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We just had a delivery today from leathercordusa, In order to help other people looking around I am writing a short review here. Delivery time was four days using UPS standard delivery. This unfortunately included a sur charge of £15 which is a little steep considering what we ordered, But not the companies fault. The materials ordered were 150mtr 1mm round natural dyed cord 10mtr 1.5mm round natural dyed cord 10mtr 2mm round cord 10 mtr 3mm/1/8" bolo cord We also asked for a sample of colours and thicknesses etc seperately to the order in an email. THey obviously spent a little time tracking that request and comparing to orders being handled, and sorted us out. What arrived was everything seperately wrapped with individual silica gel packs The cord was meant to be soaked in dye uniformly colouring and entirity of the leather, on some of the cords this is clearly not a true description. The dye however does not scrape of with a nail like other suppliers we have tried. We are happy anough with this stuff. The bolo cord braided from 4 strands is uniform throughout, appears rolled but probably not. It seems a little thicker than 3mm (based on touch...) Just measured it actually, it's about 3.3mm or so. Which is not bad at all. The sample display was abundent with the colours, leathers and widths etc we asked for and a lot more. In conclusion our immediate thoughts are entirely positive, the company obviously pays a lot of attention to detail and we will be dealing with them again. If anyone wants further opinions of the materials after we have worked with them a few days I would be happy to help.

Chuck Burrows is also known for his knowledge of natural dyes.. find his name in the member list or in a thread and then browse through his posts as I am sure this topic has come up before, if not in this forum then in another forum on another website. For a sticky on 'Alternative dyes.." try this link http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=16 and check the first sticky in the list.

Well FWIW - I don't - for things like walnut hulls, juniper, berries, logwood, etc. I just boil in water.....and yes I've experimented with it and in some cases it may act as a mordant though - look up natural dyes - most info is for cloth but there's some good ideas that can be adapted to leather.... The reason for the vinegar when mixing with iron is to "free up" the iron which is what is the actual "colorant" - actually you can do the same thing by soaling iron in plain water - it just takes much longer.....

On the subject of natural dyes, as it has come to some popularity of late. I have decided to post a simple list of all of the most popular tannin high trees and shrubs. In most cases if you google the name eg Oak natural dye, you'll get a hit in the first five or so about it. Sorry it's not in a more alphabetical list but also add dandelion, nice dark browns from it... Enjoy Silver fir, Mimosa, Green wattle, Sweet acacia, Blackwood, Golden wattle, Blue-leaved wattle, Amur maple, Mountain maple, Horse chestnut, Tree of heaven, Alder, Grey alder, White alder, Red alder, Sitka alder, Mountain alder, Marsh andromeda, Madrona, Strawberry tree, Bearberry, Coast banksia, Chitra, Siberian tea, Cherry birch, Silver birch, White birch, Mysore thorn, White cypress-pine, Red cypress-pine, Heather, Tea plant, Hottentot fig, Chestnut hybrids, Bush chinkapin, Japanese chestnut, American sweet chestnut, Chinese chestnut, Ozark chinkapin, Chinquapin, Sweet chetsnut, Chinese chinquapin, Chinknut, River she-oak, Carob, Spurge olive, Redoul, Cornelian cherry, Mountain dogwood, Hazel, Smoke tree, Berry-bearing catchfly, Broom, Rimu, Native hops, Male fern, Lemon-scented gum, Ulmo, Stinkwood, Native cherry, Ash, Cut-leafed cranesbill, Spotted cranesbill, Wood avens, Chilean hazel, Honey locust, Gunnera, Witch hazel, Alpine heuchera, St. John's wort, Yellow flag, Japanese walnut, Heartseed walnut, Black walnut, Walnut, Larch, Dahurian larch, Japanese larch, Tamarack, Sub-alpine larch, Western larch, Larch, Siberian larch, Dunkeld hybrid larch, Labrador tea, Wild rosemary, Sea lavender, Tanbark oak.

To use walnut, hazelnut, pecan, etc. hulls bring to a boil in water (distilled is often recommended to eliminate any chemical reactions with iron, etc) and simmer for a couple of hours - I mix about equal parts of nut hulls and water. Turn off and let set over night. Reboil and let simmer. Let set over night again and then strain off the liquid - make sure and squeeze out as much of the liquid left in the hulls. Dry and save the hulls and re-use them 3-4 times.... Simmer the liquid uncovered until it turns the consistency of thin honey. Store in the freezer or add some alcohol or vinegar to keep from molding (the vinegar will also act as a mordant to help set the dye) - if does get moldy just skim it off and add some more alcohol - about 1/8 cup to a quart and a half usually works. The fresh green hulls work best but even the dried hulls, ground up will yield a dye. Cooked in an iron pot will also act as a mordant for most most nut hulls, but it will usually turn the color more of a gray brown. I use an old ceramic lined crock pot when I don't want the iron mix. Coffee - dark roast brewed strong makes a nice brown of varying shades. Instant is fine and less of a mess........ Logwood - available from several sources makes a brown to almost black dye. Various barks, sawdusts (Osage orange and rosewood for instance), and sumac berries will all make nice dyes when. Check out natural dye sites for more info how-to and then experiment (with mixes and soak times) and don't forget about mixing items to get the color you want.........Some spices will work - saffron, annato, and paprika have all been used for dying leather. Just remember none of the natural dyes will work like the commercial ones - they usually give different look altogether.....but that tain't a bad thing IMO.....It's a fun journey that just keeps on giving.....also remember oil (neatsfoot, extra virgin olive oil, tallow, etc.) and the sun can be your friends, especially in conjuntion with the dyes.....

