Looking Sharp in Louisville

Kitchn Love

2012-01-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but a lot of my resolutions this year revolve around food and cooking.

My most recent obsession is The Kitchn, part of a blog family that include Apartment Therapy and a few other fun places to waste time. I love the advice, I love finding out about strange spices, I love the product and book reviews.

Here are some of their knife-related articles that you might like:
(Hint: you should use sharp knives and we can help you with that one!)

How to Cope with Your Parents' Dull Knives
Don't be Shy: Sharpen Your Paring Knives
Knife Skills: Keeping Your Knife Sharp
Knife Skills: How to Hold Your Knife

Gourmet Retailer, woo!

2011-09-14T09:13:00.000-04:00

Nobody tells me about anything!

Look at what I just ran across: There's an article about us in Gourmet Retailer, check it out!

Celebration week!

2011-09-14T09:11:00.000-04:00

If you're in the area, I hope you've dropped by the store for our celebration this week.

Today is local chef day! Chef Sam Mudd from Sullivan University will be showing us knife skills while preparing a relish tray from 11 to 1 today. Then Chef Shaw Ward of Jack Fry's will be tempting us with his shrimp and grits from 1:30 to 3. Yum! We've invited a bunch of other people to drop in during the day. If you're reading this, you're invited, too!

Thursday September 15th
Thursday we will be honoring our military men and women. A special gift will be presented to the first 15 active duty soldiers that come by the store. This will include: an on-the-go insulated mug with the Knifemakers Guild logo, free passes to the Guild show (Friday thru Sunday, Sept 16 - 18 at the Seelbach), one of a couple of different t-shirts, and other special items. All you other active duty soldiers will still get free passes to the Guild show (and maybe something special, too). Retired military, don't think we've forgotten about you! Come in to get your show pass and a free knife sharpening coupon. We'll also have a special drawing just for you. The rest of you, come by, sign up for the prizes, and say a special thank you to our men and women in uniform.

Did you know: Any orders shipped to a military post office have free shipping at Heimerdingers.

Friday Sept. 16th
The Knifemakers Guild show starts today! Stop by on the way down to the show or on the way home. We'll be doing our very own oral history project, collecting your favorite stories about visits to Heimerdingers. Stop in to shoot the breeze and tell us all the things we've forgotten (or in my case, wasn't alive for). We are doing this because every now and then we hear about someone special we remember, or a product we produced, or just a fun story. Share them in the comments here or on Facebook, too! Also we are inviting any former employees to come by on Friday to say hello. If you know of someone, please pass the word along. We're really hoping that Kyle Ellison (maker of the fabulous Kentucky Springs salad tongs) will be able to be with us this day.

Saturday Sept. 17th
Our final day is shaping up to be an awesome one. We'll have Ed Bartush from Wusthof Trident and Cindy Milem from Kyocera ceramic knives in the store with us. Also, we'll have another very special guest, Mark Zalesky, the editor of Knife World. Special demonstrations will be the order of the day with Cindy and Ed. There will be quite a few specials that day with Wusthof, including a 'trunk show' special, allowing a one time special ordering opportunity of Wusthof knives at 30% off for prepaid orders (only on regularly priced stuff, no sale items, no other discounts or offers).
While all that's going on, Mark Zalesky will be signing some of the books Knife World distributes, as well as doing knife appraisals (sorry, no written appraisals).

No matter which day you come by, be sure to sign up for the prizes, and remember that the Knifemakers Guild show runs through Sunday. We won't be doing the drawing for the major prizes until next Monday (the 19th).

Come see us!

Check us out!

2011-08-18T11:06:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder that our 150th anniversary celebration is coming up next month, September 12-17th. Keep your eyes on our Facebook page for updates about when things are going to be happening!

But really, I'm just posting that as an excuse to share this link from io9.
"A brief history of the ancient science of sword making," is a very fun read.

Edge maintenance

2011-07-19T19:28:00.000-04:00

I don't know if any of you read Lifehacker. Their tagline is "Tips, tricks, and downloads for getting things done." This can be an everyday basic sort of thing (how to set a table, fall asleep faster, pick the best email service), or wacky fixes for problems, or some complicated techno-gadget projects. (One guess about which sort of article I usually skip!)

Anyway, I love them and their top story right now is "How Do I Sharpen a Kitchen Knife?". Mostly the article deals with honing a knife using your butcher's steel, which is a breeze. They have really good instructions, so I'll just add one note to that: Watch your ANGLE! Holding the knife at a bad angle to the steel will just dull the edge even more. Not to mention the fact that it can leave some ugly scratches on the blade.

When it comes to actual sharpening, the article doesn't really go there. So I will.

A quick search will give you a lot of easy home sharpening methods, mostly in the form of pull-through or electric sharpeners. Carl's favorites right now are from Chef's Choice. But really the best way for you to sharpen things at home is to get a sharpening stone of some sort. Some people insist on diamond stones, other people use nothing but natural stones. It's a personal thing, really, but I can tell you that a Norton combination stone was the one that outsold the others last holiday season.

If you're not in a do-it-yourself mood, we can do it for you!
For those of you who live nearby, you can drop off your knives directly and we give you a call when they're ready to pick up.

If you're too far away, we have a mail-in sharpening service. Here's a list of the different packages we offer.

And remember the Big Three of Knife Care
1) Say NO to the dishwasher!
The heat, harsh detergents, and all the bouncing around are not good for your knife. This goes double (quadruple!) if your knife has a wooden handle.
2) Use a cutting board that makes your knife happy.
It doesn't like hard countertops or glass cutting boards. Stick with wood, bamboo, or plastic if you want your edge to last longer.
3) Store it safely and securely. Anything is better than tossing it in a drawer to bang around with you measuring spoons and garlic press. Even storing it in the cardboard or plastic sleeve it came in will help protect the edge, if you don't have the counter space for a knifeblock and an Edge Guard feels too professional-chef-y.

We're on TeeVee!

2011-06-23T21:46:00.001-04:00

The store was featured on Fox 41 last night, after all that tornado stuff. This blogger was a little sad not get her 15 minutes, but alas we can't get everything.

If that link thing feels like too much work, you can just watch the clip below!

Closings

2011-04-21T15:50:00.000-04:00

Our shipping department will be closed on the 5th and 6th of May and the entire store will be closed on Saturday, May 7th.

Why, you ask? Because the seventh is the first Saturday in May, which around here means it is Derby time! Schools close that Friday and there's a ton going on in Louisville. Everything from Thunder Over Louisville (one of the world's largest annual firework displays, nearly half an hour), a parade, a marathon, concerts, parties, and.. oh yeah, a horse race.

The other link is WLKY's Thunder video, but check this one out,too. You can't hear the music, but it's fun.

(The pause with lots of cannon fire is to clear the smoke for the finale. You know it isn't the finale unless you see the waterfall off the bridge, which starts around 2:31)

Louisvillians in the News

2011-02-25T14:02:00.000-05:00

As you know it's our 150th year in business and we're doing some fun things. That includes some in-store specials this weekend to celebrate my grandfather's 85th birthday. And cake, yellow cake with caramel icing. Well, WHAS (a local station) came by the other day and we were on the news! Sadly, the video doesn't seem to have been put online, but here's what they had to say about us.

But it's not all about us. Check out all the Louisville chefs making a splash on the national scene!

The March issue of Esquire is featuring a recipe by one of our (ok, my) favorite local chefs: Edward Lee. I can't link to it yet, but never fear, it is forthcoming. According to the C-J, the recipe shared i

s a "manly" take on breakfast: waffles and eggs with a chicken-sausage-green-chili gravy. I think the recipe has something to do with their Eat Like a Man blog, which recently featured bartender Joy Perrine, who

also co-authored The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book.

And if you get the Cooking Channel (or can catch some of it on demand, which is how I plan to watch it), keep an eye out this Sunday (the 27th) at 9 p.m. for their episode of Food(ography) on Southern Cooking. Chef Dean Corbett of the eponymous Corbett's restraunt will be sharing his delicious recipe for fried green tomatoes. Sadly, I cannot personally confirm the deliciousness, but we'll take their word for it.

Year 150

2011-02-13T12:52:00.000-05:00

You may or may not have noticed, but this year marks Heimerdinger Cutlery's 150th Anniversary! We have all sorts of in-store events (cake!), in-store sales, and yes we'll even have some things for you guys here on the internet. And did I mention the cake? Yum. Keep your eyes on this space for more info to come.

Now, we can't be entirely certain that 1861 was the year that the Store was founded, but it's a good guess. Why? Because it was the first year that it appeared in the Louisville City Directory, showing up as A. Heimerdinger--Cutler and Sewing Machine Repair. We know it couldn't have been founded too many years previous to that because August originally settled in Cincinnati, where he was married in 1857. His movement to Louisville can be tracked by birth records; in 1859 he had one daughter born in the Cincinnati area and another daughter was born in 1860 in Louisville. Gotta love genealogy.

Want to know more about our history? Check out my blog post here, or the website here. Sorry about the broken pictures, they were on the old website and so went away when it did. I can't find the digital files and I don't really feel like dangling off a ladder again to take new pics. You'll just have to wait for me to find a flatbed scanner. I'm sure you're just dying of antici...pation.

Chef Edward Lee is Amazing!

2010-11-08T00:38:00.000-05:00

... but that's not news to anyone from Louisville who has had the great (and delicious) fortune to eat at his restraunt, 610 Magnolia, located a stone's throw from Central Park. 610 serves what they describe as New American Farm to Table Cuisine--I describe it as amazing. Not only is it some of the best food I've ever eaten, but it is also the only place in the world that could ever get my notoriously anti-fruit father to eat fig paste. Voluntarily.

But now the world (OK, everyone who watches Food Network) knows how awesome Edward Lee is, too.

Tonight on Iron Chef America Chef Lee took on the new Iron Chef, Jose Garces. Alton Brown pronounced himself Vice Chairman for the night, as we were sadly without the Chairman's presence. That seemed to suit Alton, he's always complaining that he never gets to eat the things he's smelling and talking about.

For those not familiar with this show, Iron Chef America is based on a Japanese show that I highly recommend. A challenger selects which of the Iron Chefs he wishes to cook against, they are given a secret ingredient, and they have one hour to create five dishes for three judges. They are then judged based on taste, plating, and originality, with taste having the strongest weighting.

Bobby Flay is one of the better known and oft challenged Iron Chefs, so I was really excited to see Chef Lee challenge Iron Chef Garces. You can get a full bio of Chef Garces here, but he is the least tried of all the Iron Chefs. You might have seen him on a previous season of the show The Next Iron Chef, you might have heard of one of his restraunts in Philadelphia, or you might have picked up a copy of his cook book Latin Evolution.He specializes in the cuisines of Spain and Latin America, trying to bring to the fore what came before while showing off the potential of dishes. Garces says his mantra is that 'authentic' and 'innovative' are not contradictory words. A very nice change from Bobby Flay's southwestern style everything.

I admit to a bit of disappointment over the choice of judges for this episode.Of the three, one admitted to having never eaten any of the secret ingredients and one of the other two is notable mostly for his fashion designing. It's always fun to see two foodie judges contradict and subtly snub one another.

But I haven't gotten to the most interesting part of the show yet: the Secret Ingredient. Rumor has is that the contestants are given a list of five possible secret ingredients ahead of time, so that they can prepare potential menus. However, nobody can get that confirmed; we are left to speculate. Tonight's Secret Ingredient was... Tongue and Cheek! Ignoring any and all possible puns, what was presented to the challengers was tongue (beef, lamb, and duck) and cheek (beef and halibut). This presents a challenge, as both of these need to be cooked for longer times to avoid toughness. Our chefs got around this by using lots and lots of pressure cookers.

I think one of the most notable parts of Battle Tongue and Cheek was the somewhat relaxed pace of the two contestants. Normally the chefs jog around the kitchen and move at a hurried pace. Neither chef tonight displayed that frenetic energy. Both moved briskly but smoothly, with the challenger Chef Lee bringing a bit of pressure as he finished his plating with nearly a full minute to spare. Panicked plating that goes down at the last second is much more typical of challengers on Iron Chef America, but as one viewer commented to me "Not that I know him, but seeing how his restaurant is-- I couldn't imagine a frantic kitchen."

I'm missing nuances, but generally speaking, here are the dishes as presented to the judges:

As challenger, Chef Lee presented first. He described the secret ingredients as "historically humble" and usually "misunderstood" and told the judges that he planned to pair them with "equally modest" ingredients so that the secret ingredients would shine. His first dish was a cow tongue Reuben, served with a pickled okra mayonnaise and some sauerkraut soup with a cow tongue crouton. It was a little sandwich square, reminiscent of the itty BLTs served at 610. The second dish presented to the judges was a duck tongue wrapped in Thai basil and tempura deep-fried. It was served over a tongue curry broth with mussels that were, I believe, cooked in the same broth. It sounds disjointed, but apparently the tastes were wonderful together and had a very inviting smell. Halibut cheeks stuffed with a shrimp something-or-other were served third. I would give you more details, but I was too busy drooling at the screen. The general consensus of my viewing party was that it looked "really good, really really good." However good it was, the fourth dish was the one that wowed the judges. It was a lamb tongue and pork cheek arancini. If you follow that link, Chef Lee's looked about a million times better than the ones in the picture there. They were served in a wide bowl with this lovely green sauce. The fifth and final dish was a braised beef cheek served over corn grits with bourbon iced tea in a mason jar. The beef cheek was cooked in a barbecue sauce that included local sorghum molasses and black (fermented) garlic. His presentation included corn husks and some of the paper from the garlic. I think the bourbon made this a particularly hard act to follow.

Iron Chef Garces presented his take on the secret ingredient "with the world as a backdrop." His first dish was a deconstructed greek salad using the beef tongue, served with a lot of little dips and dots of things all over the plate, like a preserved lemon cream and a kalamata olive puree. His second dish took the tasters to Asia with a pork cheek bao that was served with a little salad of pickled stuff in a mason jar. The third dish was an italian beef cheek pappardalle, which my spell-check absolutely hates. In reality, it was a yummy looking noodle dish made with pine nuts and presented to the judges to eat out of a clear blue glass bowl with a ridiculously long fork. Iron Chef Garces' very small fourth dish was a bit lost on an expanse of white plate, but it was a slightly salty Halibut al Ajillo--Spanish-style halibut cheeks with garlic and I think some chorizo. The fifth dish, to me, had the most interesting presentation, but then I'm a fan of lots of little bowls of ingredients. This final dish was a do-it-yourself trip to Mexico City, with the secret ingredients as taco filling. I would love to tell you what all the little bowls of things to put with it were, but at this point my notes are just too scribbled and drool covered to make it out. One was a sauce made with chilies that was a bit on the spicy side for one of the judges.

After a break (and a commercial for those of us at home) the judges came to their decisions. Chef Garces was given twenty-five for taste, eleven for plating, and twelve for originality. Chef Lee was also given twenty-five for taste, but he broke free from any potential tie by being awarded fourteens in both plating and originality.

