Black walnut husk dye

[Eric_Methven]

I've got a big bag of ground black walnut husk dye. Does anyone know how to prepare it for dying leather and dying canvas? I know it doesn't need a mordant but I have no idea how it is prepared for use.

Any info would be appreciated.

Eric

 

[Toddy]

Leather and canvas need two very different dye processes.

Basically it's normal to use weight for weight of dry dyestuff and material to be dyed. The dye is made by soaking the dyestuff in water that is slowly brought to a slow simmer and kept there for about an hour. Imagine making a well stewed tea
If it's a particularly good colour giver then much less dyestuff is needed.
The walnuts contain lots of tannin so the dye ought to dye the canvas just as it is, but you'll get a better (deeper, richer) colour using a mordant. Alum's pretty good all round and won't rot the cotton in the canvas.

Leather is a different thing. It will take a really good dye *if* it hasn't been given a chrome finish. If it has, it'll be a bit hit or miss with a natural dye.
And, unless you want a soggy soaking sheet of leather, it's best to make a tincture dye and use that to rub onto the suface and edges.

Soak the walnut husks in alcohol (Vodka will work but it's 60% water, meths'll do, though the colour can be a pest, denatured perfumers alcohol is excellent), in a sealed jar. Agitate frequently and keep warmish.
The longer it sits, the richer the colour. If you finely powder some gum arabic and mix this into the strained solution it'll make a better dye, more like an ink. If you grind up some oak galls and add them to the mix it'll add depth to the walnut dye if you want a really deep colour.

atb with it all,
Toddy

 

[BorderReiver]

I really do think we need you to write a book Toddy.

 

[Eric_Methven]

Thank you so much for that. Now here's another question that shows how little I know. If I use alum as a mordant, do I add it to the dye, or do I dunk the canvas into the dye, then dunk it into the alum solution (like using conditioner in the final rinse)?

Also, if using an alcohol base to make a dye for leather, and if I add gum arabic, can I also use the dye with a quill pen to do calligraphy? What I mean is, is it likely to have archival permanance?

I would assume straining both types of dye through muslin would be sufficient. Or would it need to be through a coffee filter (the husks are very finely ground).

Thanks again

Eric

 

[Toddy]

Okay....canvas is usually cotton. Cotton, unless you're using a substantive (no need for a mordant, such as madder roots or indigo) dyestuff need something to make the fibres receptive to the dye. Usually, if you want a good colour and not a kind of wishy-washy *stain*, cotton is alumed to grab hold of some of the tannin from the next part of the process, tannined and then re-alumed; and all of this is before it ever sees a dyebath
Walnut hulls are a substantive dye, but they can be expensive. So, if you want to guarantee a good colour from a lesser quantity of dyestuff, make the cotton able to grab hold of as much of the colour as possible.
Alum the material before it's dyed and if you're really up for the whole tannin then re-aluming, great. If not, boil up the oak galls or bark to make a tannin liquor, steep the fabric in that, then boil it up in the dye liquor, or at least bring it up to heat and happ it up to keep it warm as long as possible.

Ink; Oh this'll be pretty permanent but if you add a little iron water to it, it won't budge To make the iron water add some vinegar to steel wool and watch it rust just add the strained liquor to the ink mix. The old ink recipes use gum arabic as a slight thickener and it helps the drying a bit too.

I find walnuts, if really finely powdered, kind of dissolve in the dyebath, but they can be a pain to strain out. Paper kitchen towels in a sieve work, if a bit slowly. Let the bath settle first and then strain carefully to avoid the worst of the gunk.

I'm curious now, what are you up to? Duluth packs?

atb,
mary

 

[Eric_Methven]

Thanks Mary. Well, I've got this massive roll of heavy canvas. I've already got the baker tent out of it and I was going to make a tipi or a yurt. But on second thoughts I decided I don't need either of those yet as the baker tent will do me fine, besides carrying lodge poles or yurt poles might be a hassle in the future.

