Howdy Gents
I was asked what I used to get the color on the holster and money belt below by several Pards here in the forum, so this is my recipe, and what and how I make my Coffee and nut dyes, it may be a little different than others, but it works well for me, I hope this will be of some help to anyone that wants to try making and using these natural dyes.
MAKING COFFEE & NUT DYES = HOW TOO's
Just so this doesn't get more complicated than it is.
#1 , DARK ROAST COFFEE 1# CAN OR MORE, it's up to you, I make about 10 to 12 QT. with this, and I use a 20 qt. pot with lid, if you have a 20 qt. iron pot with lid , use it if you can lift it...
#2, use some IRON, SHAVINGS, IRON NAILS NOT PLATED OR GALVANIZED, JUST SIMPLE IRON NAILS, a lot of your finish nails are iron, if it will rust, or will stick to a magnet it has IRON IN IT, but you want to clean off any oil or grease it may have on it before you put it in your pot, steel wool is OK but you have to burn the oil out of it, which is a pain, LOTS OF SMOKE. WITHOUT IRON AS A MORDANT, YOU CAN'T ACHIEVE MUCH COLOR, IF AT ALL......( IMHO ) especially if you want a deeper darker color.
#3 with 10 to 12 QT. of water in your pot, bring it to a boil, then turn the flame down to a slow simmer, and let cook with the LID ON, for about three hours or so, let cool over night, and then do the same thing again the next day, if you want to cook it three or four days go ahead and do so, just make sure you keep your water up and don't let it boil dry, and leave the lid on through the whole process.
#4 AFTER THE COFFEE DYE HAS COOLED, you can pour the whole works, COFFEE/COFFEE GRINDS/IRON/DYE, in a thick plastic container, for what ever size you need for what you're going to dye, ( small and deep for holsters ) ( large and flat for belts )
#5 PUT YOUR LEATHER in the container, and leave it SUBMERGED for 24 hours or more if you want.
#6 REMOVE YOUR LEATHER from the container, if it is a holster , you want to do your wet molding now, and let dry for 24 HOURS. if it is a belt, lay it out straight, so it will dry the way you want it.
#7 APPLY LEXOIL CONDITIONER, both sides of leather and let dry for a couple hours.
#8 APPLY NEATSFOOT OIL, a couple coats should do, but you can vary the color with the amount of oil you put on, LET DRY OVER NIGHT.
#9 THE FINISH is up to you, you can leave it the way it is now, or you can do like I did by using Gum Thraecanth at 40/60% water, and Bag Kote at 40/60% water, I use a spray bottle to apply this, just apply as you want and rub in, and when it looks the way you want , STOP... YOU can also finish your burnishing at this time.
#10 IF YOU WANT AN ANTIQUE LOOKING holster or belt, you will want to bend and twist your leather, to put some wrinkles in the leather, and give the leather that used look.
#11 AS A FINAL STEP, I apply a coat of Skidmores Leather Cream,
#12 NOW YOU WANT TO STORE YOUR DYE, I put the works in a empty cleaned CAT LITTER container, and I add a 1/2 cup of Rubbing alcohol to every QT. of dye, put the lid on tight and store.
#13 WHEN YOU WANT TO USE IT AGAIN, it will help to pour it all back in the pot and cook it again, the alcohol will burn off real quick, and you will have to add more at the end of your dying work, but this helps activate everything, you could even add more coffee at this time,
#14 JUST A NOTE, your dye should look like OLD MOTOR OIL, a dirty black, the Mexican one loop holster I did was dyed for 24 hours, and you can see the color of the coffee that came out when the leather was oiled, so have fun with this, you can create just about any shade or color you want by testing on scrap leather.
#15 When doing the NUT DYES, Get the nut as they have fallen off the tree, when the hulls are Green, you will get better color out of the Green hulls, you can use the other , but the green works best. you want to remove nuts after cooking and before submerging your leather in the dye, you can hang the nuts up in a stocking and let air dry, or you can freeze them and use them again, also when cooking the nuts, I like to cook them for three days with the cooling in between, and when dyeing I leave my leather work submerged for five days, this longer time allows the color pigment to really get into the leather. Follow up the same as the Coffee dye.
I hope this will make it easier to follow how to make these dyes
And a big thank you to Chuck Burrows for getting this natural dyes thread started
tEN wOLVES
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