A former Spokane contractor has spent almost a year preparing a retail package of cooking tools called Spud Spikes—a set of stainless steel nails aimed at perfecting a baked potato—for distribution to kitchen and novelty stores.

South Hill residents Leon and Kimberly Frechette first developed Spud Spikes nine years ago as six-inch-long, stainless-steel spikes that resemble heavy-duty construction spikes used for larger density lumber and commercial building.

Spud Spikes are inserted into one end of a potato and pushed through the center, a practice designed to speed cooking time and enhance the texture, Leon Frechette says. He also recommends using them when baking brats, sweet potatoes, and yams.

"Spud Spikes help produce well-baked potatoes in less time, because once inserted in the potato and placed in the oven, they become instant heat conductors," Frechette says. He asserts that cooking baked potatoes in a conventional oven at about 425 degrees usually takes an hour to 90 minutes, but use of Spud Spikes gets taters ready in 35 minutes to 40 minutes.

The couple's home-based company, C.R.S. Inc., has six online businesses in addition to Spud Spikes. Up until now, it has sold the baking nails to customers exclusively online.

Beginning this month, Frechette plans to market a newly designed package of four Spud Spikes to distribute wholesale mainly to small gourmet cooking stores in the U.S. The store retail price for the set, which includes a 1 ounce packet of potato seasoning, is expected to be $21.99, he says.

Simultaneously, the company is launching that new seasoning blend to be sold in jar at a net weight of 3.2 ounces for $9.99 suggested retail. The seasoning jars are designed to accompany the Spud Spikes set on store shelves. Frechette plans to show the new retail line at the International Housewares Association's March 10 show in Chicago.

"The spices and nails complement each other," Frechette says. "The seasoning blend is specially formulated to give flavor and a crispier skin. Most people don't eat the skin, but they should. The vitamins are just below the skin."

For the past two years, Frechette says the company has had steady online sales for its Spud Spikes, mainly for orders of eight nails that sold last year for about $25 retail. He adds that C.R.S., which in the company's early years stood for Creative Remodeling Services, had roughly $6,000 in sales last year from Spud Spikes, compared with about $5,900 in sales for 2010.

Currently, he says the Spud Spike website is set up for both retail and wholesale sales and relies only on Internet searches and word-of-mouth promotion to sell its product.

Frechette is the company's only employee, handling all the business's online orders and shipments. His wife works full time as an interior designer and in sales for the Ennis Fine Furniture store on Spokane's North Side.

Frechette also does all the Spud Spikes' finishing work with machinery in his home-based shop, which he says involves mainly smoothing the head of the food-grade cooking nails, which he orders and has manufactured in raw form by a Simpson Strong-Tie nail division plant, in Tennessee.

Prior to starting various online businesses mainly tied to home improvement, Frechette worked as a remodeling contractor for more than 20 years in Spokane. He also did speaking engagements for the Tool Talk show at home improvement shows, developed building tools and offered construction product evaluations.

He has written seven books, including "Remodeling A Bathroom," in 2004; "Build Smarter with Alternative Materials," in 1999; and "Accessible Housing," in 1996.

The couple first got the idea of developing a stainless steel nail for baking potatoes in 2003 while at a builder's show in Las Vegas and visiting a fastener manufacturer's booth. Frechette had worked with the manufacturer beforehand to do research for a book that described use of stainless steel nails and screws. The sales representative at the show mentioned casually that stainless-steel nails would work well for baking potatoes.

"My wife is looking at the nails, and she says, 'Spud Spikes would be a great trade name for marketing this product,' so all this goes back to the home improvement business," Frechette says.

The couple's company now owns the registered trademark name, Spud Spikes, he says. They've also bought several potato-related website domain names in addition to spudspikes.com, such as potatonails.com, he adds.

In preparing to grow the Spud Spikes business, Frechette says he has a large shop space to accommodate the final stages of the nails' production on a somewhat bigger scale, but eventually, the company likely will need a separate manufacturing space in Spokane. He also expects eventually hiring up to four employees, depending on sales volumes.

"At the rate we're growing, we'll be forced into a commercial building where I can store tools, inventory," Frechette adds. "I don't know when, but ideally what will happen is we'll sell all our commerce sites except the editorial site, asktooltalk.com, and spudspikes.com, and then we can concentrate on creating more spice blends and special utility tools or utensils to hold the potatoes. They'll be potato-specific gadgets such as mitts and accessories."

He says Lawton Printing Inc., of Spokane, handled all the printing for the new Spud Spikes retail packaging and instruction card.

For the Spud Spikes Potato Seasoning, Frechette created the company's custom blend, which will be produced by the St. Louis-based McCarthy Spice & Blends Co.

"I'll have two blends, a hot and a mild blend, but we'll start with the mild blend first," he says.

For cooking with Spud Spikes, Frechette recommends inserting the skewers through the center of the potato, which should have a thin layer of cooking oil spread over the skin. He then suggests sprinkling on the Spud Spikes Potato Seasoning over the entire surface of the potato skin.

Most average-sized baking potatoes are about five inches long, Frechette says, which allows about a half inch of the company's cooking nail to protrude on each end of the spud.

"That's ideal," he says, "If you get a five-inch potato, at 12 ounces, all my testing with four potatoes at that dimension in a conventional gas oven, I'm out of there in about 35 to 40 minutes."

He also has cooked using the Spud Spikes on the grill, with the potatoes placed on parchment paper.

"I've learned a lot about potatoes," Frechette adds, saying that cooking them with Spud Spikes is usually on the menu when the couple entertains. "I have it down to a science."

He adds, "People now know me as the spud man, and they pretty much know when they come to a barbecue at our house that they'll have these. Because I can reduce my cooking time, I can spend more time with my friends. It's a real conversation piece."