period black iron oxide dye recipe

[dsrtfox1942]

What you need:

2 clean jars with lids
apple cider vinegar
4 O steel wool (the finest you can lay hands on)
a funnel
and some kind of filter (I like an old piece of window screening)

Directions:

1. Fill one jar with steel wool. Do not pack it tight.
2. Pour in vinegar until steel wool is submerged.
3. Place jar into pot and pour in water until it is halfway up the side of the jar.
4. Heat until vinegar it steams, but does not boil.
5. Let it cool until you can handle it. Then remove from pot and put the lid on.
6. Let it sit for 1 week like this.
7. After 1 week, remove lid and repeat steps 3, 4, 5, and 6.
8. Open lid and have other jar handy. Put your funnel in jar 2, with you small piece of screening cut to the diameter of the funnel half way down.
9. Pour dye from jar 1 into jar 2, the screening will catch any small strands of steel wool.
10. Seal it up or use it! This makes a very period leather dye. It will go from a black to a dark brownish color with age.

Hope this helps you all out when dyeing your leather. It sure beats the pure black look of commercial dye. 

[Micanopy]

Well aint that sumpthin! Thanks for posting this!

[Bison Horn]

Thanks for the info.

[Watauga]

Yep Thanks!

[russ]

You get the same result by just pouring the vinegar over the steel wool and letting it sit. No need to boil over and over a gain. I have been using this method for years.
Also when you are ready to use you dye cut it with water at 50/50 ratio. If you dont do this the acid in the vinegar will evetualy rot your leather.

[dsrtfox1942]

You get the same result by just pouring the vinegar over the steel wool and letting it sit. No need to boil over and over a gain. I have been using this method for years.
Also when you are ready to use you dye cut it with water at 50/50 ratio. If you dont do this the acid in the vinegar will evetualy rot your leather.

Have you ever tried the boiling method? The heat supposedly makes it go quicker. I haven't tried just pouring the vinegar over it so I can not give a definitive answer. As for the vinegar rotting your leather, I suppose that if you do not apply neats foot oil, pecard's or something of that sort, it will rot it. But I would also imagine that the treatment would neutralize the acid. To be more PC you could use tallow to water proof your leather, but this will also rot your gear after a while. The fat breaks down. My civil war gear I made about 7 years ago, is still in tip top shape using this method. Maybe down the line it will deteriorate, but this is an original method after all, not a modern dye. You are essentially incorporating iron into leather which in turn rusts and breaks down anyway which can't be good for leather, hence the color change after a while. You can always tell when something is dyed in this original method as opposed to a modern technique.

My next batch, I may have to try just pouring the vinegar over it.

[russ]

I have never used the boiling metheod. I got the instruction from the 1858 U.S. ordanance manual.

[NAULTRICK1]

  Thanks Dsrtfox 1942 neat and simple, maybe the boiling neutralizes the vinegar somewhat so it don't effect the leather so much-I don't know, jus wonderin- wonder how it would work as a stain for a rifle? or as an aid to staining, sort of like antiquing

[crazell]

Dsrtfox 1942 thanks for the recipe. I'm trying it right now. i have to cook it again.after it cools, i'm going to try it out on some scraps i have around here.I'll let you know how it turns out.

[russ]

Just so you all know you can also use any rusty bits of metal lying around. Old nails and stuff like that will work also.

[txclass]

you can use that on cloth by useing it with a tannin dye such as walnut hull or strong tea dye and while wet dipping it in the iron dye.   Iron reacts with the tannins to make the black dye.