Flatware to Table: The Muir Collection Launches

Introducing The Muir Collection — a product we're incredibly proud of, in a material we're new to. Modern and timeless, beautiful in product and process, and made by hand and machine. This flatware set is the first new shape, from concept to production, made in the US in almost a decade.

A one-of-a-kind partnership over two satisfying years yields five humble tools that celebrate history, design, and continuation of craft.

How can that be? Through our incredible journey with the last remaining flatware manufacturer in America, Sherrill Manufacturing — a kindred company in legacy, craft, and American-made.

“We wanted something long lasting that would fall into a classic category: simple, effortless, and can be used everyday, for any occasion, just like how we design our dinnerware.”

Designing and Making, Together

Just outside Syracuse, New York, in the former Oneida facility (where silverware production began in the 1800s) is Sherrill Manufacturing, the last remaining flatware maker in America. We have an affinity for companies like these: honest, committed, and carrying on a tradition of making that many have abandoned, digitized, or sent overseas.

Visiting Sherrill, we saw similarities in our Sausalito dinnerware factory: commitment to craft, original machinery that aids instead of replacing the hand, and generations of skill carrying out the 15 to 20 steps to create a single piece of flatware.

With Heath leading design and Sherrill leading making, the resulting pattern reflects both companies’ values and skills, equally and uniquely.

The Collection Comes to Life

Over a two-year period, we studied flatware, lots and lots of flatware. We sketched, prototyped with paper, clay, wood, and metal, feeling the forms in our hands.

Sherrill's craftspeople, skilled in the centuries-old tradition of flatware making, artfully brought our design to life. Slowly and deliberately, hand-carving the production tooling, and ensuring the purity of each detail.

Step by step, machines assist the hand — they don’t replace them. Each utensil goes through many phases as it's transformed from a cold, inanimate piece of steel into a dimensional object that fits the hand and feeds the soul.

The finishing touch: The packaging designed by House Industries in Delaware celebrates the iconic silhouettes with a presentation that feels as timeless as the flatware inside.

Good design looks back, studies form, material, and process, and finds that connection between past and present. With any Heath design, we create something new that exists in a moment of timelessness: neither trendy nor nostalgic, its date nearly indistinguishable. For this reason, Muir naturally complements our Coupe Line designed by Edith Heath in 1948.

You needn't worry if you have another collection, Heath or otherwise. While ever-so-slightly modern, it's flexible and complementary, no matter your table setting.

Here's to the first of many shared meals on this journey. Let's eat!

Available in four finishes: Polished, Tumbled, Amber, and Onyx.