Brown dye from household materials

[Nowandagain]

Any suggestions for dying veg tan brown or burgundy using household materials? Leather dyes are hard to find where I live (Amazon won’t ship them here), and I want to avoid exposure to VOCs for health reasons. Haven’t found neatsfoot oil here, either  

Coffee comes out much too light, no matter how strong I brew it, how long I leave it, or how many coats I use. Adding ketchup to the coffee helps, but not enough. 
 
One website claims you can use pomegranate juice. They were wrong. 

Has anyone tried diluting vinegaroon (I’ve never used it) with coffee? Or adding steel wool to strong coffee?

Any luck with strong tea?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance. 

Edited August 20, 2024 by Nowandagain

[Littlef]

Something I heard of, but never experimented with is using walnuts shells or pecan shells.   I found this youtube video of a guy talking about his process:   

 

[Nowandagain]

I had seen this but I have no source for walnut skins, only shells.

[Northmount]

7 hours ago, Nowandagain said:

I had seen this but I have no source for walnut skins, only shells.

 

[1961Mike]

Hi, I live in Oklahoma, and there is a pecan orchard a few miles from home.  I purchased a 25 or 50 pound bag of Pecan Hulls, a lingerie bag to boil them in, and now I have a dark brown dye.  Walnut hulls also work very well.  If you want DARK brown, almost black leather, use dark roast coffee that's been reduced by about half.  It is HELPFUL to make some trial leather pieces to see how long to soak the leather in the dye. 

Later

 

[Nowandagain]

Mixing vinegar & steel wool into the coffee/ketchup experiment didn’t work any better than it probably tastes. It came out blotchy, uneven, black around the edges, light brown in the middle, with pin-prick black spots. Back to the drawing board. 

[Nowandagain]

“Hi, I live in Oklahoma, and there is a pecan orchard a few miles from home.  I purchased a 25 or 50 pound bag of Pecan Hulls, a lingerie bag to boil them in, and now I have a dark brown dye.  Walnut hulls also work very well. “

Unfortunately I have no source here in Israel for either type of hull. 

[AlZilla]

How about shoe polish?  It's not really dye, but who knows?

[Littlef]

another option would be to use a wood stain from a hardware store.

[Trailblazer87]

On 8/30/2024 at 6:12 AM, Nowandagain said:

“Hi, I live in Oklahoma, and there is a pecan orchard a few miles from home.  I purchased a 25 or 50 pound bag of Pecan Hulls, a lingerie bag to boil them in, and now I have a dark brown dye.  Walnut hulls also work very well. “

Unfortunately I have no source here in Israel for either type of hull. 

OK, something i might be able to help ( California pistachio grower here) with,  do you have access to pistachio hulls? They should be coming available this time of year, just let them age a bit to darken up and let the tannins release.

Do you have access to oak trees? The acorns are loaded with tannins, grind them up then soak them to make a very bitter tea.

The other thing to try might be a dark red wine, or even Balsamic vinegar, just be sure to neutralize the acid with baking soda and a good rinse.