Ever since a co-worker mentioned how much she missed the bird-shaped orange peeler that she lost a long time ago, I’ve been looking for a replica. Up to then I’d only seen orange peelers that looked like knitting needles which Ive never liked. Recently I came across Chef’n’s zeelpeel. The instructions said it “easily peels oranges with no mess.” Awesome! Or so I thought.

How it works: A sharp, tiny hook in the underside of the tool is used to make incisions in the peel from top to bottom, about 2 inches apart. Then the tool’s corner and center hole are used to lift each section of peel and free it from the fruit.

Scoring the peel was easy, but my hands still got sticky as juice seeped through the cuts I’d made. When I tried to lift the rind, I pierced the orange and more juice flowed out. When I finally got to the third step — separating the rind from the fruit — the rind broke halfway. I thought to myself, this is why I don’t eat oranges often.

Then my cousin took the peeler and short-cut the process, just using the corner of the gadget to lift and peel off the rind. Her moves were slower as she gently removed the peel.

On my second try I had better success. I followed my cousin’s procedure, using my thumb to press the rind to the tool as I slowly pulled, continuing the same motion to remove each section of the scored rind. A few oranges later I had the hang of it. Still, I found it easier if I cut off the top of the orange first.

Pros: No pith under my nails, and the gadget is easy to clean.

Cons: My hands still got sticky, and a lot of pith was left which I had to remove with my hands anyway. Also, the scoring cut into the fruit, so some slices were hard to break into clean segments. Finally, it took a lot of practice to master this tool, and the hook is really sharp (I stabbed myself several times — a couple of times just by picking up the peeler the wrong way).

Cost: Around $6 on various sites including amazon.com, chefn.com and surlatable.com.

Worth it?: Not for me. But if you’re an avid orange eater, $6 probably isn’t too much to try it out.