Period leather dye: ⚫
Oct 6, 2020 10:35:15 GMT -7
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Sicilianhunter, artificer, and 1 more like this
Post by paranger on Oct 6, 2020 10:35:15 GMT -7
Artificer suggested that sharing some experiences on period leather dyes might be of interest, so here goes...
For the purpose of this particular thread, I would like to tackle the color black.
When I started attempting to dye leather black, I began with what I had always read/heard on forums, around the campfire,, etc., was the "go to" period elixer: vinegaroon. Turns out that was only half right.
First, for those who may not be familiar, vinegaroon is a solution produced by the oxidation of iron by vinegar. To make it, one simply has to put a source of iron (steel wool, filings, etc) into a Mason jar of vinegar with a vented lid (important safety tip). In a week or so, voila! I like to leverage arrhenius' law by boiling my vinegar first to "kick-start" the process.
So, vinegaroon in hand, I began applying to my vegetable tanned tooling leather stock. The color change was immediate, but more of a light blue-gray. So, I let it dry and repeated the process over several days. Each time the color got darker (to a point) but never more than charcoal gray. Back to do some more research.
To make a long story short, Vinegaroon is really more of a mordant than a true dye. It reacts with the tannins in the leather to produce the color change. Depending upon the tanning method and leather you use, this may vary, but there will never be enough to get to a "true" black. And there's another catch: when applied on its own, it tends to dry out and embrittle the leather itself. Now I have successfully dyed leather gray using viegaroon alone and it is holding up fine. I suspect it will continue to do so if properly moisturized, and especially if neutralized after treatment with a baking soda solution. But, as I said, in this case I was after black.
Enter the missing ingredient: logwood. Logwood (aka campeachey or bloodwood) was used extensively from the 17th - 19th centuries as a clothing dye (redish purple) as well as a leather dye. In fact, the former British colony of Belize was established originally as a commercial logging operation for logwood export (Spanish objections notwithstanding).
Logwood paste, as I found out, has been used by trappers for years (and is still used today as a commercial dye for traps), where it is diluted with water and used to camouflage animal traps. I found mine on Amazon.
Apply a thin coat of the logwood paste (really more of a cream) directly to the leather with a cloth or paper towel and allow it to dry (maybe 30 min?). Then using a clean cloth or sponge, wipe on a coat of vinegaroon. As before, the reaction is almost instantaneous, but this time much darker. In this case, it is the logwood which is supplying the bulk of the tannins for the reaction, producing a much greater color change as well as sparing the integrity of your leather. Additionally, as a mordant, it "fixes" the color chemically to the leather. Allowing the vinegaroon to dry and, re-coating one or two more times will produce a nice "true black" which you can lightly burnish with a dry cloth when dry for a more uniform sheen.
In the picture below, the small inset patch of leather was treated with vinegaroon only. The larger background piece was dyed with logwood first.
Produced with vinegaroon only, but a pleasant medium gray:
Here is a true black, using logwood and vinegaroon as a mordant:
For the purpose of this particular thread, I would like to tackle the color black.
When I started attempting to dye leather black, I began with what I had always read/heard on forums, around the campfire,, etc., was the "go to" period elixer: vinegaroon. Turns out that was only half right.
First, for those who may not be familiar, vinegaroon is a solution produced by the oxidation of iron by vinegar. To make it, one simply has to put a source of iron (steel wool, filings, etc) into a Mason jar of vinegar with a vented lid (important safety tip). In a week or so, voila! I like to leverage arrhenius' law by boiling my vinegar first to "kick-start" the process.
So, vinegaroon in hand, I began applying to my vegetable tanned tooling leather stock. The color change was immediate, but more of a light blue-gray. So, I let it dry and repeated the process over several days. Each time the color got darker (to a point) but never more than charcoal gray. Back to do some more research.
To make a long story short, Vinegaroon is really more of a mordant than a true dye. It reacts with the tannins in the leather to produce the color change. Depending upon the tanning method and leather you use, this may vary, but there will never be enough to get to a "true" black. And there's another catch: when applied on its own, it tends to dry out and embrittle the leather itself. Now I have successfully dyed leather gray using viegaroon alone and it is holding up fine. I suspect it will continue to do so if properly moisturized, and especially if neutralized after treatment with a baking soda solution. But, as I said, in this case I was after black.
Enter the missing ingredient: logwood. Logwood (aka campeachey or bloodwood) was used extensively from the 17th - 19th centuries as a clothing dye (redish purple) as well as a leather dye. In fact, the former British colony of Belize was established originally as a commercial logging operation for logwood export (Spanish objections notwithstanding).
Logwood paste, as I found out, has been used by trappers for years (and is still used today as a commercial dye for traps), where it is diluted with water and used to camouflage animal traps. I found mine on Amazon.
Apply a thin coat of the logwood paste (really more of a cream) directly to the leather with a cloth or paper towel and allow it to dry (maybe 30 min?). Then using a clean cloth or sponge, wipe on a coat of vinegaroon. As before, the reaction is almost instantaneous, but this time much darker. In this case, it is the logwood which is supplying the bulk of the tannins for the reaction, producing a much greater color change as well as sparing the integrity of your leather. Additionally, as a mordant, it "fixes" the color chemically to the leather. Allowing the vinegaroon to dry and, re-coating one or two more times will produce a nice "true black" which you can lightly burnish with a dry cloth when dry for a more uniform sheen.
In the picture below, the small inset patch of leather was treated with vinegaroon only. The larger background piece was dyed with logwood first.
Produced with vinegaroon only, but a pleasant medium gray:
Here is a true black, using logwood and vinegaroon as a mordant:
