We are very excited to carry Scheumack Brooms at the shop. Thurman Scheumack hand crafts each of his brooms in his studio in Eugene, Oregon. Once a year, Thurman makes a cross-country road trip back home to Arkansas to pick up Sassafras branches harvested by friends who maintain sustainable stands of the hardy trees. He then makes his way to Texas to pick up the broom corn before coming back to Oregon to begin assembling several hundred handcrafted brooms.
What to Look For
Scheumack makes a wide variety of brooms, from full-sized sweepers to hearth brooms and whisks. The brooms come in variety of colorful broom corn and some of the staffs are hand-carved by Thurman. We are also excited to be carrying the new duster, made with real ostrich feathers. We purchased four in our initial order, but quickly requisitioned one for the shop. The natural oils in the ostrich feathers hang on to the dust and make cleaning a breeze.
Why We Love This Product
Unlike most straw brooms, which use Yucca fibers and wear down quickly, real broom corn is tough and lasts for years. We bought our first Scheumack broom over five years ago and it still looks great and works like a charm. The handle has smoothed and developed a bit of a patina from years of use. It’s as much a part of our house now as the old wood stove it sweeps around. More importantly, we love this product because each one is hand crafted and provides a living wage to the employees of Scheumack’s Brooms. Thurman is a huge advocate of localization versus globalization. Over the years, he could have sold out to a big corporation and reaped the benefits of a corporate buy-out, but he believes firmly that keeping the business small and artisanal is the right thing to do. We salute Thurman for standing for what he believes in.