broom making
such a wonderful thing
i learned how to make brooms at my summer job in 2022 and i instantly loved it. it is such a cool combination of art and a trade. making a functional broom isn't hard, but making one that looks pretty is a whole other game. i haven't been able to make many brooms recently because i'm away at university, so i'm mostly backposting for now, but i hope i get to making some new ones soon. all my hand brooms are wound using my foot brake, and my floor brooms are either wound on the foot brake or a replica winding machine. enjoy this archive of the brooms i have pictures of!
to learn more about what i know about broom making history, check it out here
to learn more about getting started with broom making, check out some resources i put together here
my brooms
january 4th, 2023: i went back to my summer job broom shop for a day and cranked out these brooms for the gift shop. all hand wound with hemp cord.
december 29th, 2022: flat stitched kitchen sweeper. this broom was brutal to make. i started shaving the handle on an absolutely frigid day with insuffucient tools. i ended up screwing up my wrist because of the repetative motion so i had to take a break from it for almost a week. this was the first broom i made with shoulders, and i learned a lot. i used too much broomcorn so it's a massive and heavy one, but it was a damn good sweep to it. overall, i'm really proud of it and how much i had to go through for it lol. wound with my foot brake and red nylon.
december 25th, 2022: three turkey wings i made for christmas (on christmas). these were fun to crank out. wound with red and white nylon.
december 21st, 2022: a little striped sweeper. wound with red and white nylon.
october 12th, 2022: i got some black broomcorn just in time for halloween and wound out a turkey wing and hawk tail from my dorm room. wound with gold nylon.
august 21st, 2022: my first rooster tail! these brooms are notoriously difficult to figure out how to make. as far as i know, there are no comprehensive tutorials online (except for one video where most of the process is blocked). alyssa from hearthcraft brooms posted a video of her process. i was able to gather enough information to wind one out. i still don't have a solid understanding, though, and i'm hoping she reopens workshops soon.
august 12th, 2022: double broom! i was (and still am) so proud of this broom. it took a while to make and boy was it difficult and annoying, but i learned a whole lot. i'm still hoping to getting around to making another one of these soon. wound on my foot brake with hemp cord.
august 9th, 2022: learning to stitch flat brooms! our broom press didn't fit the broom, so we used the window to clamp it down flat. i didn't make shoulders on this broom, so it is not a traditional flat broom, but i was just learning the stitching. wound with hemp cord
august 7th, 2022: my first twill weave on a handle. made by going over 2 and under 2. wound with hemp cord.
august 3rd, 2022: my first cobweb broom! these are used to reaching the ceiling, given their thing and tall nature. they use far less broom corn than regular floor brooms. wound with hemp cord.
july 27th, 2022: close up of one of my tighter weaves. wound with hemp cord.
july 13th, 2022: probably the tighest weave i've gotten on a round broom to this day. wound with hemp cord.
july 10th, 2022: tiny fairy broom i made using the foot brake technique. wound with cotton thread.
june 29th, 2022: on the left is a round broom that had the longest weave pattern i had made up until that point. on the right is a double turkey wing, made by winding two turkey wings and joining them at the handle. both wound with hemp cord.
june 27th, 2022: another lavender broom made with my friend's lavender. turkey wing with woven handle. wound with nylon.
june 25th, 2022: this is the first full-size round broom i wound with my foot brake! it took about 45 minutes of straight winding which tired me out, but it was so much fun. carving the handle down took a while too. wound with nylon.
june 16th, 2022: turkey wing. wound with nylon.
june 12th, 2022: hawk tail and turkey wing. wound with hemp cord.
june 10th, 2022: turkey wing broom with lavender from my friend's garden. wound with nylon.
june 8th, 2022: my first hand brooms! on the left is a turkey wing style with a woven handle, on the right are a hawk tail, vegetable scrubber/counter sweeper, and cake tester bundle. wound with cotton thread and wire.
june 7th, 2022: made my first foot brake using some scrap wood, now i was able to wind brooms at home
may 29th, 2022: my first broom! made on a sit-at winding machine. wound with hemp cord.
history of broom making
humans have a natural inclination to keep their living spaces clean, so brooms have always existed in some capacity. people would have been making brooms with whatever natural materials they had on hand. branches, tall grasses, and feathers were commonly used. then the story goes that in 1797, a man named levi dickenson made a broom for his wife out of a material called broomcorn. broomcorn was brought over to north america in the mid 1700s and was used as animal feed. broomcorn is a drought-proof crop, so it was great to grow in large quantities and feed to farm animals. but when levi dickenson used this material for a broom, it took of very quickly. broomcorn is an extremely effective sweeping material and it was cheap to grow. dickenson pioneered the round broomcorn broom. this style is seen below:
the flat broom that we are most familiar with today was not popularized until the 1850s when shakers developed them. they realized they could use less broomcorn and flatten and stitch the bristles to get a wider sweep that worked better in corners too. broom making machines were key in the development of the broom industry. in order to wind a tight broom, you have to have a lot of force going against your material. so people would have tied their cord to a nail in the wall and wind their brooms up to it, or use devices called foot brakes. cord would be wrapped around something as simple as a dowel, or something a bit more structured, and you would place your feet on the foot brake and pull against the cord and wind the broom in your lap. below is a popular design for foot brakes:
in order to give you more of an idea of how the foot brakes work, below is a picture of me using one:
in the 1820s, winding machines were developed. these brought ease to the broom making process and sped it up a lot too. the one in the photo below is called a sit-at winding machine and it is a replica of machines of the time:
broom making resources
the most reliable place to get broomcorn in the us (and maybe canada, i'll talk more about that later) is caddy supply company. their broomcorn is grown in large quantities in mexico and shipped up to the states. they sell a few different types of materials and styles of broomcorn. i mostly use craft broomcorn which has the stalks still attached which is ideal for making traditional round brooms and weaving handles on hand brooms. however, for cheaper and smaller quantities, i would recommend buying their processed broomcorn, though this would only be useful for hand brooms.
in terms of getting broomcorn in canada: caddy supply co does ship to canada, however, it is expensive due to high shipping rates and the required agricultural inspection fee. so if you're willing to pay the price, that option is there. however, you may be able to find local farms that grow smaller quantities of broomcorn they may be willing to sell. if not, i'd recommend finding other people interested in broom making in your area, and go in on a caddy supply co order together. you can get a decent number of brooms out of their quantities.
for winding methods: you can start hand winding with just a dowel and cord wrapped around it. however, if you want more stability in your foot brake, constructing your own is fairly easy. i'm hoping to draft up plans of the two foot brakes i've made so far, but i really just used scrap wood to make two x's, and added support beams across. you can see in the picture below. on foot brakes, you are able to wind both hand and floor brooms.
learning how to wind: below are links of some of my favorite tutorials for learning how to wind brooms
how to make a turkey wing - sunhouse crafthow to make a hawk tail - sunhouse craft
how to make woven handles - sunhouse craft
preparing materials for a floor broom - jill choate
making a round broom - jill choate
beginner broom making playlist - jill choate broom making forum for any questions you have
below are some broom makers that i love
hearth craft broomsvillage handcraft
sunhouse craft
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