Our lavender harvesting knife makes the job of cutting your lavender stems so much quicker and easier than using regular pruning shears. It is a basic tool rather than a fancy heirloom but do not let its simple appearance fool you - we are still using the same tools we have always had some 10 years later. The difference is that ours now have black handles where the lavender oils have seeped into the wood!

These knives are incredibly sharp; when using, please remember:

1. Always wear protective leather gloves when harvesting; the serrated knife is extremely sharp and can easily tear your skin causing a nasty injury so please be careful.

2. Gather the lavender into a bunch using one hand (your left if you are right handed). Place the blade further down the stalk than your hand and pull back on the handle with your other hand. The knife is serrated but try not to use it as a saw; try to think of it as dozens of tiny knives poking through the bunch with the point tearing straight through. If you are at the farm be sure to ask any of the staff to demonstrate.

Don't cut into the brown, woody part of the plant. If you stay about two inches or so above the woody part of the plant you will always leave some green below your cut so that the plant can regenerate.

Use a rubber band to bundle the lavender stems together and work across the whole plant; depending on the age and variety of lavender you can have 6 - 10 bundles per plant; some lavender plants will produce more and others, especially the younger ones, a lot less.

Handy tip: put all your elastic bands on your non knife holding wrist; it makes the job of bundling so much faster and when you have 6,000 lavender plants to harvest every second counts!

Cut the lavender stems in the order they bloom. The first harvest will be early in the flowering cycle. As the plant continues producing more flowers throughout the season, cut when necessary to encourage re-flowering. In general, lavender will act like any other flowering plants, when they are harvested early enough a new flower often grows, giving you more than one harvest per year.

Our traditional lavender harvest sickle has a 6.5" curved, serrated blade which is VERY sharp and a wooden handle with a notch. The notch makes the handle easier to grip.

KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN