Early brooms may have been just a bundle of sticks bound together with a piece of hemp. Broomcorn, from the sorghum family, was grown specifically for making brooms and was part of a thriving home-based industry in the early 19th century. The equipment in the broom house includes a “kicker winder” and a “broom vise” which were used in this building to make brooms near the end of the 19th century and today are used for standard, child’s and natural handled brooms. There are smaller “winders” which are used to make pot-scrubbers, cake-testers, whisk brooms, turkey wings and more.

Reference: ARTISANS AT FURNACE TOWN