Broom making

I'm a third generation broom maker and utilize my husband's grandfather's 100+ year old equipment.  We have broom makers on both sides of the family.  My great aunt was a WW1 widow who supported her kids by making and selling brooms.  Her equipment is now in a regional museum.  My husband rescued his grandfather's old equipment from the old family barn after it rotten down and was falling and we've carried it with us for nearly 50 years of marriage.  Just wondering if there is any other broom makers on here?  

Hi Kay;
Very cool that you have such a history with broom making!
Are you currently making brooms now?
Do you have photos or a website?

I've been thinking it would be pretty cool to learn how to make quality brooms, but alas I've yet to sit down and learn.  Awesome that you have such a family history, and tools to do it!

I'm still fascinated by the art of making birch brooms from a single piece of birch. I have seen the work in museums but never got around to trying it myself.

We have a lot of craftspeople here in this area of the Ozarks and over the years several broom makers.

I'm not sure who's still active as we are not doing shows anymore...out of the loop

Here's a link to a thread I began about a decades old broom business near us.  I know they taught and always demonstrated their methods at shows so passed on much information.
https://permies.com/t/57869/brooms

kay fox wrote:I'm a third generation broom maker and utilize my husband's grandfather's 100+ year old equipment.  We have broom makers on both sides of the family.  My great aunt was a WW1 widow who supported her kids by making and selling brooms.  Her equipment is now in a regional museum.  My husband rescued his grandfather's old equipment from the old family barn after it rotten down and was falling and we've carried it with us for nearly 50 years of marriage.  Just wondering if there is any other broom makers on here?  

What an amazing history!
We love pictures so if you like please post some

I am not currently making brooms.  We lived on a ranch in Texas for years and I had a studio in my home.  I started in little area craft shows and eventually moved on to larger craft shows like War Eagle Mills.  I retired from my career and we wanted to move back home so sold our ranch and all our horses, cows, etc.  We moved back to my husband's family land and rebuilt the home he was raised in.  It took us two long years since he and I did all the work ourselves but we love the result.  But, that means all my equipment is still in a storage unit.  We've got the foundation poured for my new studio but I doubt I'll have it up and running before the end of the year.  I look forward to getting back at it and hitting new craft fairs that I've never attended.  When I get it up and going I'll be sure and post it on here.  I was hoping I could find several fellow broom makers that wanted to stay in contact or maybe even have a get together.  I would like to see that the craft does not die out.  Thanks for responding.

Thank you for telling your story.

I have been fascinated with broom making though I have never attempted to make one.

Have you seen the movie "Places in the Heart" where John Malkovich makes brooms?  He plays a blind man who makes brooms for a living.

Do you have pictures of the brooms you and your family members have made?

What kind of equipment do you use?

My mom had a little broom collection and my daughter has made a couple brooms. I'm planting broom corn this year to see how that grows here and I'll probably make one next winter. I also thought it worth pointing out that there's a PEP Badge Bit for making a broom.

Thank you for that link.  It had a video of an old man making a broom on a "winder".  I have a winder like that which belonged to my husband's grandfather.  Once a broom is put together, it has to be sewed and this guy put it in a "vice" but it was hard to tell what that was.  We have the upright vice that went with the winder.  That way I can stand up and sew the brooms.  I do three rows of stitching.  Since I like my brooms to be consistent, I had my husband make me three little square blocks to put on the floor at the base of the vice to hold my brooms at a certain height.  I have one for the first row, then pop it out and put in the next one to raise it a few inches for the second row, and then do it again for a little higher for the third row (or do it in reverse, it really doesn't matter which you start on).  As he said in the video, you must cut the straw off straight when it is finished so we have a "cutter" that looks like one of the old wooden ironing boards except it has a cutter, like the old office paper cutters, at one end and a notch at the other end to lay the handle to keep it from moving.  Those three pieces are all that is needed to make a broom but I have a third piece of equipment that I use and it's a "tie table".  I went to a class in the ozark Folk center and that is what the instructor used so of course I had to have one.  After taking pictures, my husband made me one just like it.  With the tie table, you can take the broom to the next level by weaving a decorative collar to cover the wire.  It's not at all necessary but it's pretty and by painting the handles and dying the straw, a broom can become and expressive work of art.  That's the kind of brooms I do.  I can make the old fashion simple plain broom and they are certainly pretty and even work best as a decorative element in certain situations but I just couldn't stop there once I learned how to weave.  With the tie table, I can also make an assortment of smaller brooms like the turkey wing, whisk brooms, cob web brooms, etc.  It just opened up the world of broom making for me.  At any rate, I'd love to post pictures but I haven't figured out how to copy them off my computer on to here.  If you know how, let me know.  In the mean time, if you use facebook you can find my page under Wolfe Brooms.  I haven't updated it or posted anything new in a long time (read the story post earlier) but it has lots of pictures of some of my artistic brooms.  The big broom winder was not in my studio since it was so large.  I kept it in the garage and used the tie table but as soon as my new studio is built, I'm making sure I have room for it.  Thank you for your interest in my art form.            

Thank you for describing your brooms. I'm not familiar with making straw brooms, I've had a go at making birch twig brooms and made a couple of small ones that are functional if not pretty! I'd like to have a go at making some household brooms with heather. I found a little one under the floor in the house and could maybe use that as a template.
This post has a 'how to' post images on Permies. Have a go, and if it doesn't work, make a new thread on the tinkering with this site forum and I'm sure someone will explain how to do it.