For deliciousness that you can taste yourself, and a truly fine dining experience, 610 Magnolia is absolutely one of the best places in town to eat. Even with constraints on time and ingredients, Chef Edward Lee was able to prove the superiority of the wonderful things he prepares. Might be worth seeing what he can do when he has plenty of time, hmm?

You can watch this episode at 1 am tonight (tomorrow) and again on the 11th at 9 pm eastern.

Fact Checking

2010-09-11T17:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, the picnic knife comes in translucent purple, green, red, and blue. We also have it in opaque black, red, and lime green. The picnic knife is now available online, but you have to tell us what color you prefer.

Also, the ulu knife and cutting board combination is now available online. Pretty, isn't it?

Look Sharp!

2010-09-08T12:47:00.000-04:00

Nifty knives that will make you look sharp.

We aren't the only ones with a penchant for bad puns, the Courier-Journal is right there with us. They came by the other week and took some pictures for Phenom, a shopping feature which shows up in the Scene section on Saturdays.

While most of the knives featured were really colorful (like Messermeister's Picnic Knife, which they picked out in purple), they also got into some that are just really well designed. Example from our store that they selected for the article? An ulu knife, that we get from Knives of Alaska. Part of what makes it cool is that it comes with it's own dish-shaped, wooden chopping block*, which you can always flip over to get a flat block.

Check out the full thing here.

*Please note that the ulus we have online do not come with the block. If you're interested in those, drop us a line and we can hook you up.
And actually, the picnic knife isn't online either, so I should tell you that it is a colorful little knife that we sell for $5.20. What makes it special is that it has a slide-n-snap-on cover over the blade, so you can just toss it in a drawer (or a picnic basket, hence the name) without having to worry about slicing your fingers open when you try to get it out. I think the colors that we have in stock right now are translucent purple, red, and green. Maybe blue? I'll try to let you know for certain.

Strange things abound

2010-07-29T20:58:00.000-04:00

You know, this cutlery store actually has some strange things tucked away.

Did you know that we sell magnifiers? We get a lot of people with macular degeneration referred to us because there aren't a lot of places in town that carry them. We also have things like the Optivisor that are good for hobbyists to use, even if it makes them look a bit like a refugee from a low budget sci-fi movie.

You may remember our clearance section from Ye Olde Website of ages past. Lots of strange things in there, a lot of them because in my great-grandfather's day the cutlery was also a hardware store. We still have bits of leftover stock tucked away. Dremel tool accessories, glass bubbles for levels, and a lot of screws and nuts. (Which reminds me, you'll let me know if you ever need any of those old iron stove/carriage bolts, won't you?)

Another relic, from the days when we manufactured scissors, is the barrel of scissor blanks. For our 135th anniversary, Carl and Glenna put in extra hours to hand-finish (sharpen, polish, paint) around 50 pairs. They ended up looking a lot like the traditional Wiss sewing/household scissors.

We have six different oyster knives in stock in the store. From one (one!) company. Did you even know they made that many different types of oyster knives? I admit that I did. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I noticed it while I was arranging things in a display case today.

We also sell a knife for cutting whole wheels of cheese. It's a Wushof and it never fails to get comments from new customers.

Nose and ear scissors. Essential, but on some level, hilarious. That doesn't mean I won't still get my husband one, just that I'm not cruel enough to do it for his birthday.

Silhouette scissors. Scissors that were designed to cut itty figures out of black paper. As you'd imagine, they're still great for any sort of highly detailed work, but you'd think they'd change the name.

We sell a lot of lightbulbs. Apparently it is difficult to find replacement bulbs for those Floxite light up mirrors.

Now, I don't have some great point to make. Just that we're a small family business that's accumulated a lot over the years. We have some fun stuff that's not entirely what you'd expect.
And that's what I like about us.

A Rosy Outlook

2010-07-05T16:19:00.000-04:00

Happy belated 4th of July! I was singularly unpatriotic this year, at least in terms of explosives. I'm really more of a sparklers sort of gal. I think I made up for it by going to lots of picnics and eating tons of picnic food.

I haven't really gone into it in this blog, but I happen to be a reader. I read a LOT. Lately I've been into a lot of nonfiction and one of the books has moved me to write a little about it. The book is Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening, by Aurelia Scott and if you want to know what I think, you'll have to go read about that at my book blog.

In honor of the rosarians out there, here are some of the tools we have that you find useful.

Now, I've talked about Felco pruners in general. Did you know that they make specific rose shears? These "cut and hold" rose shears, with rosewood handles, have a wide metal spring that is separate from the blades, which firmly grips the stem after the blades have cut it. Just open the shears to release the stem. This is also called a "cut and hold scissors" or a "harvester scissors". They'll hold flowers, grapes or anything else to be gathered. If I'm remembering my reading correctly, one concern is whether the stems get smooshed too much when they're cut. In my experience these shears don't really do much damage to the stems when they hold them, but I admit that I am far less particular than anyone who goes anywhere near a rose competition. If you've used them, I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

I would also like to direct your attention to... pruner holsters! We have two different sorts, one that's a little more pointy and one that isn't. The pointy one (pictured), is probably going to be a little more adaptable to different sorts of pruners, but either will fit any of the Felco pruners. Both are made from heavy duty grain leather, waxed thread and have extra riveting for long lasting use.They can be mounted on a belt, or clipped to a pocket, so you can always have your pruners handy.

Something else you might find helpful, if you're into some serious gardening, are the various horticulture knives we have. Of the three, one is just a basic utility knife, another has a slightly hooked blade to be a good pocket pruning knife. The other is a grafting knife. Not being as garden-inclined as some, I do not actually have a very good idea of what you would do with this... maybe create some sort of franken-plant? I know that you can graft stuff with fruit trees, too, so if you have those you should check it out.

I'm off to look at roses online, my mom's thinking about trying to put some in and needs something unkillable. I've heard good things about.. shoutout? knockout? something like that.

Catch you all later!

Father's Day : Shaving up!

2010-06-05T14:13:00.000-04:00

Now, let's talk shaving stuff.

Why you should be interested
Right now there's a swing away from the handy-dandy disposable razor and shaving-cream-in-a-can. Men of all generations are getting into their morning ritual and looking for better, more luxurious ways of doing things. Women get to pamper themselves all the time, why shouldn't men?

More importantly why should shaving be an every-day ordeal, when there are simple ways to make it much more pleasant? A lot of men find that "old-fashioned" razors irritate their skin less than fancy electric shavers and are cheaper than disposable razors. There are products that had fallen out of fashion that are making a comeback. Why? Because they make shaving more pleasant.

C-M's 1752 fine face care products:
I bring this bunch of products up mostly because you can get the whole range of products in the same scent (very important to some people) and also because it has one really neat product, the preshave oil. It's really good for sensitive skin, helping to prevent ingrown hairs and protect against razor burn. It's a combination of castor oil, olive oil, and sweet almond oil with some other beneficial extracts. Most people hear castor oil and think of swallowing it to, er... "keep things moving." I can see where the thought of rubbing it on your face would be a little strange. What most people don't know is that castor oil is anti-inflammatory when you rub it into the skin, which makes it great for keeping down irritation. (Castor oil is also awesome for sore back muscles. Just rub it in, then lay on a heating pad. The oil will soak in entirely and your back will feel so much better in the morning. Amazing.)

Our C-M 1752 shaving products (preshave oil, shaving cream, shave soaps, aftershave balm) are available in either Sandalwood or Almond scents. I think either one is wonderful, but I've had some people disagree with me. Almond products are more lightly scented, I find it to be a very clean smell. On the other hand, I've had at least one customer in the store telling me that he didn't feel that it was "masculine enough" which is why he preferred Sandalwood. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

Think you might want to get into this but you have no idea what to get?
If you're looking for a place to start, I'd start with something that can be enjoyed with regular shaving equipment. A badger brush and some sort of shaving cream, either a shave soap (in a lovely wooden bowl) or a little tub of shaving cream, which is wonderful for men who don't have as much time in the morning. Give us a call about the C-M Classic Shave Set, which we don't have on the website at present. It has the shave soap in a wooden bowl, a badger brush and a stand for the brush.

If the man in your life is already getting into this, look at what he already has and try to go with that. Maybe he needs a new shaving brush, or he's never tried using a preshave oil. Some new blades for his razor, maybe.

Maybe you (or your guy) might want to try a different scent of shave soap. I've been talking about Caswell-Massey a lot recently because of the promotion going on right now. But we also carry Col. Ichabod Conk shaving products. Their almond scent is a little sweeter and lighter than C-M's. Conk has a great traditional scent, Bay-Rum. It's perhaps a little old-fashioned, but I love it.

There are a few things that set Conk apart from C-M. The first is that their soap is glycerin based, which keeps the scent a little lighter and works better with some skin types. It lets them have the classic amber soap scent, as well as fun scents like lime. The second is that the amber, almond, and bay-rum scents are available in two different sizes, so that you can use your own shaving mug. Or, our third thing, the way that Conk soaps are packaged lets you use the resealable plastic as a shaving mug, if you aren't interested in making that investment right now.

If you are interested in shaving mugs, though, Conk brings us several options some with ducks and ships and "Dad" on them. We also have a few barbershop style shaving scuttles.What's a scuttle? Read all about it here.

Conk also carries brushes, like this useful travel brush, and some accessories like a mustache comb and razors stones. Speaking of brushes and razors, Conk knows that a wet brush should never be closed up, and the best way to dry it is hanging fuzzy side down. So we also have a couple of brush stands that will also hold your safety razor.

And that brings us to the most important thing for shaving: razors! Conk has some fancy track razors in chrome and gold finishes, which you'd recognize as "normal" razors with disposable blades. Very nice, but right now there are a lot of men who have started using safety razors (pictured at left). All of our safety razors are made by Merkur in Germany, for the Conk company. I keep trying to get my husband to start shaving more so that it'd be worth getting him of these, but he sadly going through a hirsute phase.

Caswell-Massey Promotion

2010-05-31T19:59:00.000-04:00

What is the Promotion?
There's a promotion going on right now with Caswell-Massey products. Spend twenty dollars ($20) pre-tax on any Caswell-Massey products, and you can get a free full-size lotion in Rose, English Lavender, or Almond & Aloe. We'll be doing it while supplies last. This includes products from Caswell-Massey subsidiaries like Dr. Hunter's and Lucky Tiger.

How do I get my free lotion?
When you're finishing up your order of Caswell-Massey products, let us know in the comments which scent you'd like. If we're out of a particular scent, a different one of our choice will be substituted. They're all pretty wonderful.

Why would I want to buy something from Caswell-Massey?
I've said it before, but Caswell-Massey is a pretty cool company. They have tons of scents, especially the specialty soaps, which are triple-milled and last forever.

Also, this is a great chance if you're planning on buying something for Father's Day. Not only do you get a present for Dad, but you also get a present for yourself.

Ok, if you're so smart, what do you recommend?
As always, I am full of opinions. Check here to see the full list of C-M products, but here's what I think.

For the history buff, I'd recommend anything in the Presidential Soap Collection. These three scents were favored by a lot of different presidents and you can pick the historical period that appeals the most. George Washington favored Number Six, Ike liked Almond Coldcream, and JFK favored Jockey Club. You can get these scents in soaps, talc, aftershave, cologne and occasionally as a stick deodorant.

There are a lot of other C-M scents. If you'd like to smell them all, or if you're looking for a present for someone who is looking for a change, I'd get the Men's Fragrance Collection. I wish I had a picture of it for you, because the packaging is wonderful. There are six little .16oz glass bottles in a green and gold case. The scents include Number Six, Jockey Club, Tricorn, Greenbriar and Newport. For some reason, the catalog I have doesn't list the last one, but I think it's Verbena. Lime doesn't sound right and we don't stock Aura of Patchouli.

I love C-M's soaps. I can personally vouch for how well they last and how wonderful they smell (unless you're like my husband and don't like anything that smells like roses, then it's just listening to someone complain for a longer period of time than they would with a regular bar of soap). They're generally sold in boxes of three. I like these for gift baskets, hostess gifts, and as additions to attendant gifts that are classier and less cliche than something from Bath and Body Works. Plus, if you buy the soaps and split them up, you get to keep the box, which is pretty, smells nice, and is a good size for organizing things in drawers/closets/etc.
There are a few of the soaps on the website, like Almond Coldcream, Pomegranate, Sandalwood, and some of the Men's Fragrance Collection. We have a wider variety in the store, so if you're interested in any of the following, please give us a call: Vanilla Orchid (vanilla with notes of coconut and mango), Herbal Fusion (rosemary and tarragon), English Lavender, woodgrain Sandalwood, and maybe more.

Is your guy leery of splashing chemicals all over his face? Does he have sensitive skin and want to avoid alcohol? In need of something eco-friendly? I'd recommend Lucky Tiger products, especially the aftershave. Their products are made with certified organic ingredients, from a recipe that is essentially unchanged since the company started in 1935. I really like the light, clean scent of the aftershave. It would be a good choice if you (or who you buy it for) t isn't a fan of highly scented products.

There's also a ton of shaving stuff that you might be interested in for Father's Day, but I'll talk more about that in the next post, which will mostly be about shaving stuff.

Felco, for your pruning needs

2010-04-19T17:12:00.000-04:00

Felco is probably one of the most recognizable brand of gardening tools. The signature red handles make their pruning tools easy to spot (for those of us who aren't color blind, anyway).
Felco tools are undeniably the tools of choice for horticulture enthusiasts. When Carl attended a meeting of the Master Gardeners Club, part of the Extension Service's ... uh...services, Felco was a visible presence. A Master Gardener is someone who is interested in learning about all types of horticulture, not just for their own benefit, but also to teach others. Master Gardeners are trained in things like plant pathology, pesticide use, fertilizers, organic gardening, and more.
Interested in being a Master Gardener? Check this out.

But which ones should you pick?

Perrenial (ha!) favorites are Felco #2 and #11. Part of their popularity lies in the fact that their slightly larger handles fit many sizes of hands. The former has a good sized jaw for medium limbs.Felco #6 is a close runner up. It has slightly smaller handles than the other two. It is lighter and a little more compact. All three of these have thin hooked blades that are good for precision work.

Other really popular models are the #9 and #10.They notable because it's for south-paws (lefties, those who are left-handed). Plus #10 has some very cool rotating handles.My favorite is probably the #8, though. It's a good size for me.

Another tool I would like you to direct your attention to is the #F600. It is a high performance pull-stroke pruning saw that is perfect for producing a clean, precise and easy cut. The steel blade is heat treated and covered with hard chromium-plating for an extra tough, rust resistant, wipe-clean blade. The ergonomic handle is made of non-slip comfort material, and the saw has an excellent locking system. One major bonus that you don't see as much with the folding saws is that the blade is replaceable (and we, of course, carry the replacements).

