'm dying to get one of those apple peeler/corer/slicer thingamajigs, because we go apple picking every fall and I bake my brains out. I rarely use cherries, so a cherry pitter would go to waste in my kitchen. Strawberry huller seems extremely useful, but I don't hull enough strawberries to justify it (yet!) Again I say: if it's highly useful to you, then it's worth the money and space.

I'm a fan of the strawberry huller. You get more strawberry than just cutting off the tops with a knife.

http://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-2216-Corn-Zipper/dp/B001UOCYLI/ref=pd_bxgy_k_text_b

This is a unitasking tool, and I have a small kitchen, so I tend to shy away from unitaskers. BUT, my MIL gave me this, and I have since admitted to her that it rocks. My children love corn on the cob, but inevitably there is someone with a wiggly or lost tooth who needs it cut off, and yes, of course you can use a knife. But, this is safer, and it cuts just the right part off the kernel with ease and you can do it at the table.

I'd replace it when it dies... but it's like new after about 3 years.

I bought a Watermelon Knife last year and I LOVE IT! It literally glides through any kind of melon without a fuss - I was a reluctant when I bought it but don't regret it at all!

Another vote for a cherry pitter, but I got a Norpro Deluxe for about $17. I never knew I had a thing for guillotining until I got it either. What fun!