I decided to make a Duluth pack but I don't want it to be white. Olive green is OK but might look like I've chopped an old army marque up - anyway proper Duluth packs are green. I like the look of the Old Town packs which are brown so I decided to try dying the canvas a nice shade of mid brown. I was planning on cutting out all the pieces, running a zig-zag stitch round all the cut edges to stop them fraying then dying all the pieces together as a batch so the colour will remain constant. I don't want to dye it as a finished pack as it will have the leather attachments in place and I want the leather to have it's own rich deep brown and I want the double saddle stitched thread to remain white.

I'm also going to make up a couple of thwart bags to go on the canoe I'll definitely build this year. The thwart bags will be handy for keeping stuff at hand while paddling like glasses, notebook and camera. I'm going to make the thwart bags so I can fit a tupperware type box with a secure airtight lid inside. Then if I take a dunking the contents will be safe. The bag will fit over the thwart with straps and hang just in front of me when I'm kneeling in the canoe.

I'm also going to knock up some canvas buckets and some ration bags.

On the leather front, I'm nearly finished half a dozen leather flasks which I'll bring up to Loch Achray and I'll be making a couple of dozen more for next season's shows. The dye I get from LePrevo is great but it's very expensive as I use a lot of the stuff. I'd much rather knock up a big batch of natural dye and use that.

I'll make notes of the exact recipes I try so when I find one I really like, I'll be able to replicate it.

By the way, I got a bag of dyestuff from Troy that he got from you. It looks like gravy granuals and is light brown. There's nothing written in the bag to say what it is. Any ideas?

Anyway that's what I'm up to.

Eric

 

[Toddy]

Sound excellent Eric, and cutting out and edging the pieces is definitely the way to go about the dyeing.
My dad dyed a boat's sails once using oakgalls and alder bark.......took forever but they lasted for years.

Gravy granules....... Will you try putting a pinch of the stuff in a cup of water straight from the kettle, please? It might be *Best Turkish* madder roots. If the water turns a good deep rusty red then that's most likely what it'll be. It smells not unpleasant too. Might be ground oak galls too though. Give it a shot and if you've got some white wool sitting put a bitty in with the liquor and see what you get colour wise.

atb,
Mary

 

[Earthpeace]

The way I and other's over here dye wool with walnut husks , is to fill a bucket of halfed or pieces husks with water and leave them for 3 or more days.
Until It looks like strong coffee, then put it in a pan hask, water and all, with the wool and leave all day just simmering . We have a wood burning stove so have the pan just sits on top all day. At night I pull it out and have a look if its the colour I want then I pull the wool out give it a shake then wash it. ( all the other bits shake out when it drys) If I need it darker in leave it in other day on the stove.
I have a friend who dyes mohair jumpers she'd made make this. A good way of getting the same colour through out the jumper,better than doing the yarns in bits.
Hope this helps

 

[spamel]

Mary, how do you know all this stuff?!! And Eric, how do you make all this stuff?!!!

I really envy the both of you, my skills go to picking a few mushrooms and drying them out to keep me going till next year!!!

 

[Toddy]

I teach traditional handcrafts, especially fibre and fabric crafts. Spinning, weaving, natural dyeing, cordage, felting, costume making and the like.
I've been working on three projects recently; one for Historic Scotland's education service to see what colours I can get from Madder, Woad and Weld red, blue and yellow = primary colours so I can make most others , a project for the Galgael Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Clyde Estuary Forum which involves me wandering up and down the Clyde selecting plants and seeing what colours I can make to use in a tapestry map of the Clyde. I've to include as many local people in this project as possible.
Finally, what colours can I get from indigenous plants around Loch Tayside using the pollen record for the period appropriate to the Crannog builders as a guide.
Some of the range is shown here
http://www.seamstimeless.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

I grew up in a family that made things; indeed I used to believe that someone somewhere in the family could make anything. Now the older ones are mostly away but I have a truly wide range of friends and again, someone, somewhere in the network usually knows how to make whatever I need if I can't make it for myself
This site is a case in point; ask a question and someone ( or several someones ) will know the answer :You_Rock_

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Eric_Methven]

I make all this stuff.... because I can! I've always been able to make stuff, and once I've mastered a skill I try to keep on top of it (use it or lose it). One thing leads on to another and I try a new skill area, combine two skill areas and a third pops up, and so on. I've been making stuff for forty odd years so it's little wonder that my skill base is quite broad.