Blah blah blah... it has a cool handle and a blade, but you want to know what makes this so awesome? Ice storms. I don't know if you have those where you live, dear reader, but I have to say that this folding saw is a lifesaver when we have ice storms and limbs are falling off trees all over the place. This is an item that we don't just sell, we use it, too. One friend of the family has a bit of land around her house (and an awesome vegetable garden) which meant lots of downed limbs for her to deal with. She and her sister, both in their 60's, took this saw and dealt with an awesome pile of branches in just one day.

Spring is around the corner

2010-03-04T00:57:00.000-05:00

Spring is nearly sprung!

It's the time of year when the weather is having its first faltering steps towards warming up. Every now and then you'll look down and shake your head at the few dim bulbs that are sending up green shoots (daffodils, I find, are the main offenders). Yes, spring, that magical time of year when a young man's thoughts turn to... gardening! Why, what did you think we were going to talk about?

While Heimerdinger Cutlery has a lot of knives, we also carry some Felco gardening tools, which I'll be talking more about in a few days. More importantly, we also sharpen garden tools.

Bring us your dull, your nicked,
Your hedge trimmers longing to be used,
The refuse from your garden shed.
Send these, the unusable, rust-stained to us,
We grind their edges behind the shop room's door.

Now is a wonderful time for locals to bring in their gardening tools to be sharpened. What do I mean by that? I mean your limb loppers, your grass shears, your pruners. Sadly, I don't think we sharpen mower blades anymore (I'll double check that for you tomorrow), but we do sell sharpening stones so that you can touch up the edges yourself.

Luckily it is still early enough in the year, and we've gotten enough snow, that nobody has brought any by. Yet. Bring them by now, before it's too late! Before Carl is buried under a pile of sharpening work!

Better yet, go ahead and mark your calendar for this winter. January and February are the best times to bring in big sharpening jobs, because they're slower. The holidays are over, Derby is far off, so there aren't many knives in. It's not a time when you'll need your gardening tools, so it's perfect. But for now, just go ahead, bring them in and we'll get you ready for Spring.

More Spring prep to come. Watch this space!

Knifemaking Mini-Catalog Available

2010-02-22T17:03:00.000-05:00

One of the things I've been working on recently for the store is a small catalog of supplies for people interested in making their own knives. All the items featured in it are also available on the website.
The catalog is mostly for those of you out there in Reader Land who don't have regular internet access, so it is not all inclusive. For instance, you would need to either contact us or look online for information about needle files and handle materials. But the catalog does feature our most popular blades, how-to book, guards, rivets, rods, tubes, and pommels.

If you are interested in getting a copy of one of these catalogs, give us a call, toll free, at 1-877-KNIVES-9 (564-8379).

Chefs for Hope

2010-02-01T16:55:00.005-05:00

Chefs for Hope is a six-course dinner cooked by Louisville's culinary stars to benefit the Salvation Army Culinary Training Program, takes place Saturday, Feb. 6.

The event will feature one course from each participating chef. The chefs are: Anoosh Shariat, owner of Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery; Kathy Cary, owner of Lilly’s; Dean Corbett, owner of Corbett’s, Equus and Jack’s Lounge; Jim Gerhardt, owner of Limestone Restaurant and executive chef at The Seelbach Hilton Hotel; Laurent Geroli, executive chef at The Brown Hotel; and Daniel Stage, executive chef at Louisville Country Club.

The dinner takes place at Louisville Slugger Field’s Park Place on Main dining. The cost is $225 per person, which includes tax, tip and wine pairings from Brown-Forman Corp. There is a cocktail reception at 6:30, with seating beginning at 7:15 p.m.

To make reservations, call (502) 896-0464.

Make it an early Valentines, with exceptional food for a good cause. Or, simply go because you believe in the program.

But what is the Salvation Army Culinary Training Program, and why do you want to support it?

Timothy Tucker, the chef behind this program, is the Kitchen Manager at the Salvation Army's Center for Hope, which provides food, counseling and day care services to low income and homeless individuals. Following his graduation from Sullivan University in 1998, Chef Tucker spent time working in some of America’s finest restaurants – The Painted Table in Seattle and The Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas. He loved his work, but wanted it to be more meaningful. In 2004, Chef Tim accepted the challenge of managing the feeding programs at The Center of Hope, bringing a very health-conscious approach to ingredients and cooking for the homeless.

Taking the basic principle of "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime," Chef Tucker and the Salvation Army created the Culinary Training Program. What evolved was an intensive, 10-week training program that instills all of the basic culinary skill-base needed for work in the hospitality industry. Also included in the training are such things as self-marketing, resume development, workplace ethics, and effective communication.

Upon graduation, students receive certificates of training, personalized chef coats, and job placement.

Where does Heimerdinger Cutlery come in?
Coats and jobs are wonderful, but one thing that is essential to cooking is... knives. You may not know that many culinary jobs expect employees to bring their own knives to work with them.

Heimerdinger Cutlery is providing the knife kits for Chef Tucker's students at cost, which includes a special discount from Victorinox in recognition of the importance of this program.
Each kit contains the following:

10" chef's knife
10" steel
8" bread knife
paring knife
all in Anylon Cordura carrying bag

If you wish to sponsor a student's kit, please call us.
Chef Tucker accepts 15 students a quarter, and we already have had donations for 11 kits.

New service available!

2010-01-28T16:12:00.004-05:00

Did you know that we now offer mail-in knife sharpening?

Check it out.

I think this is a neat and unique service to offer people. It's not always easy to find someone who knows how to sharpen a knife properly.

Oh ho, you say, but you can go to Kroger and get your knives sharpened. And to that I say oh ho back, because what we do is a very different sort of thing. We have a video, so you can see how Carl does things. Not only does he grind the edge, he also polishes and hones it. All done by hand on machines designed by my grandfather.

Recently, my husband and I have had to move back in with my parents. Needless to say, this has called for some adjustment on everyone's part. One of the arrangements we've made is that I cook dinner on Wednesdays, and other days as needed. What I've discovered from doing all this cooking, is that my parents haven't had their knives sharpened... ever. So I'm bringing them in with me, a few at a time, the worst ones first. The worst one was a wood handled stamped chef's knife. This poor knife has been mistreated and neglected. The tip had been broken off, the blade had some nicks in it, and I've seen butter knives that were just as sharp. Carl's official verdict: "Well, I've seen worse."

So next week I'll be bringing home a couple of nice sharp knives. And, with care, they'll stay that way for a few years. Or, realistically, until next spring when my mom has to split her hostas.

More about this coming soon, keep an eye on this spot!

Have a Sharp New Year!

2010-01-11T11:34:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everybody!

Long time no post. Things have been very busy for me, I've moved twice since the last time you saw things here. I promise I'll be a lot better about posting in 2010.

There's not a lot going on right now, post Christmas. We have a few specials right now, but the one I would like to direct your attention to is this one.

This Victorinox product, which is made in Switzerland, has been marketed in the U.S. under the R.H. Forschner brand name since 1937. As of 2009, it is now being sold in the U.S. under the Victorinox brand name. That name might be familiar to some of you as one of the two companies that make and sell Swiss Army Knives (the other being Wenger).

So now you know all about the company, but WHAT IS ON SALE? Well, it's Victorinox's 8-inch chef's knife, with a black Fibrox handle. Fibrox is a material that is NSF approved to minimize crevices that would offer hospitality to bacteria. We also have a special on the one with a rosewood handle, which is very attractive and great for home use.

What's so awesome about this knife, you ask?
Well, I ran across this on Lifehacker, who found it on Cool Tools, but it was originally written about in Cooks Illustrated. (Have you ever noticed that the internet is one huge echo chamber of people writing about what other people have written about?)

Here's the main takeaway for all three of those:

A really great chef knife will be insanely sharp, yet retain its edge easily, and be well balanced and welcoming to hold. These days a decent high-grade chef knife can cost between $100-$200. Several cooking publications (including Cook's Illustrated) recently identified a bargain $27 chef knife that in their tests rated just about as good as the $100 plus knives.

In case you've never come across it, Cook's Illustrated is an incredible advertising-free, in-depth, bi-monthly cooking magazine that conducts thorough testing on everything they write about, from the best way to prepare a recipe to the best kitchen equipment, so when they say that the Victorinox knife rated nearly as good as the $100+ chef's knives, that's a solid endorsement.

Sounds pretty great to me! Forchner... Oops, I mean Victorinox, is one of the more affordable lines of knives that we carry at the Cutlery. (The other is Dexter-Russell) They make great gifts because they don't break the bank. You'll notice that I'm always recommending Victorinox's little paring knives for just that reason. Likewise, Victorinox cooking knives are great purchases for people who are just getting into cooking, or for those of us who are having a fun time trying to survive in the present economy. You get a knife that is sharp, functional, and at a good price.

Heimerdinger Cutlery featured in Louisville Magazine

2009-09-09T21:41:00.004-04:00

We're in this month's Louisville Magazine! You will see Heimerdinger Cutlery (and a picture of Carl Heimerdinger) on page 40 of the September issue.

The big cover story is "25 Shops worth the Stop" and Heimerdinger Cutlery is 17 on that list. To give you some idea of the company we're keeping, the list also includes wonderful places like Edenside Gallery, Lotsa Pasta, Clay & Cotton, and A Reader's Corner bookstore. (Those would be my favorites off that list, especially Lotsa Pasta. Yum.)

These are all shops that "provide merchandise that goes beyond the expected, making a stop... an entertainment in itself." In our case, the article mentions our straight razors and kitchen gadgets (though sadly not the asparagus peeler). Oh, and the giant twenty-six inch long, two handled knife that's for cutting cheese wheels.

The Store has all sorts of wonderful displays. When I was little, my favorites were the trays that hold the Swiss Army knives, each in their own little cubby. This was only topped by big Swiss Army knife in the window that has a motor and moving blades. When I started working there in high school, my favorite display was the kitchen gadget case-- learning what all the strangely shaped things did. Now, I just love going in to see what's new.

Huntin' the Beast, Take two!

2009-08-26T17:10:00.002-04:00

Heimerdinger Cutlery will once again be at the Huntin' the Beast Expo. As before, it will be held at the Breckenridge County Fairgrounds in Hardinsburg, Kentucky. It's coming up soon, this weekend in fact-- August 29th from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (that's Central time).

They'll have all sorts of things going on, with special guests (did you even know that the University of Louisville has a Bass Fishing Team?).

Go out and see them!

A fully stocked kitchen

2009-08-18T17:20:00.007-04:00

According to The Nest, sister website to The Knot, a kitchen is not complete without this list of kitchen tools. They say

Your registry items have been safely stashed. Now use our checklist to make sure you haven't missed any of the essentials -- because no kitchen is complete without these handy gadgets.

Here's what I have to say about that.
The two big categories on that list that I'm looking at are knives and utensils. Here's all they had under knives:
KNIVES

Bread knife
Chef's knife
Kitchen shears
Knife sharpener
Knives
Paring knife
Steak knives
Utility knife

Other than the point that kitchen shears (or scissors) aren't exactly knives, this is a pretty good list. Except for "Knife sharpener." That, my friends, is a potentially dangerous phrase. The quick explanation is that you would be far better off getting yourself a steel (sometimes called a sharpening steel or a butcher's steel) than you would getting a knife sharpener. A steel will help maintain a knife's edge and then you can get it professionally sharpened. No, that's not just a plug for our knife sharpening services. Most of you reading this probably don't live near enough for that, anyway. A "knife sharpener" will indeed sharpen your knives, but with no regard to angle or blade shape. It's imprecise and you can actually damage your edge instead of sharpening it.

If you want more info, check out this post I did before about sharpening knives. Please excuse the broken images, I'm trying to go back and replace them with ones from our new website.

Back to school ideas

2009-08-08T19:46:00.009-04:00

It's that time of year again. Time to pack the little darlings off and set up the ironing board in their bedroom.

However, it's good to send them off prepared. This means buying sheets and towels, packing up crates and suitcases, digging out extra hangars and other necessities. One thing you don't want to neglect is food prep. College students (or anyone starting off on their own for the first time) are very food-centric, so it's important that they're prepared.

I have two categories of advice for you today: Dorms and Apartments. Most items will work for both, I'll let you know.

The problem with living in a dorm is that there are restrictions on what a person can and cannot have (example: candles and hotplates). Some of this changes from school to school, so I'd check your rules out.

Since dorm cooking can be very limited, you'd only need a few basic things past a can opener. If knives are permitted, I'd go with a good utility knife, but not an expensive one. Forschner has a whole bunch of good options, but I like the non-serrated one with a red handle best. It has a 4 inch blade, making it long enough to use for a lot of things, but still short enough to store easily. It has a hygienic nylon handle, in either red or black. It is also under $10, which is great for dorm living because things do have a tendency to walk off.

An essential for any place to live is a good pair of kitchen scissors. The Tricky is an excellent example. My favorite feature is that they come apart, which makes them very easy to clean. While some of our other kitchen scissors come apart, the Trickies can also be used as cap lifters, jar grippers, and wire cutters, and they have this great bone cutting notch which is perfect for chicken wings and flower stems. I have red ones, because those are easier to find, but you might prefer black.

A Swiss Army knife or Leatherman tool (the latter of which isn't up on the website yet, please call for information). For a Swiss Army knife, I'd recommend the Spartan or the Compact knife. Why? They both have a bottle opener and a corkscrew; the former has a can opener and the latter has scissors. The bottle opener is important; it is really hard (but possible!) to get a cork out of a bottle with a screwdriver.

If you're preparing someone for apartment living, I'd add three things to what I mentioned above, though the first is more of an elaboration on the utility knife above.

1) Knives.
My sunday gaming group has started having real food for dinner instead of just ordering out or getting fast food. The problem with this? The guy who hosts the games at his apartment doesn't even have a paring knife. Do you know how hard it is to chop up an onion with a butter knife?

If you only get one, get a utility knife. It's good for everything. If you're going for two, I'd say a paring knife and a chef's knife. The chef's knife is very useful for things like slicing up a whole chicken (if you catch them on sale it's the most economical thing, you can even make broth from the bones).

There are a lot of inexpensive options, which to be frank are better to get people who don't spend a lot of time cooking and are prone to putting knives in the dishwaster. Forschner (owned by the Swiss Army knife people) has a great line of inexpensive paring and utility knives, some with . Dexter Russell is a good choice for a durable chef's knife; the brand the oldest and one of the largest manufacturers of professional cutlery in the USA. Dexter Russell kitchen implements are used in commercial kitchens all over. They aren't the prettiest of knives, but they're affordable and tough. If you think these knives will be used by . The white Sanisafe handles are also good for people with big hands because they're a little larger.

2) Something to store knives in.

