homemade walnut dye

[jasonmccluer]

I gathered some walnuts from the yard and followed the tips and tutorials from some of the posts here but my results were not what I expected. 

I removed the hulls and tied them up in cheese cloth.  I placed them in a pot with distilled water and brought it to a boil. Then I turned it down to simmer for an hour. After an hour I let it cool overnight and repeated the simmer for an hour and let it cool overnight.  I used it on a belt strap the next day. 

The only thing I seemed to accomplish was getting my leather very wet. It darkened the strap but only about as much as plain water would. 

The leather is Hermann Oak veg tanned. 

What could I do differently to get better results? Also, does anyone have a tip on how I could apply the dye without getting the leather extremely wet?

Edited September 1, 2017 by jasonmccluer

[DrmCa]

Was your brew concentration high enough? Tying whole hulls in cheese clothe sounds strange to me, I would crush them in a coffee grinder and pour just enough water to barely cover the granules. And perhaps repeated adding more crushed hulls to the brew several times. Sounds like your brew was too dilute.

Edited September 1, 2017 by DrmCa

[Bonecross]

Last time I made  a batch I boiled the resulting liquid down to a dark almost black syrup then added Isopropyl alcohol to it for bottling. It does still make a lighter shade of walnut compared to the Fiebing's Walnut Dye.

[jasonmccluer]

2 hours ago, Bonecross said:

Last time I made  a batch I boiled the resulting liquid down to a dark almost black syrup then added Isopropyl alcohol to it for bottling. It does still make a lighter shade of walnut compared to the Fiebing's Walnut Dye.

I boiled my dye again this morning reducing it by half. I added a half pot of old coffee along the way. I was hoping for a syrup sort of concoction but no luck. I did get a nicer color though and after putting some oil back in the leather I am feeling a little better about it. 

now I just need to figure a way to apply it to avoid inconsistent coverage.

[jasonmccluer]

3 hours ago, DrmCa said:

Was your brew concentration high enough? Tying whole hulls in cheese clothe sounds strange to me, I would crush them in a coffee grinder and pour just enough water to barely cover the granules. And perhaps repeated adding more crushed hulls to the brew several times. Sounds like your brew was too dilute.

I don't know about putting fresh hulls in my coffee grinder but I might need to crush them up better. Do you dry them before you put them in your grinder? How long do you simmer?

[JD62]

        You don't need to grind them but you need to have a lot of hulls. I would start with a 4 qt. duchoven heaped wit hulls in a big pot with enough water to just cover. Let this stand over night then bring to a hard boil the simmer covered for several hours, may be 4 or 5. Only add enough water so you don't worry about burning. It's best to do this outdoors if you can. Let it stand over night with water about half way up the hulls. Strain off the hulls and reduce to about half. Cool it and try it on some scrap. If its too light reduce  more, if its too dark add water. Good luck and please share your results!

     

Edited September 2, 2017 by JD62

[Sheilajeanne]

Quote

It's best to do this outdoors if you can.

STRONGLY agree with this! We did experiments on the toxicity of different plants in botany class in University, and walnut hull extract was the only plant that killed EVERYTHING!! Walnut wood shavings have killed horses if used for bedding for their stalls.

Those that think the label 'all natural' means 'safe' are forgetting some of our deadliest poisons (arsenic, botulism toxin, ) are also ALL NATURAL!

The species of walnut may also affect the shade of the dye. We have black walnut here in Ontario, and having hulled these walnuts to dry and eat the nuts, I can personally tell you about the lovely dark brown stain that stayed on my hands for a number of days afterwards. The inside of the hull of the nuts was black in colour, and produced a very dark brown juice. In the end, hulling the nuts for food really wasn't worth the effort. The nuts (which were also nearly black on the outside) were almost impossible to crack, and the nut meats were disappointingly small, once we got them open. We soon decided the nuts made better cat toys than food!

The royal walnut, which grows further south, and is the one sold in stores for food may produce a lighter shade. I'm just going by the lighter shade of the outside of the shell, though.

 

[jasonmccluer]

I will try to simmer it longer and covered this time.

I know what you mean sheilajeanne, nothing grows under a walnut tree. We keep our dahlias and our veggies far away from our giant walnut.

thanks for the info everyone 

 

[DrmCa]

On 9/1/2017 at 2:58 PM, jasonmccluer said:

I don't know about putting fresh hulls in my coffee grinder but I might need to crush them up better. Do you dry them before you put them in your grinder? How long do you simmer?

Of course you need to dehydrate hulls as much as you can, every extra water works against you.

[jasonmccluer]

On 9/4/2017 at 9:09 AM, DrmCa said:

Of course you need to dehydrate hulls as much as you can, every extra water works against you.

thanks. I was under the impression you needed them fresh and green. should I remove the hulls and dry them in the sun? 

[DrmCa]

That I am not sure of, but in general knowing that sunlight has a potential to bleach many organic pigments, I would try drying hulls in a dark place.