Acme made Westcott Battery Operated Pencil Sharpener Asst 14243 Pack 6 (00073577142435)

The prospect of sharpening 72 pencils by hand with a tiny pencil sharpener was a little too much for me. While school supply shopping I picked up the Westcott Battery Operated Pencil Sharpener.

The Westcott Battery Operated Pencil Sharpener is a small pencil sharpener that can easily fit into the corner of a desk without taking up much space. It can sit easily in the hand. There are small indentations on both sides of the sharpener that is just the right size for the thumb. Those indentations make the sharpener easy and comfortable to hold while stabilizing the sharpener during use. It is only about six inches long, around three inches tall and a couple inches wide. There is a compartment that holds four AA batteries. There is a removable, opaque cap at the opposite end of the battery compartment. The cap can be quickly removed to empty out the pencil shavings. There was a variety of colors at the store, but I chose the sharpener that is mostly turquoise with gray.

My first task with the Westcott pencil sharpener was to sharpen my kids’ pencils that had to bring for the first day of school. That was 6 boxes of pencils of yellow number 2 pencils. I had used partially drained batteries which quickly proved to be a problem. Once I replaced the batteries with new ones, the sharpener worked much better. While the yellow pencils did get sharpened, they got really “chewed up”. The pencils were not necessarily sharp, but usable. All six boxes ended up looking the same -with scraped up edges. My kids have a drawer full of novelty pencils. Those pencils are smooth and round (as opposed to the six sided yellow pencils). Those smooth, round pencils do great with this pencil sharpener. None of them have that chewed up look of the other pencils, and every pencil can be sharpened to a fine, sharp point.

The front cap is easy to remove to empty out the pencil shavings. My kids can do it themselves. The sharpening mechanism is set within the device so I don’t have to worry about them getting injured.

While sharpening the school pencils the points broke a few times. Getting a broken pencil point out of the sharpening mechanism is not easy.

The Westcott Battery Operated Pencil Sharpener was only $5 or $6 at Target. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of an inexpensive, battery operated pencil sharpener. I like the compact size. I can easily tuck it away with my kids other school and craft supplies. I wasn’t too happy with the way the yellow pencils got chewed up, but our other pencils sharpen nicely. This sharpener does an adequate job for our needs and it beats using a tiny sharpener where I have to twist every pencil myself. The Westcott Battery Operated Pencil Sharpener isn’t perfect, but it does a good job.




Recommend this product? Yes