A knife block is great if you have a very well supplied kitchen (or inherited some older knives like I did), but it's a bit excessive for one or two knives. Not to mention taking up a large chunk of highly valuable counter space. There's The Swinger, or the Magnabar. Both are compact and space efficient, with The Swinger fitting up under a cabinet. Magnabars are also popular. You might feel a little leery about using nothing more than a magnet to hold sharp knives, but these are very strong magnets. We use them in the store (as you can see in the top picture on the right of the About Us page).

Or, if you don't want to put holes in your walls or counters, get some Edgeguards so that you can reach into drawers without slicing your fingers. They are a few dollars apiece and you can get them to suit any size knife. I'd definitely recommend these to college students as well.

3) A cutting board.
I'm bad to say it, but we're probably not the best place to get a cutting board for your average person starting out on their own. All of ours are handcrafted locally. These functional works of art would be better as a gift to someone with a new house, rather than a new apartment.

However, here are a couple of tips to use when looking for a cutting board. Look for a wooden or bamboo cutting board, not glass or plastic. Plastic might seem more hygienic, but scored plastic can trap bacteria. Some studies have shown that wooden cutting boards have natural anti-microbial qualities. Still, be sure to wash them after every use (particularly after chopping meat/poultry). Do not let your cutting board soak in the sink; that can cause warping and encourage slime. Using a wooden cutting board is also more forgiving to the edges of knives; glass and hard plastics can quickly dull a knife.

Well, that's all I have for now. Do you have any suggestions?

Congrats to Lone Wolf!

2009-07-01T12:15:00.005-04:00

The 2009 Blade Show, which was held this year in Atlanta (May 29-31st), was billed as "the world's biggest knife show." National groups, including the American Bladesmith Society and Knifemaker Guild, meet every year at the Blade show.

The awards given at the show are prestigious, with categories for custom knives as well as manufactured. Lone Wolf had two knives that won awards: the Blackfoot won Best Buy of the Year, and the Paul Defender won Best Overall Knife of the Year. You might remember me talking about the latter of those in my last post.

All of the knives that garnered awards can be viewed in an upcoming issue of Blade Magazine. It's always a really fun issue; I highly recommend picking up a copy.

Speaking of the Knifemaker Guild, don't forget that their annual Guild Show is in Louisville this year. It'll be held at the Seelbach from September 18-20th. To see a list of table holders and print out a free pass, check out their website.

New in the Store

2009-06-19T14:22:00.009-04:00

We have several new knives in from Lone Wolf Knives.

Dark Raven & Longhorn:
We have two new manual tatical/utility knives named the Dark Raven with a 3 inch blade and Longhorn with a 3.5 inch blade. These knives have either checkered Ebano wood or G-10 handles and the look and performance of a true custom knife. They are build to endure, with high quality CPM-S30V blades. The blades are heat treated, tempered and cryogenically frozen to maximize edge retention and toughness.
They feature a locking liner mechanism.

Heimerdinger Cutlery has the Raven and Longhorn available with Ebano wood handles with both plain and serrated blades; in G-10 handles with the same blade options.

Paul Defender
The Paul Defender is a Gentleman's’s-Tactical Paul Knife. Its 3.9 inch blade is built from premium 154CM steel and will handle everyday cutting tasks and also perform as a tactical defensive knife should the need arise. Heimerdinger Cutlery has the Defender available with handles that are checkered cocobolo wood or checkerd G-10, which give this knife a classy take on the tactical look and a secure grip.

The Paul Defender is a true cross-over gentleman’s tactical that is sure to set some industry trends. The patented Paul Axial locking mechanism that locks the blade closed and open makes this great looking knife easy to open & close, safe to carry and extremely safe to use. It also makes it ambidextrous. The Defender has a sleek handle shape with contours for a secure grip, while remaining slim in the pocket. It is sure to please anyone wanting a great looking and sophisticated tactical knife.

Heimerdinger's also has a very special knife, the Paul Executive Folder with mother of pearl handles (LM23740), of which only 100 were created.
The new Paul Executive knife is a beautiful balance of size, blade length, and comfort in a very compact gentleman’s knife. The Paul Executive is a wonderful evolution of classic Paul gentlemen’s knives and it destined to become possibly the best compact pocket knife Paul Poehlmann has ever designed.

This model features AAA grade mother of pearl handles; hand-fitted to each of these limited editions knives. Lone Wolf cuts, shapes & fits each piece of shell, mounting it onto the knife and then sanding and polishing the material to bring out its natural beauty. The Mother Of Pearl Paul Executive is a fusion of technology and natural materials to create a highly desirable and collectible gentlemen’s pocket knife. The Paul® Executive gentlemen’s knife from designer Paul W. Poehlmann is compact, rugged and great looking. This knife has a classic drop-point blade that is 2.5 inches long, providing plenty of cutting surface. The patented Axial locking mechanism (created by Poehlmann) locks the blade in both the open and closed positions for safety. The sleek handle shape provides a secure and comfortable grip. The Paul Executive is constructed entirely of stainless steel for easy maintenance and reliable service. It’s precise fit and finish assures that it operates smoothly, safely and looks great!

The Paul® Executive “Mother Of Pearl ” knife has a limited lifetime warranty. It is packaged in an attractive metal display box inside a nice Lone Wolf gift box. A certificate of authenticity is included.

Specifications: Blade Length: 2.5 in. Handles: AAA Grade Mother Of Pearl Overall Length: 5.8 in. Liners/Frame: Stainless Steel Weight: 1.6 oz. Blade Material: 400 Series high-carbon Stainless Steel
Proudly made in the USA

If you want more information about these knives, either check the website, or give us a call at 888-267-9572 (toll free) or 502-897-9552 (local). You can also order them the same way.

It's alive!

2009-06-06T12:45:00.002-04:00

The new website is live!

http://www.heimerdingercutlery.com/

Over the next month we'll be working to get all the problems ironed out. Please have patience, a lot of this has to be done to each product individually (changing the descriptions, updating pictures). But we're working on it.

Especially the Conditions of Use.

Rescheduling!

2009-06-03T12:05:00.002-04:00

We'll be rescheduling the Shave In, due to an unexpected trip by our straight razor guy.
I'll keep you posted on that.

Also, if everything goes well, we'll have the new website live tonight! I'll be linking tomorrow. :D

Moon and June, Knife and... Spoon?

2009-05-26T12:28:00.004-04:00

June is looking like a very busy month at the Cutlery.

New Website
On June first we will be going live with our new website design. The new site features more streamlined categories and a format that will be much easier to navigate. It will also be up-to-the-minute accurate about what items we have in stock (which will make both you and our shipping department much happier and prevent delays in you receiving your merchandise). The new website will also have a prettier URL, no more of this /catalog nonsense. I'll post a link as soon as we get it up.

Shaving demo
June 4, 2009
We'll be hosting our "Shave In" on June 4th in the evening, at 6 pm. It will be an informational session for individuals who are interested in using a straight razor. There will be instruction in razor use and care, along with other information such as the history of the straight razor.

Reservations will be required. These can either be made in person, or by calling (502) 897-9552. There will be a fee of $50 due when you make your reservation. This fee will go to reserve your place for the Shave In; after the event you will receive a Heimerdinger Gift Card for the same amount that can be on any store products.

Jon Hart Trunkshow
June 1st through 16th

We will be hosting another Jon Hart Design trunkshow. Personalization will be available for items bought during this time, and any orders placed during the trunk show will receive monogramming for free (a $7.00 value).

This would be a good time to pick up a Father's Day gift. Don't forget, that's coming up on June 21st.

News!

2009-04-20T11:52:00.004-04:00

Changes in Store hours
Hey guys, as you probably know, our regular store hours are Monday - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Please note that we will have alternate hours for the following days:
*May 2nd - Derby Day! We close at 2p.m.
*May 16th - We will close at noon (Wedding!)
*May 23rd through May 25th - We will be closed in observance of Memorial Day.

New Website
I've been wanting to tell you about this for a while now. We are in the process of building an entirely new website. I've seen the designs, and I think it's going to be great. It looks good and should be a lot easier to navigate, plus it'll fit in with our new inventory/sales software to help us keep all our numbers up to date. It should also make shipping faster, since we'll be able to know immediately whether your item is in stock or not.

Hopefully all this won't be causing problems with our current website, but you never know. Please bear with us. If you're having problems, give us a call or drop us an email.
Toll Free Number: 888-267-9572
Local Telephone: (502) 897-9552
Email: info@heimerdingercutlery.com

The new website will hopefully be up and running by mid-summer.

Trivia!

2009-04-15T11:04:00.003-04:00

Heimerdinger Cutlery carries kitchen, butcher and chef knives from R.H.Forschner. R.H. Forschner is a division of Swiss Army Brands, Inc., maker of the Victorinox Original Swiss Army Knife. Their high carbon, stainless steel blades are hand finished by skilled craftsmen at Victorinox in Switzerland.

Another interesting bit? The -inox bit at the end. "Inox" means stainless steel, and you'll frequently see it stamped on items made in Europe.

Weddings-- Bridesmaid gift ideas

2009-04-13T07:43:00.010-04:00

Ok, now that we've figured out what to get the guys, you need attendant gifts for the girls. A lot of brides make the jewelry or makeup/hair a gift. Other options include getting perfectly lovely gifts, but ones that are purely ornamental. Personally, I ended up going with an ornamental gift for my junior bridesmaids, and more useful ones for my older ones.

This is usually way easier. Here at the Cutlery, we have two main options: cooking stuff and beauty stuff.

Kitchen Stuff

Knives are always useful and appreciated. Even if someone doesn't cook much, a paring knife is a good gift because it's a useful size. My absolute favorite affordable small knives ever are these nylon handled ones from Forschner. Why? Because they're very affordable (ranging from $6.99 to $8.50) and the knives still have and hold a good sharp edge. The nylon handles are very sanitary, dishwasher safe, and they also make this a knife that survives well being dropped. These smaller knives are great to pair with other gifts, maybe other kitchen tools, or a wooden spoon and a kitchen towel, or maybe a pot of herbs.

As far as other knives go, any Wustof knife makes a wonderful gift. It will last generations, literally. My favorite handle pattern is the Classic. Hard to go wrong there.

I can, and have gone on and on about about Kentucky Spring's tongs and cheese slicers. All I'll say here is that they're affordable, classy, and locally made. (Hint: That last bit makes it a great gift for out-of-state people).

Another fun gift idea is to give a bouquet of kitchen gadgets. What do I mean by a kitchen gadget? I mean orange peelers, melon ballers, ice tongs, and all sorts of other eccentric things.
If you only want one, I'd say go with a garlic press. This one has two different sized baskets so you can pick the texture of the final product. Love it, love it, love it (and garlic). If someone isn't a garlic fan, the Tricky 777s are the best kitchen shears ever.

An ulu mincing knife, complete with a block/bowl to chop things up in would make a nice gift for the chef who has everything.

Beauty Items
For in-store customers, I'd like to suggest ceramic nail files. The only problem is that they don't ship well; they have to be unwrapped very carefully or they get broken, so we don't ship them anymore. But other than that, they are wonderful products.

A nail file alone does not an attendant gift make. It needs a little something more. You could pair it with, for example, some hand cream from Caswell-Massey. My personal favorite is the rose scented one. Caswell-Massey also makes a lovely foot creme if you need a gift for a pedicure fiend.

Other ideas
These are gender neutral gifts that anyone would like.
If you have an avid gardener, we have a selection of Felco pruners.
I love my Leatherman Micra, it fits on my keychain and the main tool is scissors. It's one of the smaller multitools and very useful. (Who says says girls don't like tools as much as guys?)

Jon Hart Design also has some good products. Luggage tags are always useful, as are these little bags. Women can use them as makeup bags, or anyone can use one to keep toiletries in. A very nice gift along this line would be a monogrammed toiletries bag, which we're formally calling shave kit. It may be designed for a guy's shaving stuff, but it's perfect for a women. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of stuff. I can fit all my contact stuff, my hairbrush, vitamins, first aid-kit and all my other necessities inside, with room to spare. It also comes in much more interesting colors than the ones in the picture. The ocean blue, fuchsia, or lime are fun and springy.

Weddings-- Groomsmen gift ideas

2009-03-26T14:43:00.012-04:00

One of the more complicated details of planning a wedding is attendant gifts.
1)You have to get them something that's nice and is something they'd like/use.
2)You either have to get everyone the same thing, or spend about the same amount of money.
3)Depending on your budget, you might not be able to do 1 or 2.
So here are some suggestions, in a variety of price ranges, for groomsmen and best man gifts.

Guys, take my word for it, you will win BIG points if you tell your future spouse that you will handle buying the attendant gifts for the guys all by yourself. (Unless you're planning on giving them their ties or something, but what fun is that?)
Simply put, it's hard to buy GOOD gifts for people you don't know very well. And, generally, the groom will be spending less time with wedding related things so he'll have time.

If you look at all the bridal magazines and things, apparently pocket knives are very popular gifts for groomsmen. Fortunately, we carry a bunch of those, to give you a wide enough selection that you can find the right knife for the right person.
My favorite knife to get, if you're going for a nice basic knife that's ornamental as well as functional is a Buck knife. Specifically, the Buck Gent knife. They're entirely made of stainless steel, which means that the handles cam be engraved as well. (Heimerdinger Cutlery does complimentary engraving on items purchased from us, but it's only available in typewriter font. I believe that Things Remembered will engrave items not purchased there, for those in need of something more elaborate) If you want something equally affordable, but more visually interesting, I'd go with something from Columbia River Knife and Tool (CRKT). The K.I.S.S. (Keep It Surely Simple) and the P.E.C.K. (Precision Engineered Compact Knife) are interesting, affordable, and have names that make them hilarious attendant gifts.

We also have more traditional looking knives (Case) and more modern ones (Gerber or Spyderco). I particularly like the Spyderco Cricket for the Best Man, if you want to spend a little more.
Opinel has good basic utility knives that are nice gifts for guys who love to lose knives. They're inexpensive and have locking blades available in both carbon and stainless steel.

If you want to kick it up a notch from a knife, we also have a variety of multi-tools.

Maybe your guys aren't into sharp things or tools. For personal grooming we have variety of manicure sets (very manly, with some sturdy scissors and toenail clippers), mustache scissors, and nose hair trimmers. Well, maybe that last one isn't a great idea.

In terms of shaving materials, we carry items from Col. Ichabod Conk and Caswell Massey. Here's what I had to say about it before, when we first started carrying them. Not only do we have a wide variety of shave soaps from both, but we also have other products. Caswell Massey has has a wide variety of regular soaps(Can I mention that the rose soap smells absolutely wonderful? I love using it.)and aftershave stuff. You can get the same soap that George Washington and JFK enjoyed.

Another option would be a nice razor, one that will last a lifetime. We have straight razors with blades disposable and non, though generally a safety razor would probably be a safer bet. There are some lovely options in both traditional and more modern styles.

