Handmade Brooms

There are several kinds of brooms: floor, ceiling, children's, and whisk brooms. All of these are made of broom corn, a canelike grass of India, cultivated in the middle west of the United States for this purpose alone. Kansas and Oklahoma supply the largest crop; Illinois the best. The plant somewhat resembles ordinary maize. The top part of the stalk and head are used for brooms. There are many grades of this corn. Some of them are known to the manufacturers as:

Green hurl corn; Green self-working; Medium quality hurl; Medium quality self-working; Sound good common; Dwarf corn for whisks; Common red tipped insides and covers; Stained and damaged

The handles of the floor brooms are of hard wood, chiefly maple, birch, and beech. They are turned out on lathes, and then smoothed in a "sander", a machine which revolves the handle in contact with a belt which polishes it. A great many handles are given no further finishing. Others are stained and varnished or painted.

The handles of whisk brooms are usually rough wood, covered with the corn. For fancy handles, bone, celluloid, or silver is used.

How to Make Brooms

The process of making brooms is very simple and a large number are still made by hand, especially in prisons and penitentiaries. The largest broom factory in the world is in Amsterdam, N. Y.

The corn is sorted into equal lengths, bleached, and dried. It is then placed around the end of the stick and fastened by wire in a winding machine. The broom is conical at this stage, and must be flattened in a vise. It is then sewed by hand, or by power, with stout twine, usually flax twine which was formerly imported from Europe, but is now made in the United States.

The broom is then run through a scraping machine to remove any seed left on the corn, after which it is trimmed and the plush or velvet guards are placed over the wiring. This is omitted in the cheaper grades. The brooms are then labeled and bunched in dozens for shipment.

Customers will appreciate being told that new brooms should be soaked in hot salt water. This toughens the corn. Brooms should always be hung up, not allowed to stand on the floor, as this ruins their shape. They will last longer if washed in hot soapy water frequently. This keeps them soft and pliable. The wires at the top should not be wet, as they will rust and break.