Black Walnut Dye

[Ranasp]

I live by a park that has lots of Black Walnut trees (I have one in my yard too, but this year it's being stingy with the walnuts)  so I put on some rubber gloves, grabbed a plastic bag and gathered up some walnuts.  There's a serious Black Walnut Fly problem here so any nuts that have fallen to the ground are rotten within a day from fly grubs so I tried finding ones that were freshly landed or just grabbed them off low branches.  I dehusked them into an enamelware pot with some water in it, brought it up to a boil, and let it simmer for over an  hour.  Then I poured it into a cotton cloth to catch all the husk bits, wringing it out to get the most dye and put it into glass bottles.  Grabbed a small piece of leather that I tooled and wiped several coats of the dye onto it, turned out pretty nice.  The original leather color is below the bird.  I like how the tooling captured more of the dye so the marks stand out.

Next time I'll try dehusking into a bag that I'll let sit in a bucket of water for a few days and try cooking that.  I'll also try reducing some of the existing dye and maybe adding lampblack to it to see if I can get a nice ink.

[Spotted Dog]

The green hulls give you that green gold color. If you want a deep brown they have to be nasty black.
Boil and let cool for leather.

[Ranasp]

Ah good, so putting them in a bucket a few days will do what I thought (make darker dye).  These things rot FAST.

[Jodocus]

Yeah, us the older, black husks. If possible, leave the piece to be dyed in the soup for quite a while at as high a temp as it can stand.

[Ranasp]

Fortunately I don't mind having a variety of shades, maybe I'll make a piece that uses only walnut dye but made in different ways. 

[Zuma]

Thats cool.
To get the nuts we would drive over the
walnuts. They bring good money themselves.
The later nuts were best.
Zuma

[chamookman]

I've always used the Black nasty ones for making the dye for treating traps. Bob

[Eric Krewson]

If you keep the dye for a while it will mold, I add 50% denatured alcohol to the mix, never have mold and have some walnut stain in my shop that I made at least 10 years ago that still works just fine.

[Spotted Dog]

Eric's right. In a sealed milk bottle works great or freeze it.
Green gives gold, nasty black gives drak brown to black. Dried give a lighter brown.
All depends on how much hulls you use. If you cook it in a cast iron pot it gets darker.
You can't ever use the pot to cook in again though.
It will dye wood, leather, and all natural fibers. Cotton, wool, linen, etc.

[Ranasp]

I found this site which mentions scouring for fabric to get a better color http://www.practicalprimitive.com/skillofthemonth/blackwalnutdye.html#stainedhands  Also has other great articles regarding primitive skills.

[riverrat]

its easier to cut up the green husks, especialy if they just fell or you plucked them from the tree. dont use water, put the cut up green husks in a old bowl and slowly smash them, then transfer to a blender. add just a tad of vinegar. you want a fine mush. rub that on the leather while you are wearing 2 pairs of rubber gloves. rub it on wood, rub it on whatever you want but do not get it on you unless you want to turn very very dark.Tony

[Ranasp]

I imagine that blender wouldn't be any good for whiskey sours after that. 

[riverrat]

use a glass mason jar in place of your blender pitcher.Tony

[Pappy]

I do the same as Eric, I usually on use the black nasty ones and cook them down, strain and cook down some more,I keep doing that until I get the color I want and it is clean, makes some really nice stain and by adding the alcohol it will last forever I suppose.
 Pappy

[DC]

I wonder what would happen if you dyed a bow with this and then fumed it with ammonia? With all that tannin it would get very dark, I think.