We also carry items from Jon Hart Design. The Jon Hart Design collection includes over 150 custom items for travel, home, business, fashion, and just plain fun. Things range from luggage tags to actual luggage (probably that would be overkill, though). These products are hand-crafted in Texas and are available in a variety of colors in coated canvas trimmed with the finest natural leather trim, in beautiful choices of all leather, in Denim trimmed in Acorn leather, or in Texas Mink with leather trim. All of the items can be monogrammed, with four styles available.

So, does anybody have any suggestions? Can you think of something else that would make a great groomsman gift?
I'll be posting female attendant gift ideas soon.

Clean websites are our friends

2009-03-26T14:12:00.005-04:00

Ok, the website is now safe again! Our host has reassured us that all is clear. We'll be getting in contact with Google ASAP to let them know things are better so the warning can be removed.

I've got some upcoming wedding-stuff posts (it is that season), but due to my own wedding in slightly over a month, things might be a bit slow around here.

In the meantime, let me remind you that Heimerdinger Cutlery has a wedding/gift registry. Not only do we keep track of things in the store, but we also make it shoppable on line. If you're planning on getting married next year, I'd say go ahead and register. If you wait until anywhere near the actual wedding date, you'll have no time. And who knows, people might get you something off the registry for a holiday or birthday gift.

If you need some ideas for what to register for, or ideas for what to get someone, here's an earlier post I did about that.

Uhoh!

2009-03-23T17:08:00.004-04:00

We're having some technical problems with the website, so bear with us. Our host is having hacking problems, and it would be best to avoid the site for a while.

Though probably if you can't look at the website, you can't get at the blog, but oh well. Just in case, now you know! Don't click on any links to the website until I post an all clear.

We'll still be there to take phone orders, or answer any questions you might have.
Local calls: (502)-897-9552
Toll free number/Fax: (888)-267-9572

Hopefully things will be back on track soon.

Preparation

2009-03-09T10:22:00.005-04:00

It's not too soon to think about getting ready for the Kentucky Derby, at least if you live in Louisville it isn't.

Derby time is busy time for our sharpening department, so you'll want to drop off your knives early. We want to be sure that everyone has nice sharp knives for all the cooking they'll be doing.

My favorite part of the Festival is always Thunder Over Louisville, which is the largest annual pyrotechnic display in North America. It is absolutely amazing to attend. The Air Show is good, too, and apparently is very highly rated.

News! Get it while its... freezing.

2009-03-04T15:56:00.009-05:00

Hey folks, just wanted to be sure you knew that we had recovered from the ice storm with no problems.

News!
We're starting the process to redesign our website. Any suggestions? Recommendations? You can either comment or send an email us directly. We really are interested in any feedback you have, so please let us know if there's anything you either really hate/love and if there's anything in particular that you'd like to see.
Here's the first website, here's the current one.

That's the really big news for you internet people, but there are a few things coming up that might be of interest to people who live around here.

March 10th, Carl will be at the Taste of Home Cooking School's Spring Sensations at the Kentucky International Convention Center. Unfortunately they say it's sold out, but if you're already going, drop in and say hi!

On April 11th, we'll be at the Huntin the Beast Outdoor Expo at the Meade County Fairgrounds, in Brandenburg, KY. There will be seminars on all sorts of things: fishing, introducing kids to hunting, gear and preparation, and bowfishing (which can't be shooting fish with arrows, can it?). There will be a big deer contest and a turkey calling contest, you'll have to check out their website for the complete information about prizes and the rest of this. Anyway, Heimerdinger Cutlery will be there as an exhibitor. Admission is only $8.00, so you don't have any excuse for not showing up if you're nearby.

Power struggles

2009-01-29T17:21:00.003-05:00

Hey folks, just thought I'd let you know that the power is out at the store. This means that we're a bit behind on processing orders. Never fear, Carl's going to try to run things off of a generator tomorrow (my parents are thawing pipes with it tonight), so we might be able to get things running.

Anyway, just thought we'd let you know that we're not just ignoring you and we will get to you as soon as possible.

I hope you have less ice than we do.

History Lesson

2009-01-27T13:33:00.003-05:00

I'm snowed in today, so I have plenty of time to write a post for you guys. I thought you might be interested in a little bit about the history of the cutlery. Maybe you've already checked out Uncle Carl's version from our original website or the newer version on the current website, ore you remember the tidbits I've mentioned before, but I thought I'd combine it all and give you my version.

August E. Heimerdinger was our founder, and my great-great-great grandfather. Heimerdinger's first appeared in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, sometime around 1861. That's the first on-paper mention my grandfather found of the store, which at that point was located at 110 Jefferson Street. There, he made scissors and butcher knives, and repaired sewing machines. August was born in Germany, and had just a ton of children from two different wives.

Family legend has it that August moved into a shop next to a woodworker by the name of Hillerich. Mr. Hillerich had a steam engine that he used used to run his woodworking tools. Old man August wanted to run his grinding wheels but didn't have a steam engine, and so the two of them worked out an arrangement. They cut a hole in the wall and ran a flat belt through the wall so that August could run his grinding wheels. That company became Hillerich and Bradsby, who is best known for making Louisville Slugger baseball bats.

After his death, his son W.C. Heimerdinger took control of the business. He added a full line of butcher supplies; branching out into barber and beauty supplies during the 1920's. The Droescher company, in Germany, manufactured scissors and grinding wheels for the store during this time period.
W.C. also held at least 5 patents, for various things from safety knives and razors to a machine for making shears. The most interesting, to me anyway, was a machine designed to sharpen razors, specifically what were then considered to be disposable razorblades. This got the attention of a certain Mister Gillette, whose company still sells razors today. The lawsuit he brought against W.C. was eventually settled, and the sharpeners were fairly widely produced. Just a few years ago, someone found one in an old shop. They thought we might like to have it; now it resides in my grandparents' basement, still able to sharpen razorblades even though it was designed over a century ago.

W.C.'s son, W.G. Heimerdinger, took over the business around 1920, though if W.C. was anything like my grandfather, he stuck around for years even though he had "retired." In 1922, W.G. incorporated the business and discontinued the scissor manufacturing. At that time he began manufacturing grass shears, pruning shears, hedge shears, mule shears, and sheep shears, which were sold through the Sears catalog. W.G. also held several patents, including the original patent on grass shears. My favorite is for an ice cream scoop, though I don't know that it was ever widely manufactured. Along with all of this, W.G.decided to start another division of Heimerdinger's and moved into hardware.

The manufacturing part of the business ended in the mid 1950’s, although we still re-manufacture and sharpen scissors, knives, and many other types of edged tools. The hardware part of the business ended during the mid 1960’s. (Remember all those bolts I told you about? Yeah, they've been sitting around for that long. Purely amazing.)

My grandfather attended what was then Speed Sceintific School, now the Speed School of Engineering. He finished his bachelors of engineering in two and a half years, interrupted by a stint in the Army during WWII. Henry w. Heimerdinger entered into the business in 1947, during the hardware phase. Throughout our history, the business has always sold many types of scissors as well as kitchen and pocket knives. This always interested my grandfather, so he spun a separate company off of W.C. Heimerdinger in 1969, forming Heimerdinger Cutlery Inc.
Around this time, Henry's older brother, Billy, took over the barber/beauty supply end of the business. You didn't think they'd gotten tired of naming everyone William ___ had you? Nope, in that generation the tradition held strong. After the death of his father, Billy left to pursue another line of business, eventually ending up down in sunny Florida.
While my grandfather never held any patents, he did have considerable ingenuity. He designed the grinding wheels that we use today to sharpen items that people bring into the store. Up until this past year, even after "retiring" in 1991, he still came into the store once or twice a week to putter around in the shop, sharpening knives and taking apart scissors.

In 1983, Heimerdinger Cutlery moved from downtown Louisville out to Shelbyville Road, just before I was born. As previously mentioned, my grandfather "retired" in 1991, leaving the business in the hands of the firth general, my uncle Carl E. Heimerdinger.
In 1993, my aunt, Glenna Fahle Heimerdinger, joined the company as Vice President. She took over a lot of the accounting-type stuff, which she did part-time while raising my cousin, Nicole (who has always been a full-time occupation).

You might ask where I fit into things. My father, David, was Henry's younger son (Carl's younger brother). While the engineering genes were strong with him, the desire to stay with the business wasn't. With Uncle Carl, my father grew up working at the store; starting at the youngest age with sweeping up and going on to being left in charge while my grandparents were on vacation. From what I hear, they only had to call an ambulance once before my grandparents came home. My father now has a career doing safety engineering, but he still remembers all the things one learns from working in a cutlery. (I'll have to do a post on that one...)
Anyway, I'm the oldest of the three of us in the sixth generation. (My brother doesn't like blood, so it's good that he never worked at the store). I started working at the store on the weekends, during my junior and senior year of high school. I worked closer to full time during the summers-- then, and later during college. And as you know, I started doing this blog a little over a year ago.

That brings us up to present. Hope that helped you kill a few minutes pleasantly on this grey, icky, freezing day.
Also, you better appreciate those pictures, because I had to climb up on a ladder to take them.

2009-01-27T13:23:00.001-05:00

We've been having some problems with our website recently, but everything should be back online now. Let us know if you're still having problems, would you?

The Year Past, and the Year to Come

2009-01-03T16:14:00.004-05:00

This has been a busy year at Heimerdinger's. You might have noticed that we started carrying some new products, but there's also been a lot more than that going on.

On the home front, Carl and his daughter redesigned part of our sales display area, to better display our expanding line of men's shaving supply, which has continued to grow.
We have also just completed a re-arrangement of some of our grinding shop and storage area, to make room for our shipping department to expand, and to make our grinding shop more efficient. Although invisible to you the customer, you should be starting to enjoy the fruits of this organizational effort! We also have a new employee working in the shop, who is some odd sort of cousin. I'll have to see if people will let me do a who's who blog post. That'd be fun.

This was also a year for networking. Carl and Glenna went to the NHMA Housewares show in Chicago. They also hooked-up with the Embroiders Guild at their annual convention, which was held in Louisville this past year.

In 2008 we really kick started our newsletter and this blog. (Ok, technically I was working on this some in December of 2007, but mostly it was this past year.)

But the really big news (the biggest news, in fact) is our new Point-of-Sale system that we started at the beginning of December. Ladies and Gentlemen, we can now use barcodes. Oh, this might not seem like a big step, but it has helped in many ways. For those of you who visit us in store, it should make check-out faster since we don't have to write out receipts by hand. For those of you who only see us online, we're working to incorporate the system to the website, so that inventory is kept up to date. That means no more waiting for items that we have to backorder.
The system isn't perfect yet. I don't think every product we have has been barcoded yet, but progress is steady. There were a couple months of concerted data entry by a couple of our newer (and more computer savvy) employees to get this going.

The year 2009 should also be a busy one for us. It's inventory season, and you can bet I'm glad I won't be in Louisville to count paring knives. As the year progresses, we'll be working on the website some, as we always do.

Another thing of interest is that the Kifemakers Guild is having their annual show in Louisville, on Sept 17th - 20th, 2009. These folks make knives from scratch, and their items must pass a battery of tests before the individual can be voted into the Guild. I'll be posting more on this later as info becomes available, but you can rest assured that my uncle and grandfather will be attending.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'm sure Uncle Carl will has a lot more that I've left off, but those're the highlights.

Happy New Year, folks!

2008-12-18T09:45:00.004-05:00

Um, oops.
I meant to make that last one a new post and I just wrote over everything that I had in that one before. Great.

So, to clarify, "tomorrow" is Friday the 19th, and that will be the customer appreciation day.

*sighs*
That was not a bright move.

It's the holiday season...

2008-12-03T09:17:00.003-05:00

and tomorrow (the 19th) is our customer appreciation day!

We will have tons of specials and, as we always do during the holidays, a wide and delicious range of homemade cookies to munch on while you're shopping. (Seriously, the cookies are the best part about working at the store during the holidays. Best fringe benefit in the history of the world.)
While visiting us on Friday, you can sign-up for our special in-store drawings that we will be having every hour. (No purchase necessary, you don't have to be there to win)
I won't be telling you details about all that's going on, because I want you to sign up for our email newsletter. If you had, you'd know about them! But here's a few hints: special prices on Wustof knives, Dovo manicure sets, Caswell-Massey products, and certain scissors. Perhaps there's even a special holiday gift for good customers, but you won't be sure unless you go visit!

For those of you who are online only shoppers, you might also have seen some things disappear off the website. Here's the official line on that one:

Due to higher than anticipated demand during this time of year, we are temporarily out of stock on some items. We have removed these items from our website display in order to make your shopping experience more efficient. In many cases we have comparable items still available, so we hope you will explore our website for alternate selections, or just drop by for a first-hand look. Should you still prefer the item you were originally seeking, please let us know and we can give you an estimated delivery date. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Also of note, we will be closing at 2 p.m. on the 24th.

Lions and Tigers and Bolts, oh my!

2008-11-24T08:43:00.008-05:00

You might have noticed that we are having some inventory reduction sales. You might also have noticed that some of the things on sale are not things that you would ordinarily think of the Cutlery as carrying.

These would be keen observations.

Meat grinder plates make sense, but Dremel tool accessories and files/rifflers make a little less sense. Bolts... yeah, those seem like a mystery.

The rifflers/files and Dremel accessories make sense if you know my grandfather. He's very into making things with his hands. Lots of woodwork and he did scrimshaw for a while. The bolts have a different story.

These bolts are leftover stock from the Heimerdinger company when it was still a hardware store in downtown Louisville. As you might know, our family business dates back to 1861, and over time has included things like manufacturing of scissors, shears, and knives. This went on until the mid 50's (and we still have several pounds of leftover blanks for shears if someone is doing a historical project). Anyway, from the 1920's to the mid 60's, the store was primarily a hardware store. These bolts and things have been in storage since Heimerdinger Cutlery moved to Shelbyville Road in 1983.

Because of their age, the bolts aren't the sort you'll find at the hardware store today. (Or so I have been told. I don't go hang out at Home Depot, or anything).
These bolts are mostly black iron (aka, not galvanized, not stainless, etc.) and mostly they are carriage bolts, machine bolts, and stove bolts. A lot of them have rolled threads (meaning the hot metal was rolled on something to give it threads, instead of having them cut into the metal).
They might be of interest to people doing restoration, or reenactment, who are very into authenticity. Maybe some SCA people out there?

Nancy (the employee in charge of the website) will keep adding more bolts and things as time allows. I'll be posting a mostly complete list at some point. However, feel free to contact us if you want to ask about specific sizes.

Probably the most fun I had while I was working at the store during highschool was rummaging through the old hardware store stuff in the shop. It was a blast, I found all sorts of fun things: glass bubble things for levels, a manual hair clipper, old key-making machines, and just tons of things. Oh, and did I mention the barrel filled with nails?

Don't forget to vote!

2008-11-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

That's it. Whole message in title.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

2008-10-29T15:36:00.007-04:00

Shopping season!

