Portable handheld sharpener with loop attachment

Abstract

A portable, handheld sharpener having an elongated body with loop attachments, a battery-operated DC motor with speed reducing gears and a gear plate and a rotatable sharpening unit. A pouch-shaped waste shavings receptacle detachably attached to the body provides a larger cross-sectional dimension ergonomically contoured to fit within the grip of a hand while providing increased internal space for waste shavings storage. An actuator button is molded into the receptacle and is partially circumscribed to provide a hinge-like action to engage a leaf spring connecting the battery source to the motor and also provides a momentary operation of the sharpener while in the original retail packaging. The actuator button will not operate when the receptacle is detached from the sharpener and the internal sharpening unit is exposed, thus acting as a safety feature. In other alternate embodiments, the looped attachments may be spaced to fit a three-ringed binder, different sharpening units sized to sharpen either pencils or crayons may be used, the unit may be designed to use replaceable sharpening units to prolong the useful life of the sharpener, and the unit is provided with stabilizers adjacent to the actuator button to prevent the unit from freely rolling around.