I did make a decision a few months back though. I have decided all my backwoods bushcraft gear needs to be completely home made. I'm going to get rid of all the factory made and man made fabric equipment I use right now. Possibly with the exception of my firesteel and opinel knife for the time being. All my clothing will be hand stitched and made of either wool or linen. My footware will be leather or buckskin made by myself. I'll be using a blacksmith made knife and axe (GB axes count as hand made). Items I can't make myself will have to be such as I might have traded for in times past, but must be hand crafted.

I thoroughly enjoy the historical aspects of bushcraft and woodcraft and for me anyway, the best way to understand it better is to live it as closely as I can.

It is living history and experimental archaeology, but without a tight specific time frame. Having said that, the mountainmen and voyageurs of North America interest me greatly, as do the Vikings, so an amalgamation of craft skills from both eras will be studied, with maybe a bit of medieval thrown in if appropriate. Purists and historians might scoff and tutt, but this is just for my own amusement and education so nobody else matters.

I'm working on stuff now for next season and if I get to any meets, expect to see me in a capote (blanket coat) with home made linen shirt and pants, moccasins and a wolf skin mountainman hat atop my head. I'll either be in a tipi or my baker tent.

Anyway, that's the plan.

Eric

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Good on ya !!

 

[spamel]

Thanks for the replies, I am impressed!! It is quite amazing that these skills are still around what with the move towards factory made dyes, prescription drugs, off the shelf clothing and outdoor equipment and the like. Maybe it is easier to buy something and use it straight away, but then again we don't know what chemicals have been used to make the product, or what harmful chemicals were created as a by product. At least you can control what happens and reduce harm to the enviornment.

Eric, any chance of some photos of your kit?

 

[Eric_Methven]

Maybe it is easier to buy something and use it straight away, but then again we don't know what chemicals have been used to make the product, or what harmful chemicals were created as a by product. At least you can control what happens and reduce harm to the enviornment.

Eric, any chance of some photos of your kit?

That's one very important factor mate. I use real fur and skins to make stuff because it's natural. I get stick from animal lovers because I have a wolf skin wrapped around my shoulders, and they ask in all seriousness why I don't use synthetic fur. These people don't realise how much toxic chemicals go into making faux fur and the by products cause polution regardless of how careful the manufacturers are in their practices. And at the end of the day, the fur I use will rot naturally and do the soil some good as nature intended. The skins I use are a by product of the meat industry or they have been culled as part of a wildlife management process. To my mind it is wrong not to use every part of the animal. If the beast has to die, then it is only right that none of it should be wasted unnecessarily.

Sure I'll take some photos of my gear. I'll do it in a separate post though. I've just made a new pipe from antler and a buckskin pouch to hang it from my belt. I'm making a baccy pouch to go on my belt as well. It will accommodate a 50gram pouch of St Bruno flake so I'll be able to flip the front of the pouch down and fill my pipe while walking or standing. Then I'll just stick a new pouchful of baccy in when I run out. I've made a few sheaths last week, one for my Nessmuk knife and I'll be selling three or four knives and sheaths in the next couple of weeks to get some spare cash together for other things.

I'm making a ceremonial peace pipe as well. Wooden stem and an antler pipe bowl. It'll be decorated with rawhide and buckskin with maybe a few feathers hanging from it as well. It'll be good to pass aroung the campfire along with the malt at meets.

I'll be taking photos as I make stuff from now on as Tone has asked if I'll do some articles for the site and the mag, so there should be plenty of hints and tips of how to make stuff.

Eric

 

[spamel]

Yes, I remember the other thread where there was a bit of a heated debate about using fur, but I totally agree with you about using all of the animal. Where do people think leather comes from?!! I find it a bit strange that that view would be held on a bushcraft site, but there you go! It would be wrong to just throw the fur away and burn it when it could be put to good use.

Back on track though, I look forward to seeing some of your work both here and in the magazine (when is the next issue by the way!!) and hopefully people will accept your work this time and we won't get a repeat of last time. I am in no way condoning the fur trade where animals are slaughtered for their furs alone, but when done in the way you mention, I see no problem.