I'll be keeping an eye out for things that other people recommend and suggesting other things. My first suggestion is one that I will always always always have: The Kentucky Spring salad tongs.

Kentucky Spring salad tongs were recently spotted in the June 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine. They would have been spotted sooner, but that issue was hiding from me for a couple of months.

You might remember me raving about them last year, when they were written up in The Best of Everything column in the (Louisville) Courier-Journal. I got a pair for Christmas and I use them all the time. Simple design, but very effective (except with some cherry tomatoes, but who likes those anyway. bleah).

They're inexpensive, which makes them good for gift-givers on a budget who still want to give quality gifts. They flip open and closed, which helps save valuable drawer space. They're more stylish than metal cafeteria tongs, and just as easy to keep clean. They're handmade locally, making them good gifts for out-of-town relatives.

Speaking of gifts and the holiday season, it's time to start thinking about Turkey Day. If you don't have a good knife, it's time to start thinking about getting one. If you already have one, you might want to consider whether it needs sharpening. If you're bringing it to US to get sharpened, please do so ASAP. It's a very busy time of year for us, and we don't want to get too much of a sharpening backlog or someone might not get their knife back in time.

And on that note, here's a scene from West Wing, Season 2, episode 8.
For those who aren't wing-nuts, this is the episode where the President is having his intern, Charlie, run all over trying to find a good carving knife. At first he starts out looking for a good american made knife, but he ends up going with the best: a good german knife. I believe it was actually a Wustof knife, but I can't find the clip.

Fall News

2008-10-22T19:30:00.006-04:00

Here's a news update for those of you who aren't on our emailing list. (Want to sign up? Send me a message.)

Celebration!
First up, from October 25th through the 31st, Heimerdinger Cutlery will be celebrating our 147th anniversary with a special open house.

We will be having special drawings everyday, plus one person will win a hundred dollar Heimerdinger Cutlery gift card. On the 25th, there will be free gifts for the first 25 customers who sign up for the e-newsletter, or who bring a friend to sign up for it if they are already on our list (both of you will get a gift!).

A special feature of our event will be our fall trunk show for Jon Hart Design products. Monogramming is available for items bought at the trunk show, and any orders placed during the trunk show will receive the monogramming for free (a $7.00 value).

New Items
You might remember my earlier post about Caswell-Massey and how awesome their products for men are. Now the ladies in the audience can get in on the fun as well, since we have started carrying a wider selection on C-M's products.
These include the Almond Cold Cream hand soap, cuticle cream, the new Pomegranate Orchard Soap (already available online), Dr. Hunter's Rosewater & Glycerine Hand Cream, and Dr. Hunter's Comfort Foot Cream. These make an excellent companion to our manicure sets, and smell really great.

Sales and Specials
Just in time for our event, our fall assortment of our ever-popular Wusthof-Trident knives has arrived. Come check out our specials for the holiday season.

We're also having an in-store special for a limited time. I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to go in and see for yourself! I will mention that it involves our lovely new Thorpe Furniture knife blocks...

More to come, soon.

Embroideries

2008-09-30T18:25:00.004-04:00

We learned a lot of things at the Embroiderers' Guild's shindig. Here's a quick summary, that some of you might have received in our most recent newsletter.

Apparently Hardanger embroidery is making a comeback. For those who have to look it up, including me, it's also called Whitework embroidery. It's traditionally done on white cloth with white thread, but any colors can be used.
We have several suggestions for good scissors to use, including the ones pictured above. They might not be the best choice, unless you're traveling, in which case they are awesome. These folding scissors are remarkable, because the points are still nice and sharp. I admit to bias because I took the picture!
For non-traveling people, we have some forged Dovo embroidery scissors, and then we have a pair (shown on the right) that are technically Silhouette scissors. This last pair is wonderful for any sort of delicate work; they were originally designed to cut out paper silhouettes, a popular form of imagery in Victorian times. Veeeery intricate, sort of like this Hardanger stuff. Wow, to those of you who are trying to do this. Me, I'll stick with simple counted cross stitch on canvas.

The other hot-button topic from the shindig was cutting metallic thread. Serrated scissors really are needed if you are using metallic thread, but those are hard to find. However, did you know that we can customize your scissors for that purpose? Any scissor can be serrated so just bring it in and we will be glad to fix it up for you. Carl is also checking into ordering scissors that come with the serration, so that you all won't have to leave your scissors with us for a couple weeks. We'd love to be able to do it while you wait, but serrations take some time and precision.

Since the winter holidays are approaching and our best scissors come from Germany, you might want to stop in or order soon. If we have to special order something, we want to be able to get it to you on time!

Embroidererererer's are awesome!

2008-09-12T17:21:00.003-04:00

Here's a picture of Carl and Glenna in our booth at the EGA's National Seminar. Apparently they had a blast, and our new scissors were a hit. A longer report will be forthcoming, so keep your eyes on this space.

On Screen

2008-09-01T16:55:00.002-04:00

Question answering time! Want to know what type of knife is used in the opening of the TV show Dexter? In the season one opening, Dexter is fixing breakfast and he uses a knife to cut up various things, but the one we get the best view of is one he's slicing an orange with. It's a tomato knife, shockingly enough. Unfortunately, my TV isn't good enough for me to make out what the two itty-bitty lines of text on the back of the blade say, even when I pause the DVD.

So I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you what it isn't. If you watch closely, you can see that the knife has a substantial bolster, and that the metal continues unusually far back into the handle. This leads me to suspect that the knife has an all-metal handle. Wustof's Culinar line is all-metal, but the knife has a subtly different shape and no writing on the reverse.

Anybody with a better TV than me know what it says?

If anyone is interested in hearing about knifes in other TV shows/movies, drop me a line. Or better yet, mail me the movie at the Cutlery.
(What? It could happen.)

A Stitch in Time...

2008-09-01T15:58:00.004-04:00

Embroiderers' Guild of America (EGA) is having it's National Seminar at the Hyatt in downtown Louisville, from August 31st through September 5th. This year they are celebrating their Golden Gala (that is, their 50th Anniversary). The EGA is based in Louisville, and also has a blog.

For more information on the annual seminar and where it will be held next year, here is a link to the schedule posted on the EGA website. The brochure for the 2008 seminar is a blast to look at (gorgeous pictures), and someone snuck in a reference to a Peter Paul & Mary song. People after my own heart.

Sadly, the registration for this year has already closed, but for those of you who are already there, Heimerdinger Cutlery will be there, too! I bet you were wondering why I was posting this, weren't you?

On September 3rd (Wednesday), Carl will be at the Merchandise event, from 11 to 7. It will be held in the Golden Galleria. Carl will have some old stand-bys and some brand new products with him to the event. In particular some particularly attractive embroidery scissors from Dovo. I'd love to link you a picture, but they're so new we don't have them on the website yet!

Of potential interest to everyone in the audience is the EGA's National Stitch-In-Public Day, also on Sept. 3rd. Here's the official story:

EGA invites stitchers of all ages and skill levels to join in a day of community crafting that will celebrate the traditions and trends of needlework, right right where they are. There's no cost - just an effort to encourage community among stitchers. Embroiders, quilters, knitters and who will shine a light on their crafts Sept. 3 by stitching together in public spaces such as coffee shops, parks, malls – anywhere they can be seen. Let EGA Headquarters know about your event so photos, stories and updates can be shared online. Contact Brad at bcape@egausa.org if your chapter or group of stitchers wants to organize an event. Call (502) 589-6956.

Time for me to break out my cross stitch!

(By the way, did anyone else ever think that the saying "A stitch in time saves nine" had something to do with time travel? No? OK, too much Science-Fiction for me as a small child.)

Sharp on the (almost) silver screen

2008-08-22T12:15:00.002-04:00

I'm thinking of adding a new recurring feature, where knives that show up in (non-cooking) TV shows or in movies are identified. Does that sound interesting to you all?
Of course, someone will have to take the arduous task of actually watching all those movies before the information could be posted. I wonder if I can get Carl to pay for my Blockbuster rentals. It's for work!

Whether that ends up happening, or not, I'll still try to answer one of the questions that someone was googling that pulled up this site. What is the knife in Dexter? I certainly hope the answer is in the first season, because that's the only one my friend has, and I'm just borrowing it.

Anybody in the audience have a guess?

(Note: Yes, girls watch movies with knives and violence in them. If you have any suggestions, I'll watch them as long as they aren't horror movies.)

"Staying Sharp"

2008-08-12T16:04:00.004-04:00

The above is the title of an article about Heimerdinger Cutlery that was published in the Voice Tribune, Wednesday, July 30th. Here's a link to the article so you can read it for yourself!

Matthew Ralph came to the store with his photographer and they interviewed Carl, Glenna, and their daughter (my cousin) Nicole.

Here's a couple of excerpts:

Over the course of 147 years, Heimerdinger Cutlery Co. has sold thousands of knives and scissors – and even a few refrigerators along the way.

Since its establishment in 1861 by the son of a German tailor, the one constant in the Heimerdinger name has been innovation.

Unlike some of his ancestors, Carl E. Heimerdinger doesn’t hold patents on elaborate sharpening or cutting devices or run an elaborate manufacturing facility, but his decision to invest in e-commerce six years ago was just as innovative in terms of keeping the St. Matthews business afloat...

Today, purchases through the company’s elaborate Web catalog – heimerdingercutlery.com – account for about 50 percent of sales.

That’s good news for Nicole Heimerdinger, Carl’s gregarious 14-year-old daughter who knows the store like the back of her hand and likes the sound of “sixth generation business owner.”

Yeah, keep up that internet business, so I can keep blogging for your delight and entertainment! Or is that laying it on too thick?

Though the company has moved several times since it opened in a downtown storefront in the 19th century – moving to its current location at 4207 Shelbyville Road 25 years ago – reminders of the Heimerdinger legacy are always looming overhead in photographs of the past owners and a large pair of golden shears Carl’s father carved in the early 1920s. The shears used to hang outside the Market Street shop.

A refrigerator label from the early 1900s hangs on the wall as a reminder of some of the interesting items the company sold through the years...

“It’s very unique and very exciting being part of a business that’s been in the family so long,” Carl said. “There’s all of this history behind you.”

Even for those of us who aren't in line to own the business someday, the history is still strong. I started working in the store my junior year of high school, when I needed to earn some money for a school trip. I went in on Saturdays; a few years later I worked full time in the summer.

The store has always been a part of who I am. My dad brought me in when I was too young to see over the counters, when the most marvelous thing in the store was the tray full of Swiss Army knives, each in their own little section. The rows of gleaming knives in the display cases are paired with the whir of machinery from back in the shop where my grandfather and uncle were sharpening things. The sounds the displaycase doors make when someone slides them open and the challenge of climbing on to the tall stools behind the counter are an integral part of my memories of spending the weekend with my grandparents.

(It should be capitalized, "The Store." That's how we all think of it, and that's how everyone in the family uses it. In our address books, in conversation, even in my cell phone, that building is what we mean when we say "The Store.")

Even though I don't work in The Store regularly, and haven't for two or three years, I am still involved. The most obvious way is through this blog. But I can look at the website and see photos that I either took or assisted with. If you see a disembodied woman's hand on the website, it's most likely mine. During the holiday season or summer, if extra help is needed and I'm in town, I'll come in. I enjoy going to visit, talking with the people who work there, getting to play with new knives and things.

Some things you can't get away from, they're in your blood. Luckily, I love being a part of The Store.

I think that I shall never see...

2008-08-12T10:52:00.005-04:00

Poetry time!

I don't know if you are familiar with Knife World magazine, or not. Each month, Knife World offers a wide variety of information about knives, knife books, and more. You'll learn about knifemakers, knife companies, knife values, knife history, and read stories of interest to all knife enthusiasts.
The summer I worked full-time at the store, I kept sneaking peeks at Knife World, because it's just that interesting.

It also has lighthearted features, personal essays and the occasional poem.
Here's an excerpt from Carl's favorite poem, that he asked me to post.

"I never met a knife that didn't like me"
by Don Evans

The most precious give, I've received in my life,
was a brand spanking-new, pocketknife.
With celluloid handles, and blades that would fold,
that my Dad gave to me, when I was seven years old.
It created a passion, from which I'll never be free,
and never have I met a knife, that didn't like me.

There's nothing in this world, you can give a boy,
that he can show his friends, with pride and joy.
As most of my friends, had pocketknives,
now I had one too, like the other guys.
And as I slipped it into my pocket, very lovingly,
I knew I'd never meet a knife, that didn't like me.

I still have that knife, along with hundreds more,
that hid in the attic, and behind every door.
Some knives I guy, have a certain appeal,
or I buy a whole box-full, 'cause I get a good deal.
And sometimes I just buy them, out of curiousity,
just to see if I've met a knife, that doesn't like me.

...
There are pictures of knives, that hang on the walls,
in the living room, kitchen, and down the halls.
Therea re pictures on the cieling, over my bed,
some folks like mirrors, I like knife pictures instead.
And though they are surrounding me, constantly,
I've still never met a knife, that didn't like me.

I've got dozens of knife books, I use in research,
I always take one to read, when I go to church.
But the preacher spotted it, and took one look,
now he's preachin' sermons, from outta that book.
And he's collecting, knives from A to Z,
Now he'll never meet a knife, that doesn't like he.

Then I met this gal, her name was Sue,
the perfect companion, she liked knives too.
For an engagement gift, she gave me a knife,
so there wasn't much choice, I made her my wife.
And as we walked down the aisle, we knew happily,
that we'd never met a knife, that didn't like we.

We'll jump in the camper, and drive hundreds of miles,
just so we can walk, up and down those aisles.
We walk for miles, legs getting unstable,
'cause that rare knife may be lying, on the very next table.
And when I find it, the right one it'll be,
'cause I never met a knife, that didn't like me.

...

(Originally published in Knife World magazine, March 1999, p. 33. Excerpted for copyright reasons, and the fact that it's really really long. You would be scrolling forever)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2008-07-22T22:00:00.007-04:00

If you've been in the store lately, you'll have noticed that we have rearranged and improved our displays on the front side of the building. The manicure sets have been moved into the case by the front door,

Not only have we rearranged that whole area, we also have some new products!
I've told you about the bags, etc. that we are featuring from John Hart Design, but I have sadly neglected Caswell-Massey's shaving "stuff." What do I mean by stuff? I mean shaving soaps and travelling cases, badger shaving brushes, preshave oil and aftershave balm, and some wonderful smelling soaps.

Who is Caswell-Massey?
Originating in 1752, Caswell-Massey is believed to be the fourth-oldest company in America. They use age-old methods in producing fine soaps, lotions, fragrances and other personal care items. Caswell-Massey products were chosen to reside in the White House by three different presidents: Washington, Eisenhower, and Kennedy (and we know which ones are which).

Caswell-Massey was also recently featured in the August/September issue of Modern Bride, in a section on attendants' gifts.(p. 140) According to the text, they're featuring the almond shave soap, brush and stand. However, looking at the picture, they are also featuring a refillable wooden bowl, which is part of what makes this gift elegant and nice.

