It’s funny how one thing leads into another. I made a video testing how well the edge on my shovel knife will stand up, and the material that was cut for the test was rope. One of the first comments I got was a suggestion to use the pieces to make a broom. The ones I cut in that test were a bit too short, so I thought I’d do it again, but this time I would use my prybar knife.
Of course, I’ve had a number of comments from people saying that the hardness of the spring steel the knife is made from was ruined when I did the shaping with a grinder. I knew that wasn’t the case, so I figured another demonstration was in order.

The knife was sharpened only once, and only with my homemade carbide sharpener. I just continued cutting the rope where I left off the last time, making the pieces 3″ long. I wound up with 44 pieces from 45 cuts before I ran out of rope. A few of the cuts toward the end were hammered through the rope, since my hand was starting to cramp, but I couldn’t take a break. I wanted the filming to be unbroken.
In the end, the knife was still sharp enough to continue cutting rope without much of a problem:

The next step was to melt the ends on each one, so that the strands will not come out after the broom has been used for a while:

This operation made an interesting smell in the shop!

I figured four rows of eleven to make the broom head and use all of the pieces. A simple depth stop made from a block of wood for drilling the 3/4″ holes, 1-1/4″ deep:

I used polyurethane construction adhesive to fasten the “bristles” in:

The handle is just a piece of deck board with the edges rounded over and glued into a 1″ hole in the head. A 2″ wood screw secures it in place:

Just the right angle and length for the handle, it’s very comfortable to use. It will take a while to break it in, but the rope bristles appear to be the right stiffness for this.

I made a video showing the build from start to finishing sweep: