In the summer of 1997 I was working in the garden with an old five-tined cultivating hoe, which I primarily use to shape and work up my open raised beds. One of the tool’s tines came loose and before I put in back in its place, I played with it in the soil.  I was intrigued by how well it plowed my hard, clayey soil, but I also noticed that it did a good job of grabbing weeds. From that experience, the idea of the CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator was born.

Original CobraHead 2002

After several years of research, we launched CobraHead LLC to develop a hand tool based on the old cultivating tine.  We lined up production and sold our first tool in June 2002.  The Original CobraHead has gone through several modifications and the current tool we sell is significantly improved over our early models. While much luck was involved, we are very happy that the tool has been accepted as excellent by gardeners around the world.

2007 Long Handle

To promote the new product we did a lot of trade shows – garden shows, primarily, but we did a lot of other venues as well. We were selling our tool to the general public at a booth at a show. From the start of our trade show ventures, we would have people, usually older men, say,” that looks great, but it needs to be on a long handle”. After a few years of hearing that line repeated, we got the hint and developed the CobraHead Long Handle, which we introduced in 2007.  It was a smart move and long handle sales significantly increased the company’s revenue.

Conceptual CobraHad Mini

We introduced our CobraHead Mini in 2017. This little CobraHead has also been well accepted and is great for a lot of gardeners because of its small size and that it is so easy to hold. It’s also a great tool for children.

CobraHead Broadfork

Our newest tool is the CobraHead Broadfork, introduced in 2019.  I had a lot of help with the design of our fork from Craig Carpenter, the owner of Structures Company, located here in Cambridge. Structures makes our forks and also the collars for our long handle. I’m really happy with our fork and I know it’s one of the better forks out there.

So, twenty years later we are moderately successful. We’ve made many, many friends and people tell us our products are great. Four years ago we finally moved the business out of our house, garage and barn to rented space in downtown Cambridge.  Next month we are moving again, to a larger space on Main Street, downtown.

Five Tine Cultivating Hoe

What’s next? We may re-introduce the old five-tined tool and we are looking at other ways of expanding our product line, without just adding “me too” products. Of course, our customers have helped us so much with our success and we thank you! It’s very fulfilling knowing that our customers really appreciate our products and services.