Felco, for your pruning needs

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.