CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Many times on our Clarksvillenow.com Business Spotlight we like to talk with businesses that have been around Clarksville for a while, and when you mention longevity, it’s hard to beat Lui Heimansohn Steel and Salvage. Lui Heimansohn was originally located downtown on what is now Public Square at the site of F&M Bank an can now be found at 211 Gatlin Road.

Lui Heimansohn has been in business since 1896, and is in its fourth generation as a family owned business in Clarksville. I sat down recently with Curt Mize, President of Lui Heimansohn, who has been with the business since 1981. He spoke with a great deal of pride about the history of the business, and how it has served Clarksville as well as how the business has changed over the years.

“Of course we started out back in 1896 with hides and furs and just the scrap iron and copper and aluminum and stuff like that. We’ve evolved now to where we have two major businesses going out of here. We have a new steel warehouse where we sell new steel products which just naturally evolved, because that was just a sideline with our scrap iron and it really just went hand in hand,” Mize said.

Mize also pointed out that when one side of the business like the steel products are going down, the other side, which is the scrap metal, picks them back up so they have been lucky to be very stable over the years.

“Flexibility and adaptability have been our keys out here, and that’s what’s kept us going, kept us in the family business and kept a lot of wolves off our backs,” said Mize.

When you talk about the salvage side of Lui Heimansohn, aluminum mostly in the form of aluminum cans are the hottest items that customers bring by to sell for recycling. Other items on the list of salvage include household pots and pans, scrap iron and other metals. Some of the things that can’t be sold for salvage by law include gas tanks, microwaves, television sets and closed containers like spray cans.

Recycling is another aspect that Lui Heimansohn is well known for.

“This is a unique business because we actually pay out, in other words they come here and they get money. You take it to the landfill and you’re not going to get any money for it. We pay out approximately $75,000 to $100,000 a month in scrap metal,” Mize said.

Along with paying for recycled aluminum cans, Heimansohn’s also supports a number of local groups by allowing people to donate their cans or even other scrap metals and allowing the money to go to the organizations. The Clarksville-Montgomery County Humane Society, American Red Cross and Fisher House at Fort Campbell are three of the organizations that benefit from donations of metals.

“All of our metal here is separated and sorted. When people bring in material they think, Oh! This is all aluminum. Well, there may be steel attached to it, there may be brass attached to it or there may be plastic in it. We have to remove that, we have to set it in its separate barrels and then we send it to the foundries across the United States or wherever the best market is,” Mize said.

Mize also mentioned that his business is very public awareness oriented when customers stop in. They will separate and sort the material for them, and they have a digital scale so customers can see exactly what they have. They try to inform their customers about the different metals so they can get more value for their metals.

There are some Tennessee laws in effect when it comes to selling certain metals. If you are an individual you will have to provide a photo ID, and Heimansohn’s will take your thumb print and there is a five day waiting period before you can be paid for copper. For a company or an organization, a photo ID and thumb print is still required for the sale of metals like copper, but there is not a five day waiting period for payment.

When it comes to metals like steel and aluminum you will still have to provide a photo ID and thumb print, but there is not a five day waiting period for those metals. Mize wanted to make sure the public knew that there are no restrictions required like an ID or thumb print when someone is turning in aluminum cans to sell.

Fall is coming up and there is one final item that Lui Heimansohn’s will be glad to take off your hands and that is walnuts. Heimansohn’s accepts walnuts only in the month of October, and according to Mize they are kept very busy during the month harvesting black walnuts. Just bring the walnuts in their green hull and there’s a machine that hulls and bags the walnuts. The walnuts are then weighed and the customer is paid for the nuts.

Perhaps a couple of little known facts about walnuts are the green hulls are used to make walnut stain, and the most valuable part of the walnut is the shell. The shell is ground up and used as a fine abrasive to clean jet engines and auto parts. Remember, October is the only month that Heimansohn’s accepts walnuts, and only during the hours of 7:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Monday-Friday.

To find out more about Lui Heimansohn’s Steel and Salvage visit them at 211 Gatlin Street between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday-Friday or call 931-648-0851/648-1288. You can also go the web site at www.luiheimansohn.com.



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