A crimp tool facilitates crimping a resiliently radially compressible human-implantable catheter pump, and transferring the crimped pump into a tubular transfer sheath, by pulling the heart pump through an elongated tube that defines a tapered longitudinal bore. The bore has an inside dimension that tapers gradually along the length of the bore. A large end of the bore is sufficient to accept an uncrimped heart pump. A small end of the bore has a dimension similar to an inside dimension of the transfer sheath. A proximal end of the tube has a hub. A proximal end of a bore through the hub is configured to receive a distal end portion of the transfer sheath coaxially with the tube bore. Optionally, a latch is configured to releasably restrain the distal end portion of the transfer sheath within the hub.