But are they any good?
Well, Carl said he enjoys using the shave soap, but his favorite product to use is the after-shave balm. I have a lot of guy friends, so that's definitely going on my list for holiday shopping.
While I can't personally vouch for the quality of the soap in terms of using it on one's face, I am very opinionated about scents.

To be honest, I'm torn. When it comes to the almond soaps, I think I prefer the scent of our Col. Ichabod Conk over the Caswell-Massey. Colonel Conk soaps are more highly scented, which have a vintage appeal (particularly the Bay Rum, yum!). I think the stronger scent particularly lends itself to the almond scent.

On the other hand, the Caswell-Massey soap is packaged far more attractively for a gift. Luckily for me, other soaps come in the wooden bowl gift set: Greenbriar and Sandalwood. I love the scent of sandalwood, so that solves the dilemma for me. I'm thinking about having my affianced get that for one of his groomsmen. The other two are haphazard about shaving at best, though they might appreciate the after-shave balm.

Generally, all the Caswell-Massey products have a nice scent. They are more complex and lighter than the Col. Conk soaps we carry, rounding out the selection of products we offer. Even though the recipes for some of these soaps has remained virtually unchanged for decades (if not two centuries), they still have a classic feel that will appeal to modern users of any age.

Ultimately, you, dear reader, will have to decide what you like best.

Damascus

2008-07-02T11:23:00.004-04:00

When there's free time in the store, one of my favorite things to do has always been to drool over pretty knives in Blade magazine or Knives Illustrated. (Hint: guys, make wallpapers of the pretty pictures for your free download section! Please!)

The general term "Damascus" is modernly used to describe metal with a visible grain pattern, sometimes with a texture, sometimes not. This can be created in many ways, from folding the metal to creating a mosaic of different steel rods to form any desired pattern.

Historically, Damascus steel blades were Middle-Eastern in origin, with legendary strength and sharpness.

If you're interested in the metallurgy and the history end of things, here's a very informative article from JOM, the Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. (50.9 1998, pp. 58-64.)

I highly recommend going to look at an image search if you're curious. Sadly, copyright prevents me from posting pictures here. For really drool-worthy pictures, I recommend the two magazines above.

Looking on Youtube there are a lot of videos about how to make Damascus steel of different sorts. However, if you want a more professional sort of tutorial video, this2 DVD set by Mastersmith JD Smith looks like it would be pretty good. Does anyone have any recommendations?

It happened in Chicago, part 2

2008-07-02T10:48:00.005-04:00

Somewhat belatedly, here is the last bit of Carl and Glenna's trip to the International Home and Housewares Show. I had a little trouble with format, which is why the big delay. (docx format, let me show you it.)
So here's the trip, in Carl's own words:

CHICAGO, PART 2
To digress a little bit, we arrived in ‘The Loop’ in downtown Chicago literally on the heals of the St. Patrick Day parade. Needless to say the residents were ‘restless’ and quite ‘happy’, shall we say.

Thankfully we decided to take the airport shuttle van, and our driver was a real pro, even took us through some of suburban Chicago, to avoid a traffic tie-up. And yes, they really do die the river green.
We saw it, but we went by so fast that there was no hope of a photo.

Anyway back at the ranch …er show, after we left the Dovo booth, we made our way to the Wusthof booth. Our representative, Ed Bartush, was there and spent quite a bit of time with us, showing a few new sets and such. Also, they have a new electric knife sharpener. The booth was quite busy, with lots of clients and prospective clients. Actually the attendance at the show was very good, and a number of booths like Wusthof were very busy.

From there we stopped for lunch (nothing amazing, but palatable). It was one of the few chances to sit down, though. In some cases, if you are a very good client of, say Wusthof or Dovo, you may be offered a seat at a table. At the house wares show in Germany, you would also be offered something to drink, and maybe a cookie. The only refreshment that was offered to us in this ‘old world’ tradition was at the J. A. Henckels booth.

By the way, we have been a dealer for J. A. Henckels for 104 years. My Great-grandfather went to the 1904 World’s Fair and met the Henckels people there for the first time. I will say that every booth we spent time in the different company's representatives were very helpful and informative.

After lunch we stopped back at the Dovo booth and snapped a picture of my wife and our representative. Earlier we had been to the Kershaw Shun booth and met the head of national sales. There have been delays in receiving the Shun knives, and he assured us that this was being dealt with, mostly with the building of a new factory here in the states.He took a lot of time and showed us the range of their lines. It was very cool. These knives, when we can get them, sell extremely well, and by the way are becoming the sweethearts of a number of the local chefs.

We walked by later, and who would be there but Alton Brown of the Food Network, signing autographs. Of course we got one!! Actually my wife posted up in the line waiting, and I went wandering because I had seen the Global knife booth. I was able to meet the people I had known only by their voices. I guess this is one of the things about going to the shows, except for the few companies that have representatives, is the fact that you get to put a name with a face.

I can safely say that we saw a majority of what we wanted to see, although rather hurriedly. We gathered a lot of info and made some contacts, which could hold us over for a year or two. However if the mood strikes again, we may just heading for the windy city sooner!!

Sounds like fun to me!

Fun in the Sun

2008-06-14T18:07:00.006-04:00

Here are some fun and/or interesting things to cheer you up despite all the rain we've been getting. Enjoy!

How they did CG food in Ratatouille. Yum.

Did you know that Nintendo's Wii has a cooking game? Me neither. Go here to watch it.

5 dangerous things you should let your kids do and why you should let them do it. (video. give him a few minutes to get started.)

But this is probably not what he had in mind. How to make a knife out of a chainsaw. Not for the faint of heart, or the weak of arm.

and last but far from least, Ella Fitzgerald sings "Mack the Knife"

Coming Attractions!

2008-06-03T20:41:00.004-04:00

If you're on our mailing list, you'll have either just received the lasted version of our newsletter, or you will be receiving it shortly.

If you're not on our mailing list, I'll be summing it up for you over the next couple of posts. (Plus some exclusive material for you faithful readers!)

Those of you who have been in the store recently might have noticed some new things. One is that we are now carrying products from John Hart Design. The Jon Hart Design collection includes over 150 custom items for travel, home, business, fashion, and just plain fun. These products are hand-crafted in Texas and are available in a variety of colors in coated canvas trimmed with the finest natural leather trim, in beautiful choices of all leather, in Denim trimmed in Acorn leather, or in Texas Mink with leather trim. All of the items can be monogrammed, with four styles available.

This line is so new and so extensive that we don't have it all online yet, but you can email or call us if you have any questions. Or we'd love to have you drop in the store, particularly on June 13th and 14th, Friday and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Why then? Because we are hosting a Jon Hart Design Trunk Show. We'll have samples of various products available and all orders placed during the show receive FREE MONOGRAMMING ($7.00 savings per item).

Maybe I'll see you there.

I can hear the bells...

2008-05-29T17:29:00.009-04:00

Hey folks, long time no blog. The joys of catching the family cold that's going around.

I have a very serious question for you to contemplate today: It's getting to be wedding season, are you prepared?

If you aren't involved in either planning your own or being sucked in to one that's being planned, it's likely that you have been invited to one. So you either need to register for gifts, or figure out what to get someone.

Heimerdinger Cutlery can help you solve all of these problems.

We have an online Wedding and Gift Registry which is ideal for a couple who is interested in registering at a specialty store. You can either call to discuss starting up your registry, or come into the store and get things filled out that way.

If you are looking for a gift idea for that special couple, you can also look and see what others have registered for, or here's my top 10 list.

Top 10 Wedding Gifts

1) A set of steak knives.
This is probably the most popular gift we see people coming into store to buy in wedding season. We carry a variety of Dexter Russell and Wustof sets, with special orders available for those who favor something we don't have in stock.
2) A knife block.
3) A cutting board.
These two are my own personal favorites for gifts. If the recipients are younger, it's less likely they'll have these. Since both of these can be decorative, as well as functional, they are well received, though I have run across the occasional person who doesn't want to use their cutting board "because it's too pretty" and they don't want to mess it up.
4) Kitchen shears.
My favorites of these are the Tricky shears, from Dovo. They come apart for easy cleaning and they are available in a bunch of different colors. I love the red ones, because they're easy to spot. This is also a good gift for those on a budget, or those wishing to give a combination of smaller items.
5) A steel.
Any kitchen where knives get used needs a steel. A steel can extend the lifespan of an edge, keeping a knife sharper for longer, until it needs actual sharpening. This can vary, for the home cook, from a year to every five years. Probably a steel would best be given in combination with an actual knife, any of the next three would make a nice set.
6) A paring knife.
Always useful. They are also available in a variety of shapes, so you could go with a sheepsfoot or birdsbeak knife to stand out in the crowd.
7) A carving knife/set.
8) A chef's knife.
Combined with a paring knife, this makes the most basic knife set.
9) A garlic press.
This is the tool I use the most in my kitchen, almost more than my knives.
10) Other kitchen gadgets.
There are so many to choose from. You could get some of the Kentucky Spring Salad tongs and a tomato knife to celebrate summer fun. You could get one of Ky Spring's cheese slicers and a little cheese board, to pair with a bottle of wine for the first time the happy pair entertains as a couple. A lemon zester or melon baller could be tied into the bow of a shower gift, or tied around a bunch of bright kitchen towels. Personally, I like the grapefruit knives, but there are hundreds of combinations and fun ways to make these into memorable gifts.

A good knife is always a good gift, because it will last a lifetime. Indeed it can even be passed on to the next generation, when they are starting their households. When I got my first apartment, my grandmother gave me a few of her older Wustof and Henckel knives. The durability and craftsmanship make them worth the expense, in my opinion. It's not as if you'll ever have to buy more than one.

(Note: the top picture was contributed by Sasha Ciconte, all rights are reserved by her. She's a nascent wedding planner in the Lexington area.)

Derby Day Hours

2008-05-01T17:05:00.004-04:00

Hey folks, just letting you know that we're going to be closing early on Derby Day, 2 p.m.

In the meantime, which horse are you pulling for? I like Court Vision and Tale of Ekati. Mostly because of their names.

As you can tell, I'm not really an expert at picking horses. =)

Spring Sale!

2008-04-29T18:34:00.005-04:00

Now through May 31st, we've got some special items on sale for our Mother's Day and Graduation Sale. Or you could be an early bird, come in for those pre-Father's Day low prices.

Select Wüstof knives will be 15% off regular price.
Also, while supplies last you will get a gift with a $50.00 purchase of Wüsthof products. A purchase of $100.00 or more of Wüsthof products will give you 10% off any in-stock cutting board of your choice.
Specifics will be forthcoming in the next post, or sooner if you are on our mailing list.

All in-stock manicure sets in leather cases by Dovo are now 10% off. Their normal prices range from $42.50 to $309.50.

Right now all of our reading glasses (+1.5 to +3.0) are $9.99. It should be noted that these should be purchased as a primary Mother's Day gift with caution. Only do this if your spouse has a sense of humor.

Spring News

2008-04-29T18:24:00.008-04:00

It's a busy time of year, here in the cutlery. We're sharpening knives for Derby and gearing up for a spring sale. In the meantime, here's what's new...

New Products!
Come in and see our newest knife blocks and cutting boards. They are designed and crafted in Louisville, Kentucky by Thorpe Furniture. Incidentally, they are also gorgeous.

17-slot knife blocks in Cherry, Walnut and Maple $85.00
Cutting Boards in Cherry, Walnut, Maple, & Purple Heart
9" X 11" $50.00
12" x 14" $100.00

Spring Sale!

We are having a big sale this spring, with lots of great items on sale. Need gift ideas for moms or grads? I'll be making posts about some the best deals and my favorite items.
It should also be pointed out that we now have gift cards available for any amount you would require and we do free gift wrapping year round in our signature silver paper.

It should be noted that:
*This sale applies only to available in-stock items
*This sale does not apply to special orders
*There is a limited supply of certain items
*No additional discounts apply

It happened in Chicago, part 1

2008-04-16T12:38:00.010-04:00

Carl and Glenna spent all day running around the Lakefront building. They were there from 8:30 in the morning until 5 o'clock at night.
Most of their time was spent visiting various vendors. Carl tells me that he had identified 50 different vendors that he was interested in, but in the 8 hours they were there, he and Glenna were only able to see about 40. Most of those were brief visits, dropping off cards, picking up information; they spent more time perusing the booths of vendors we already, visiting with them and discovering new products.

The Shun booth was a big attraction, and not just because they had Alton Brown.(Of course Glenna got an autograph, are you crazy? His blend of cooking and science is irresistible.)
As we were saying before the digression, the knives themselves are lovely. Shun also had some awesome limited edition steak knives. It looks like other people thought so, too; apparently it was a bit hard to get a close look.

Sadly, Carl's camera hates the new computer, so we have a lot less pictures of the Housewares Show than we'd hoped to have. From what we have, you can get an idea of how crowded and busy the vendors room was. My feet would have fallen off from all of that walking around.

One of our favorite vendors, Dovo, was at the Show! Luckily, they had plenty of chairs, so Carl and Glenna got a bit of a rest. Dovo supplies all of our manicure sets and a large percentage of our sewing and hair scissors/shears, and individual manicure implements. Here's a picture of Anne Rothstein, Jens, and Glenna. Jens is a German representative of the company, who we get to see every so often. He travels around once a year with a huge bag of manicure sets, so that Carl can look at them before deciding what to order for the next year. Everyone in the store gets a chance to ooh and aah, it's always a lot of fun. Just hope that Jens doesn't test your German skills! (Mine are, admittedly, horrible.)

To be continued...

Placeholders are we

2008-04-08T11:26:00.003-04:00

Hey folks,

In a few days I'll have a post up about Carl and Glenna's trip to Chicago and all the interesting things. Plus pictures!
I just have a lot going on until the 11th.
In the meantime, here's a picture of Alton Brown doing a signing session at the Shun booth.

Knifelore from a Grimore

2008-03-27T10:12:00.003-04:00

Well folks, it looks like I'll have to call and bug Carl about getting me some pictures from his trip. In the meantime, here's something to whet your appetite. (pun always intentional).

Knife Folklore Fragment of the Week:

The accidental crossing of two case knives at the table must be avoided, as it is likely to cause a desperate fight between members of the family; if the knives are crossed inadvertently, they must be touched only by the same person who crossed them

.

Randolph, Vance. Ozark Magic and Folklore (formerly titled Ozark Superstitions). Dover Publications, Inc., New York: 1947. (p 58)

Buy the book here on Amazon.com.

Where's Carl?

2008-03-14T13:34:00.003-04:00

This weekend is the International Home and Housewares Show 2008, up in Chicago. If you're going to be there, keep an eye out for Carl and give him a wave. Unlike Waldo, Carl will be a bit harder to spot, as he doesn't wear bright red stripes.

