I'm having a problem with the cutting blade on my Champion, and I am wondering if anyone else who uses a Champion has seen this. After my last batch of nibs, I noticed that the base of the cutter was dark and frayed (see attached image). I only put about 4-5 batches of nibs through before this happened. I was going to just cut the frayed ends off, but I'm concerned that new ones would form and maybe even get into the chocolate. So to be on the safe side I just ordered a new cutter. But at $35 a pop, I obviously don't want to do this very often.

Any ideas as to why this happened? Improper usage? Bad cutter?

I have tried to be very careful about not pushing the tamper too hard, because I've noticed that the feed tube (and in fact the entire unit) gets really hot after only a few pounds of nibs. But it's also been my experience that you have to push the tamper down at least a little or the nibs will sometimes just sit at the bottom of the tube and not feed through. Any feedback would be appreciated!

updated by @michael-arnovitz: 04/10/15 18:04:16