Dear Sauna lovers, I wonder if anyone can assist me please. I want to make a raffia brush for the sauna for schmeissing. I have the Raffia and the butchers cord for the handle. Are there any videos or other learning material ( Long lost txts ) please anyone can share ? The biggest challenge I see is compressing the Raffia to form a small tight handle. All input welcome. Thank you, Martin.
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Toby Bath House (Toby Shop) supplies sell them. I have made them using grasses I grow but they don’t last long.
Hi Martin, welcome to the forum!
Toby Mott is a good person to contact about this, as mentioned in the BSS article about women shmeissing.
Toby runs a WhatsApp group for bathing enthusiasts. Message the_bath_house_group on Instagram to join or find the latest link on Toby’s website.
Some of the schmeissing practitioners can also be found in the Porchester Spa Users Group on Facebook.
I shared your question in The Bath House Group and got the following response from Lee M Balch, which I hope you find useful:
It’s not just a tricky question of a Schmeissing Bazum or my less Germanic version—trust me, ask MCP [Michael Chapman Pincher], author, recantor, and all-around good egg, if he’ll sell you one or two of his. He’s currently the only active brush maker still working. Len is probably out due to his back injury, and his threatened retirement has been forced on him by that.
I’ve been buying and using brushes for over 50 years, and for many of those made a comfortable living as the “only licensed Schmeisser.”
In America, it’s called Platza. Venik leaves are common throughout Europe and further east, but they’re different—and I admit I’m biased.First, soak them in a bucket of soda-infused warm water for a week, changing the soda water daily to break down the silicon in the grass fibers.
Then fold them almost in half, leaving a bulge for the handle.
Screw a cutting board or similar to a sturdy table or bench. Picture an old toggle-start cord from a small engine—rope through a 6-inch bit of wood, tied in a knot, start with about a meter.
With your folded protrusion for the handle, get two 6-inch jubilee clips (the kind holding a radiator hose in place). Keep the raffia moist, slip the clips below where the handle will start, and tighten with a ratchet.
Wrap the toggle-ended rope, securing the proto-brush with a heavy block or battery to keep it still.
Using a sailmaker’s needle, thread a cord up through the finished handle to make a swing loop—or just find MCP and ask nicely if you can pay him for one.
In my experience any dab hand with a rope, with the above pointers can make a decent brush. We have a family friend who had never seen a brush let alone thought about some weird request to make a floppy witch’s flying stick, but anyone in the sailing community who’s hands-on once shown a brush—Bingo.
However, the little crucial bits. How to maintain your prized possession. Ahh, thats 90% of the complexity of maintaining your instrument.
As you know, Verboten: no oil should ever touch the brush. It kills the brushes ability to dry.
Verboten dampness. Buckets, cupboards are like radioactive clouds for brush health. Clean cold to thoroughly rid the soap from the end of session ritual.
I personally use a giant stainless steel mixing bowl from an industrial kitchen. I use it for initially soaking bath sheets for hot towels, add cold water, dredge. Then Initially air dry inside out. Spread open if you have access to a garden under any shelter. Or in winter draped over a radiator.The brush covered with a towel to lock in the heat… As if, you get the dreaded musty smell, ‘Oi Vase Mier’, your goose is ruined. And even all of the above and drenched in bleach will not give you back a beautiful fresh grass tool of happiness.
One last thing, detangle. Using the backs of your fingers (to avoid paper cuts) comb through.
Do all of the above and your brush will last hundreds of outings. Enjoy!!
(I slightly edited the original text for publication here.)
Thanks Jakub, that is very helpful. The more information I can gather the better. The biggest challenge I see is compressing the handle before winding the cord around it and jubilee clips sounds like a good idea. I tried to contact MCP but no success just yet. Hopefully I see him at the Spa as he sometimes appears there on the same day as me. I want to keep the brush making tradition alive into the future.