Not sure why bad reviews. This was my first time for sausage and casings and the biggest issue I had was trying to open the very small sheep casing. I watched a video prior to purchase to see how it went and had only a couple issues. One being working with sheep casing as first time, I had two areas where the casing was ripped and sausage was popping slightly out and slightly uneven plumpness on first casing which I think was from me pulling on the sausage coming out. The second and third casings were almost perfect.  Yes the first casing went slow as I tried to figure things out but once I got to my second all went smoothly.   I used coconut oil on the tube and kept my hands and the casing wet with warm water. I've only recently purchase this so I can't address how it holds up over time but I'm pleased at this point in time