katsass Report post Posted October 13, 2010 (edited) About 6 months ago, a long time friend and I were discussing life and times over a few adult beverages. Somehow we got around to the subject of the uses of 'natural' substances that can be used in our current, more modern times. I mentioned that I had brewed up a jug of vinegaroon for my leather work . We began discussing the possibilities when I (drawing upon a vast store of usually useless tidbits of knowledge) mentioned that I understood that green walnut hulls could be used to make leather and/or fabric dye. That damned look came into my friend's eye.....(I know that look. He and I worked together as LEOs for a number of years) and calmly stated that he "might know where a walnut tree was" (they are quite rareout here in the desert)......I quickly changed the subject. Two weeks ago the old guy (I'm 'around' 70......HE'S old) shows up with a big grin and a big bag of half rotted green walnuts. He explained that he had located this tree and, knowing 'MY' desire to try and make some natural leather dye, retrieved a batch for me. He did express a STRONG desire to know what odor was produced while cooking. Well....... there they were, so, a couple of days later, I sorted out the ones that still had a usable amount of green hull on them, and ended up with about 5 pounds of green walnuts. I stripped the remnants of hull from the inner hard thing, stuffed that green sticky stuff into a good sized stock pot, added water and put the thing on the stove to boil. Ma Kat was interested in my endeavor, however I sidestepped her interest by telling her that I was "cooking up something for later". (I did it in the house because there was a ball game on the tube that I wasn't going to miss) Anyhoo, as the stuff in the pot began to boil a (surprisingly) pleasant, fruity odor permeated the house. Ma Kat thought I was making some kind of jam. I allowed the pot to simmer all damned day, then cool, and settle out any solids. I then filtered the stuff and ended up with a couple of quarts of black, opaque liquid. Ma wasn't happy that she didn't get any jam......but the house smelled nice. Yesterday I grabbed a piece of scrap leather and immersed it in the black goo, waited all of 2 minutes, pulled it out and let it dry. The result was a very nice light walnut shade to my leather piece. It is a perfect contrasting color for a project underway, in which I intend to use a dark snakeskin as an inlay in a (to my limited experience) unique way. After consideration, the color seemed a bit too light in shade however, so I cooked it down by about 1/3. I'll give it another try this morning. But it works! Mike Edited October 13, 2010 by katsass Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Casey Jordan Report post Posted October 13, 2010 I'm very interested in seeing the results. Sounds like a nice color. I have an olive tree in the front yard...............I wonder. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gtwister09 Report post Posted October 13, 2010 Mike, If you look at some of the Google books (old ones) that are out there on dyes/formulas and such you will find many natural products that are used in dye formulas. The walnuts are one such dye formula. There are LOTS of those books on Google book. Good to see more people doing this. Regards, Ben Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cem Report post Posted October 14, 2010 Mike if you go here http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,228.0.html you will see many examples of people using walnut, pecan and coffee dyes. I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the pages and there is definately some amazing looking stuff done with these types of dyes. Cheers, Clair Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
