Testing Natural Walnut Dye

[santee]

Aw Marshall, them other shooters is jest jealous, is all!

[Johnny Dingus]

Funny how things work out.  The Marshal starts this and then everybody jumps on the band wagon. 

DM I found a park here in town where the walnut tree had droped green walnuts so Sunday me and the wife gathered some up and then went to walmart and bought some pans and boiled up some walnuts also.  When I got home tonight I lit a fire under them again.

So end of the week I may have some Juice also.

Was thinking of freezing the left over walnuts for winter time.  That is the green ones I don't use now.


Johnny Dingus

[HorsePen Henry]

Johnny, I would reccommend cooking them all up at the same time. You'll wind up with a stronger dye that you can dilute if you want to. Put a bit of denatured alcohol in the mix and it won't go bad on ya.

X Horse Pen

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[Mogorilla]

He Dalton,
Boiled leather was used as armor, Cuir Bouille.   People differ on its uses and preparation, I have heard of boiling leather in water and in hot wax, (usually just dipped).   Molding into a very hard armor, especially for shield coverings.   The native americans would boil/steam bison rawhide for their shields.  The shield's ability to turn arrows gave rise to the general name of Parfleche for their rawhide containers. (parry fletching-parfleche)

[Ace Lungger]

  I have to agree with HP, cook up all you can now, prep it for storage and you are good to go! I got 4 gallons done and I am going to keep cooking untill they are all gone! And then I am going to cook some of them when they fall of the trees(black hulls0 and see what i get!
 I am only on my second batch of nuts, I cooked the first batch down to mush, I couldn't belive that! I got 4 gallons out of one panty hose full! I have a enough walnuts to cook a500 gallons easy
I don't think I need that much!
You all have a good Day!!!

ACE

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Gents 

        Will I'm happy to see some of you Pards getting involved with making natural walnut dye, I think if you use it and try different ways of doing it , the more you,re going to like its lasting qualities, I really like the fact that this dye goes right into the leather almost through and through, but you can add different shades and tones, by mixing a little spirit dye with EVOO or Neatsfoot oil, with rubber gloves on , i'll take a rag and get a little spirit dye on it and then dab it in some oil, and then rub it in the leather, you can do this to change the color a little or to give it an antique look by varying the shade and tone in certain areas. there is no end to what you can come with. so good luck with this.



                                                                     tEN wOLVES 

[Dalton Masterson]

Ok gents. Here is 1 day (well not quite 1 day) of soaking in walnut juice. It has been out about 2 hours and is still plenty wet, so is dark yet. I am gonna try (TRY) to do a day by day comparison and see what happens.

DM



DAY ONE

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Dalton 

      Nice job on the Dodge City holster, you did a nice job of putting it together, and you said you couldn't carve, will you can't say that anymore, it really looks good, good luck on picking the color your after.



                                                                tEN wOLVES 

[Dalton Masterson]

Thanks 10W. I have a walnut question. Do you guys put the walnut in whole and boil it? Or are you cracking them up somehow? Today I finally got the outer layer to peel off while boiling, so have what looks like boiling liver surrounded by rocks now. I will be adding this to the previous mix I had the other day, so it wont matter too much if its the same. DM

[Ace Lungger]

I have to agree with TW, great job Dalton!!! Can't wait to see what it look's like in the stages you doing! I am going to get another container tomorrow, and start testing as you are doing!
Dalton, i put my in a leg of a lady's hose, and cook it that away, it will boil down to mush, so you do not have to crack them up!
Once again
Great Job!!
ACE

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

      Dalton, Ace pretty much covered what you were asking me, Just pick them up off the ground, put them in a ladys stocking, tie it off and put them in a pot , bring to a boil, and then reduce to a very low simmer.


                                                             tEN wOLVES 

                                         

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Funny how things work out.  The Marshal starts this and then everybody jumps on the band wagon.

Actually, Chuck Burrows started it all with his post of how to do it. We can thank him for the great idea. All I did was start playing with it.

Thanks 10W. I have a walnut question. Do you guys put the walnut in whole and boil it? Or are you cracking them up somehow? Today I finally got the outer layer to peel off while boiling, so have what looks like boiling liver surrounded by rocks now. I will be adding this to the previous mix I had the other day, so it wont matter too much if its the same. DM

You only need the green hulls. I wait for them to split on the tree so the walnuts can fall out. Then I gather them up. I used dried ones for my first batch but that isn't as good as using the green ones. The next batch will be made with green ones.

Really great tooling, Dalton. That Dodge City holster is really nice. I agree, you have to lay claim to being able to tool leather, now. Nice work.

[Dalton Masterson]

Well heck. The Walnuts I got were pulled off of the tree. They never hit the ground at all. Oh well. I finally got the green part mushy, and now its workin on the shell itself.

Darn, I have been telling people when they ask me to make a holster that I cant carve and will just do a border or stamping. Dang. 

DM

[Dr. Bob]

DM,

Yer in the big time now!!   And just think of fun you will have carving!  WOW!

[santee]

Would any of you gents with walnuts sprinkling your lawn be willing to sell some to a guy in the desert? Like me?? I can't find the dang things even in the stores (well, the shelled ones I can find).

[Marshal Will Wingam]

What part of Arizona are you in? When I was living in Kingman, all the side canyons on the East side of the Hualapai mountains were full of black walnuts. You may have some close by.

[santee]

Well, I'm quite a few hours south (Tucson), but that info means they could be close by. I should try some roadside joints that sell nuts.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Remember, you don't want the nuts. Just the soft hulls around the outside of the shells. They don't come on the nuts when you buy them.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Santee , talk to Ace, he said he'd ship them to you for the price of shipping, and I don't take the green hull off on mine I use the whole nut just the way it feel of the tree, there isn't any work to this at all , just the time in cooking , just put them in a ladys stocking tie it off , put them in a pot , bring to a boil and the reduce to a simmer,with the lid on, cook for a minium of two days , although I've found you get a stronger dye if you cook it three or four days, cooling off between days . the color you get will depend on how long you leave your leather in the dye, submerged and covered and after the dye has cooled, you don't want to cook it. And MW is right Chuck Burrows is the one that shared this information with us, I'm just seeing how far we can go and how many levels we can take it.

                                          tEN wOLVES

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I checked the link that Major2 gave us a while back, but they don't seem to offer black walnut hulls any more. I did a search online to see about a source for them but haven't come up with anything yet. If anyone finds a place to get hulls in bulk, even hulls other than from black walnuts, be sure to post it here.