Celebration week!

If you're in the area, I hope you've dropped by the store for our celebration this week.

Today is local chef day! Chef Sam Mudd from Sullivan University will be showing us knife skills while preparing a relish tray from 11 to 1 today. Then Chef Shaw Ward of Jack Fry's will be tempting us with his shrimp and grits from 1:30 to 3. Yum! We've invited a bunch of other people to drop in during the day. If you're reading this, you're invited, too!

Thursday September 15th
Thursday we will be honoring our military men and women. A special gift will be presented to the first 15 active duty soldiers that come by the store. This will include: an on-the-go insulated mug with the Knifemakers Guild logo, free passes to the Guild show (Friday thru Sunday, Sept 16 - 18 at the Seelbach), one of a couple of different t-shirts, and other special items. All you other active duty soldiers will still get free passes to the Guild show (and maybe something special, too). Retired military, don't think we've forgotten about you! Come in to get your show pass and a free knife sharpening coupon. We'll also have a special drawing just for you. The rest of you, come by, sign up for the prizes, and say a special thank you to our men and women in uniform.

Did you know: Any orders shipped to a military post office have free shipping at Heimerdingers.

Friday Sept. 16th
The Knifemakers Guild show starts today! Stop by on the way down to the show or on the way home. We'll be doing our very own oral history project, collecting your favorite stories about visits to Heimerdingers. Stop in to shoot the breeze and tell us all the things we've forgotten (or in my case, wasn't alive for). We are doing this because every now and then we hear about someone special we remember, or a product we produced, or just a fun story. Share them in the comments here or on Facebook, too! Also we are inviting any former employees to come by on Friday to say hello. If you know of someone, please pass the word along. We're really hoping that Kyle Ellison (maker of the fabulous Kentucky Springs salad tongs) will be able to be with us this day.

Saturday Sept. 17th
Our final day is shaping up to be an awesome one. We'll have Ed Bartush from Wusthof Trident and Cindy Milem from Kyocera ceramic knives in the store with us. Also, we'll have another very special guest, Mark Zalesky, the editor of Knife World. Special demonstrations will be the order of the day with Cindy and Ed. There will be quite a few specials that day with Wusthof, including a 'trunk show' special, allowing a one time special ordering opportunity of Wusthof knives at 30% off for prepaid orders (only on regularly priced stuff, no sale items, no other discounts or offers).
While all that's going on, Mark Zalesky will be signing some of the books Knife World distributes, as well as doing knife appraisals (sorry, no written appraisals).


No matter which day you come by, be sure to sign up for the prizes, and remember that the Knifemakers Guild show runs through Sunday. We won't be doing the drawing for the major prizes until next Monday (the 19th).

Come see us!

Check us out!

Just a reminder that our 150th anniversary celebration is coming up next month, September 12-17th. Keep your eyes on our Facebook page for updates about when things are going to be happening!

But really, I'm just posting that as an excuse to share this link from io9.
"A brief history of the ancient science of sword making," is a very fun read.

We're on TeeVee!

The store was featured on Fox 41 last night, after all that tornado stuff. This blogger was a little sad not get her 15 minutes, but alas we can't get everything.

If that link thing feels like too much work, you can just watch the clip below!

Louisvillians in the News

As you know it's our 150th year in business and we're doing some fun things. That includes some in-store specials this weekend to celebrate my grandfather's 85th birthday. And cake, yellow cake with caramel icing. Well, WHAS (a local station) came by the other day and we were on the news! Sadly, the video doesn't seem to have been put online, but here's what they had to say about us.

But it's not all about us. Check out all the Louisville chefs making a splash on the national scene!

The March issue of Esquire is featuring a recipe by one of our (ok, my) favorite local chefs: Edward Lee. I can't link to it yet, but never fear, it is forthcoming. According to the C-J, the recipe shared i

s a "manly" take on breakfast: waffles and eggs with a chicken-sausage-green-chili gravy.  I think the recipe has something to do with their Eat Like a Man blog, which recently featured bartender  Joy Perrine, who 

also co-authored The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book.

And if you get the Cooking Channel (or can catch some of it on demand, which is how I plan to watch it), keep an eye out this Sunday (the 27th) at 9 p.m. for their episode of Food(ography) on Southern Cooking. Chef Dean Corbett of the eponymous Corbett's restraunt will be sharing his delicious recipe for fried green tomatoes. Sadly, I cannot personally confirm the deliciousness, but we'll take their word for it.

Year 150

You may or may not have noticed, but this year marks Heimerdinger Cutlery's 150th Anniversary! We have all sorts of in-store events (cake!), in-store sales, and yes we'll even have some things for you guys here on the internet. And did I mention the cake? Yum. Keep your eyes on this space for more info to come.

Now, we can't be entirely certain that 1861 was the year that the Store was founded, but it's a good guess. Why? Because it was the first year that it appeared in the Louisville City Directory, showing up as A. Heimerdinger--Cutler and Sewing Machine Repair.  We know it couldn't have been founded too many years previous to that because August originally settled in Cincinnati, where he was married in 1857.  His movement to Louisville can be tracked by birth records; in 1859 he had one daughter born in the Cincinnati area and another daughter was born in 1860 in Louisville. Gotta love genealogy.

Want to know more about our history? Check out my blog post here, or the website here. Sorry about the broken pictures, they were on the old website and so went away when it did. I can't find the digital files and I don't really feel like dangling off a ladder again to take new pics. You'll just have to wait for me to find a flatbed scanner. I'm sure you're just dying of antici...pation.