What birch bark?

[Squidders]

Ok, I can now admit i'm a little confused... Birch bark, it's great etc etc...

Does it matter what birch tree it comes from? is silver birch as good as any other? what's the useful one? why wasn't this explained before? and how comes I have 5 odd socks when 6 matching ones went into the wash?

 

[karen]

Well, i know that you can use the inside of the birch (any) for tinder and I know that you can get a purple dye from the the harder outside of the bark. I'm sure someone here will have a little more info for you on that.

In fact, i think i may even go and have a bit of a read up, i'll let you know if i find anything interesting.

Kar

 

[tomtom]

some of the more "domestic" ones are not as good paper birch is pretty usles

 

[Realgar]

Silver birch is the one to go for. Paper birch bark is fine as tinder or for making birch tar but it's too thin and weak for making containers out of.
Find a fallen tree to strip - managing to get the white bark off without damaging the cambium underneath isn't that easy first time round.

Realgar

 

[Stew]

I know that you can get a purple dye from the the harder outside of the bark.

Do you know how you can get the dye out of the bark? Soaking in water?

 

[Realgar]

Dragging this from memory - you need the hard dark rough bark from the older parts of the tree. It needs to be broken up and boiled and really needs a mordant to stick well.

I think it behaves much the same as logwood in which case the colour is highly pH dependent and the purple requires the presence of alum to fix.

Pretty much all my birch bark goes into tar production.

Realgar

 

[Stew]

Dragging this from memory - you need the hard dark rough bark from the older parts of the tree. It needs to be broken up and boiled and really needs a mordant to stick well.

I think it behaves much the same as logwood in which case the colour is highly pH dependent and the purple requires the presence of alum to fix.

Pretty much all my birch bark goes into tar production.

Realgar

Ok. Isn't the Alum the mordant though or do you need Alum plus a different one? Do you just mean that Alum will give the purple, whereas others will give different colours?

 

[Realgar]

The alum is acting as a mordant in that case - not than I can remember quite how you use it ( was salt in there somewhere ), it will give a purple but other mordants may give other colours. I think you can get browns, yellows and black out of the bark.

 

[karen]

Ok. Isn't the Alum the mordant though or do you need Alum plus a different one? Do you just mean that Alum will give the purple, whereas others will give different colours?

This is quite true, you can just use the alum or you can include copper and tin. Copper will give you warm rich colours and tin (which you have to be very careful with as it causes the material to become brittle) will give you more brassy colours.

To get different colours out of the same plant requires different parts of the plant or from differnt seasons.

 

[Little Mole]

Paper birch bark is fine as tinder or for making birch tar but it's too thin and weak for making containers out of.

American Indians used the tough, light weight bark of paper birch to cover their wigwams and birch bark canoes, as well as to make baskets, water-tight containers and dishes.