Thanx for the list! These are all things I would think of to make the natural dyes, but there's a lot of information I would like to know. For instance are these soaked and mixed with water, or some other medium. It would be nice to have these in a list order of tones, maybe starting with the darkest, moving to lightest. Things like that can be done, like you say, with teh Goog Machine, so of course I will take your advice. I haven't done all my research yet, but there should be books out there on "how to" make these dyes, and possibly their effect on leather. This would be a good Topic to try and gather that type of information. Not all knowledge can be found in a book. But I'll bet the people here probably have enough to fill one.

Unicornwoman, sorry it took me so long but I haven't been on the computer much, you can use vinegar to set it, but I use alot of calf hides for button strings and try to dye as much with natural dyes over ritz and other dyes and don't have much of a bleeding problem and most of the time I will try to dye the whole hide when green so I get as deep of penatration as I can from the start and get a consistant color and if I do it that way it is alot easier to keep all my strings for a certin project consistant, I try to stay away from dying my rawhide if I can but some people just have to have the color, personally I like rawhide natural, but there are alot of people that like the colors.

Here's the side of what I call the Bird Box. It's my first experiment in matte backgrounding, dyed black with a lot of care and a SHARP paintbrush. The birds are an original design, in a vaguely Celtoid sensibility. The spirals showed me that a smaller beveler would be useful--I seem to want to work in miniature rather than make big pieces. Here's the top of the box: It's an Anglo-Saxon bird. I like the contrast of the yellowish British Tan background with this antiqued Natural dye. The relief on this carving just begs me to run my finger over it.

I was hoping you'ld chime in Chuck...thanks. I know you've had a bunch of experience with this stuff. I see logwood crystals are available from suppliers of trapping equipment...just might have to try some. We have to depend on each other for this info. Google vinegaroon dye, and you find very little info, even in their Scholar searches, none of the scientists seem to have anything about it. A few other forums discuss it, but not too in depth. A search under "natural dyes on leather" has a lot more info, well worth exploring. We take a lot of heat for using leather nowadays, and have very few alternatives to "green up" our business. There is no PBS Woodright guy for leatherworkers (although that would be a great show!). Unless you become an expert tanner, silversmith, foundry buckle and hardware maker, etc, we have to rely on the usual sources. Not everyone has the location or space to do their own raising animals, skinning, then "brain tanning", to keep it natural. Me for one, I'll try and incorporate as many of these things as I can. As far as this one is concerned, maybe the old way just might be best even in this modern world. Thanx everyone for participating in this discussion. Between the other two Topic discussions, and this one, I hope there's a few adventurers, who'll report on their findings in another Topic.

Boiled onion skins make a nice brown. Puree LOTS of grass, place in pantyhose "bag" and simmer for nice grass stain green. Granny used to have a shagbark hickory tree (I think) in her front yard, which the husks would turn your hands yellow for days. Try crushed raspberry juice for red, or any other berry that stains. Mulberry makes a beautiful violet blue stain on your fingers - why not try it on leather? Crush and paint on with a brush. I just don't know how colorfast these are, but I know they all stain pretty bad (good). Try Googleing "natural dyes", and see what you come up with. My mother used to spin and dye wool, and was always ordering some kind of natural dyes out of catalogs. She could make any color of the rainbow and then some. I bet you won't have the problems of your dye freezing while being shipped like we do here in the north Good luck, and keep us posted on what you find, cuz it souds pretty interesting.

Thank you. The more I think about it the more excited I am to at least try to come up with some natural dyes that we make. This is a website that appears to have some really good color information: http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html and here is a supplier I found http://www.aurorasilk.com/natural_dyes/dyes/index.html again, I don't know any formulas yet as to what works and what doesn't but I guess that's part of the process to work it out. Edit: here is one with some recipes http://www.essortment.com/naturaldyeplan_rxll.htm I also want to ask if there is anything special about "leather" dye that I need to know. I know that we use solvent based and oil based dyes but I don't know why. Honestly, this is the deepest I have ever gone into tooling and dying leather. In my previous life we used 90% finished leather for our cases and the tooled lines we had were outsourced so that I had very little idea of the actual process. Now, I have to be keenly aware of our stock of colors because when I accept a custom order I need to be able to fill it.

How do these natural dye react with sun and elements? Do they fade a lot?

There is a simple dye that works and makes for a nice natural looking finish. Coffee or tea. Make a strong (or not) solution. Dampen the leather post carving and allow the work to sit in the fridge till you are very sure the moisture is even throughout the project. The more wet the project the less the dye will 'Take'. Apply solution to taste. If the work is carved you can pour the brew over the entire work allowing it to "puddle" in the depressions. Let it sit. It is going to soak in more in the cuts thus accenting them. Once dry I like to saddle soap the piece and buff to a low luster. That is just my preference. Caution: If you have many pieces you want to match it is best to do them all with the same batch of 'dye'. I have done no work in years but that was an old trick when money was tight. There are many natural dyes. Grace