According to its website, the International Home & Housewares Show is the world's premier housewares marketplace. It features more than 2,000 exhibitors from 34 countries, and more than 20,000 buyers from over 100 countries around the world.
Personally, I'd like to spend some time in the international pavilions; they sound very interesting.

So there will be a lot of people there. Still, keep an eye out for Carl (and Glenna, too!) because they'll be there all weekend. With any luck, we'll get some nice pictures and fun stories to post here. :)

Have a good weekend everybody!

Every Girl's Crazy 'bout a Sharpedged Knife

2008-02-15T00:09:00.013-05:00

I was just sitting down to write a scintillating post about how to sharpen a knife and all that goes with that, when I found this video for you.

If any of you have ever gotten the talk about how to use a steel in our store, you'll notice the similarity in hand movements. Like the man in the video, we also sharpen knives by hand, though we have a lot more equipment. (At some point, when I remember to take my camera to Louisville, you'll get a tour of the shop.)

To summarize the video, calling it a "sharpening steel" isn't quite accurate. It really hones the edge until the knife becomes too worn and needs to have a new edge ground onto it. This is best done professionally, in general, and frequency depends on how much you use your knife. If you use a steel regularly and take good care of your knife, every year or two is sufficient.

In the meantime, remember these guidelines:

1)Remember, use your steel!

2) Use a cutting board, not the counter or a plate.
A wooden cutting board is best for your knife, though any material will work if you avoid hard surfaces like glass. Bamboo cutting boards are very fashionable at the moment, as well as being a good choice ecologically. Remember to wash it after cutting meat and poultry.

2) SAY NO TO THE DISHWASHER!
Using a dishwasher can dull your knife and damage the handle.

3)Store knives somewhere secure.
There are several options available, from blocks that sit on the counter, ones the mount on the underside of your cabinets, or ones that can sit in your gadget drawer. If those occupy too much space, you can always get an edge guard, which will protect both the blade and your hand when you reach into a crowded drawer.

Knifelore from a Grimore

2008-01-24T16:31:00.000-05:00

Hey folks,

Something that you'll be seeing from time to time are bits of knife trivia and folklore. Sometimes they'll be their own entry, sometimes they'll slip into the end of a post about something entirely different.

Keep an eye out!

Knife Folklore Fragment of the Week:

The gift of a knife can cut a friendship.

Very common up until the last couple generations, this bit of folklore explains why a couple of pennies would be included in every gift of a knife. After the present was opened, the pennies were then returned to the giver, to pay for the knife so it wasn't a gift.

Video Time!

2008-01-18T16:42:00.001-05:00

I really liked reading the excerpt from Anthony Bourdain's book that I linked to in the previous post, so I went out and found you some videos of him to watch.

Here's a couple from his TV show, No Reservations, where he travelled around the world trying out local cuisine.
The first one is in Spain, talking about jamon serrano (serrano ham). Which really is very yummy, definitely try some if you have a chance.

And here is part 1 of his show on Indonesia.

This next video, in interview, definitely showcases Bourdain's salty sense of humor. It's also features a much more entertaining video of how to chop an onion than the one I posted earlier on in this blog. The knives used in this video are from Global.

Back and to the Point

2008-01-18T13:37:00.000-05:00

or, On Practicality

Some of our alert readers in Louisville might have caught the article "A Cut Above the Rest" in the Scene section of the C-J, on January 5th. It was about the Dexter Russell Sani-Safe 9-inch scalloped sandwich knife, model number S163-9SC. Sadly, you did not see Heimerdinger Cutlery listed as a place selling the knife, even though we do indeed have it in stock.

But why should you be interested in this knife?
Dexter Russell Knives aren't like the flashing and slashing knives the chefs use on television.
They have sleek black handled knives, like this bird's beak paring knife (also called a peeling knife) on the left, that you'll have seen recently on Bravo’s hit show Top Chef.
Or you might imagine owning a Santoku chef's knife with a hollow ground edge (also called a Granton edge). If it's good enough for Emeril and Rachel Ray, it must something wonderful to have in your own kitchen. That's true, this knife excels at slicing, dicing, and mincing. The hollow ground bits on the blade allow you to slice things very thinly and they won't stick to the blade.

So, again, why would you want this Dexter Russell knife with that funny shape?

Marty Rosen, the guy who wrote the article for the Courier-Journal, restrained himself from asking his wife the same exact question when she gave it to him as a present.
Her book club had recently read the book Kitchen Confidential, by chef Anthony Bourdain. Anyone who has ever caught his TV shows or read one of his books knows that when it comes to kitchen knives, he's somewhat of a minimalist. He'd rather have one or two good knives that he can use for years, than a whole set of knives that are so pretty and expensive that he's almost afraid to use them. And he considers an offset handled serrated knife to be "indispensable"
The somewhat skeptical columnist found that this is indeed a very useful knife to have around. He said:

It's a perfectly good tool for all the usual tasks associated with serrated knives (slicing bread, tomatoes and the like). And, as Bourdain predicted, I've found myself grabbing it for nearly everything else as well. It slides gracefully through baked ham, roast beef and turkey breasts, and though I wouldn't use it to saw through, say, a melon, it does a fine job with less husky fruits and vegetables.

If you don't already have a serrated/scalloped knife, maybe you should try this one on for size. The offset handle and slightly longer length makes is more versatile than your average sandwich knife.

And unlike many of the knives you'll see chefs using on TV, this one is very affordable. Dexter Russell is the oldest and one of the largest manufacturers of professional cutlery in the United States. You can see their knives everywhere, if you get a chance to look. They're very popular with people newly graduated from cooking school, and with people who have been working in restaurants for years.

You can buy it from us online here, or come and see us in the store.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

Whew, the holiday season is coming to a head and things are hopping at the Cutlery. We posted over a hundred packages within the last couple of weeks, which is quite possibly a new record for us. Our in-person business is keeping us on our toes, as well, and very very busy.
However, this blogger will be on break until after the new year, (though she might get pressed into service wrapping presents at the store, if she's not careful!). I'll talk to you all in a few weeks.

Have a wonderful holiday-of-your-choice, and hope we keep the snow off until after everyone finishes their holiday driving!

Holiday Gift Guide, vol. 2

2007-12-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

Scissors, perhaps?
The Slip-n-Snip folding scissors are very useful things to have around and make a wonderful gift. As scissors go, these are some of the more child-safe that we sell, provided that child has enough strength to unfold (them and enough sense not to try and swallow them). A person can run their finger over the edge safely, and not have to rush for bandages. I used my pair mainly to carry for my knitting and embroidery; the Slip-n-Snips fit nicely in my pocket and I didn't have to worry about accidentally poking a hole or catching the yarn with sharp edges tumbling around in my bag. Comes in a gold gift-box. $7.95

On the other hand, if you wanted some folding scissors that are sharp and slick, these beauties from Dovo would be right up your alley. Unlike the Slip-n-Snips, these fold up in a way that protects the edges of the blade, as well as the points. Comes with a fitted leather sheath. $60.00

Kitchen Scissors are always useful. Our favorites are the Tricky 777s. This scissor comes apart for easy cleaning. It also makes it easier to use the scissors to curl ribbon. Other features are a cap lifter, bottle opener, jar lid gripper, and cutting notch. The notch works really well for cutting flowers, though it's designed for chicken bones. My mom prefers the red ones, because they're easier to spot on the counter. $34.95

Speaking of flowers, do you have a florist in your life? Or someone who does flower arrangements or wreaths and needs a good sharp pair of scissors that can cut things from slender stems to tough wire? If that's the case, then these forged shears from Cutrite would be ideal. We're not just putting this up here because it's a pretty picture that we were the hand model for, honest. $29.95

Holiday Gift Guide, vol. 1

2007-12-01T15:26:00.000-05:00

Gifts for Guys

Sometimes, it's just hard to think of what to get people for Christmas (or the holiday of your choice). The next few weeks I'll be posting some ideas to help you with your shopping.

Two popular items for Stocking Stuffers are the Photon Microlights and the Handy Clip staplers.

The Photon II Microlight is a LED flashlight that fits handily on your keychain.It has a super tough glass filled polyurethane case and an unbreakable LED bulb that will never burn out. It's visible for up to one mile! My personal favorite is the turquoise, which I've had for seven years. I've only had to replace the battery once and the bulb lasts forever, which beats the pants off of those cheap freebie flashlights. Comes in a rainbow of light colors, which affects how long the battery lasts. For continuous use, this ranges from seven days (green) to 12 hours (white). $19.95

The Handy Clip is an innovative staple-free stapler which easily binds 3 pieces of paper without traditional staples. It holds sheets together with a buckle stitch, punched out of the paper itself. This "staple-less stapler" never needs refills. It is safe for children, and great for the environment and avid recyclers. Out of all of the things we sell, these are my second favorite to demonstrate for customers. They're just fun to play with! Comes in assorted colors. $5.95.

Personal Grooming
If one of the men in your life shaves,then Colonel Ichabod Conk glycerin shaving soaps might be just the thing you need. This company has produced quality gentleman's grooming products for over the past 150 years. These fine soaps are designed to be used with a shaving brush, preferably with genuine badger hair which easily absorbs hot water, and is softer and more comfortable on the face. When you are ready to shave, just soak your brush in hot water, allow the excess water to drain from the bristles, then gently work up some lather with the brush on your soap. These fine soaps brush on as a thick, rich, opaque layer of lather. This Old World touch adds luxury to a daily ritual.
The travel soap (pictured here) only comes in almond scent, but we also sell bay rum, lime, and amber, in two different sizes. My favorites are the almond and bay rum. Prices range from $3.95-$6.25.

We also sell a variety of shaving brushes, shaving mugs, razors, and other accessories.

We have several manicure kits that are suitably masculine, though only a couple that are specifically designed for men. These are larger set than those linked to above, but they include a very handy scissor that can be used to trim mustaches, and ear and nose hair. The second set also includes a cuticle scissor.

Mustache scissors are a very popular item for us; we also sell them separately, available with regular and rounded points.

News!

2007-12-01T14:36:00.000-05:00

It's getting to be that time of year again, holiday shopping season, which means that our decorations are up and we're wrapping gifts like mad.

It also means that it's time for customer appreciation. Around this time we break out the coffee and the cookies, homemade by Glenna Heimerdinger, my aunt. Try the butterscotch haystacks, they're my favorite. Hm, on second thoughts, maybe you should just leave them all for me! ;)
This year we're also having a Customer Appreciation Night on December 13th. If you're on our mailing list, you'll probably get an email with more information. I'll post details when I get them, but you should come by and see us!

Another reason to come see us is the annual sale we're having right now on Wusthof knives. I can't say enough good things
I'll post other specials, as they come along.

Coming soon:
Holiday gift ideas.

Our Salad Years

2007-11-18T14:08:00.001-05:00

An alert reader of the Courier-Journal has pointed out to me that the exquisitely made Kentucky Springs salad tongs were featured in yesterday's Scene section. We've been selling these for years at the cutlery and using them at home, too!

What's wonderful about these tongs is the design. Unlike a lot of tongs out there, these are designed so that they can be used in just one hand. It works, and far more stylishly than those cheap metal lunchlady tongs! Each pair of tongs is hand steamed and bent into shape until cool to create the distinctive springs. The springs keep the salad tongs open for the user, and when flipped inside out, they allow the salad tongs to fold flat for storage.

The tips of handcrafted Kentucky Spring salad tongs are curved to fit the rounded bottoms of salad bowls. A slight curve is bent along the entire length of handcrafted salad tong piece so the tips meet perfectly, which allows you to get a really good grip on elusive bits of salad or pasta. The types of wood vary from unstained wild cherry, to sugar maple or black walnut.

Another item Kentucky Springs makes that I love (and only received a brief mention in the C-J article) are their cheese slicers.

They are available in the same woods as the tongs, and come in two varieties: straight or Ripple. The latter is the one shown to the right. If you slice at the right angle, you can get a piece of cheese that's as wavy as a potato chip! The cutting wire is especially effective with soft cheeses, but also cuts softer hard cheeses. Works on butter and chocolate, too. You can get different thickness of slices by just changing the angle you hold the slicer at.

I think these make great hostess gifts or stocking stuffers. The tongs in particular would be a good gift for someone who is just starting out with their own apartment (hint, hint!).
You can drop by our store and get them, or order them online. Of course, if you get them in the store, they can be wrapped in our traditional silvery paper with your choice of ribbon colors. It's a very popular option, this time of year.
How do you think I learned to wrap presents so well? ;)

A Classical Education

2007-11-12T22:59:00.000-05:00

Wusthof knives has a new line out this fall, called the Classic IKON, which is now available for purchase at select stores.

The Classic IKON updates the standard pattern of the Classic, which is Wusthof's best selling line in the United States. The handle and bolster shape have been modified, with no impact on the high quality that Wusthof is known for. I am proud to announce that Heimerdinger Cutlery is the Exclusive Louisville Independent Dealer for this line.

Here is an interview by Cooking.com at the 2007 Home & Housewares Show, Chicago, that introduces the line and gives more information on it differs from the Classic.

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions... It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness. -Edith Wharton

State of the Store Address

2007-11-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

There have been a lot of changes at the store in the past few months.

One of the biggest is the permanent retirement of Henry Heimerdinger, the former owner of the store (and my grandfather). He handed control of the business over to Carl in 1991 and semi-retired. Despite that, he still came in a few days a week to help with sharpening items customers brought in (mostly knives, scissors, and gardening tools). His last day was the twenty-ninth of August.

Another big change at around that time was that the clipper repair room was converted into a shipping room. The room has its own computer workstation and plenty of counter space for organizing and wrapping shipments. We've been getting enough online business that Carl decided we needed to dedicate some space to it. Never fear, we still repair clippers and supply repair parts for you to fix it yourself.

Since we lost the elder Mr. Heimerdinger's work back in the shop, we hired a new employee who has been trained in the fine skill of sharpening knives by hand. An interesting note is that some of the grinding wheels used in the shop had their design adapted particularly for this purpose by Henry Heimerdinger, who is a graduate of UofL's Speed School of Engineering. They work as well today as they did twenty years ago.

An Introduction

2007-11-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

Hi!

This is the blog for Heimerdinger Cutlery in Louisville, KY. It's a family owned and operated business, since 1861. The store, as a cutlery, sells mainly things like knives, pocket knives, and scissors. However, it also has items such as manicure kits, shaving accessories, magnifying glasses, and a few works by local knifemakers. It is currently owned by Carl Heimerdinger, the fifth generation of Heimerdingers to work in the store.

Who am I?
I'm the oldest of the sixth-generation.
I'll be posting about all sorts of things relating to sharp items and the cutlery store. Every so often, Carl will post information about the care and feeding of knives or scissors.

For the moment, that's all I have, so here's youtube video of how to dice onions and shallots easily.
The knives used are Kershaw Shun Classic knives. Yes, we sell them. ;)