Help needed!

Doc ? Are you saying Butternut makes a grey dye ? Can you make a wood stain with it as well ? I have been looking for a natural grey color for a while . Thanks .
 
Kevin the grey said:
Doc ? Are you saying Butternut makes a grey dye ? Can you make a wood stain with it as well ? I have been looking for a natural grey color for a while . Thanks .
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"Confederate soldiers and partisans were known as Butternuts during the War Between the States because of the brown homespun clothes of the military, often dyed with the green nut husks and the inner bark of these familiar trees. Some of the earliest North American colonists made the same use of them." (Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Bradford Angier, Stackpole, 1974, ISBN# 0-8117-2018-7, page 48)

I have also seen other references to the same thing, but I can't seem to lay my hands on them at the moment.

Doc
 
THanks Codger and Doc it is a nice color .

I have been experimenting with crushed charcoal to try and get a grey dye . So far just a mottled color with no suggestion of an even distribution . I am really trying to get a medtum to light grey so I am not even sure it is the way to go .
 
Then try the walnut husks. I dyed a pair of pants with it, and they came out a lighter gray than I wanted. I was after a medium gray knowing it would fade out with wear, and light gray appears almost white in B&W period photos. I wound up having to dodge the pants to darken them on the prints and do a sepia tint.

I found this interesting. Talks of using the leaves.

You can use walnut to make henna less red, and more brunette. Walnut husk, bark, root and leaves have juglone, a napthoquinone dye simliar to Lawsone, the dye in henna. Juglone is a dark brown dye which binds easily with keratin, the protein that makes your hair.

You can either add powdered walnut husk directly to your henna mix, or you can simmer walnut in a mildly acidic liquid (tea and lemon, for instance) then strain off the liquid and add that to your henna mix. If you boil the liquid in an iron pot, or with a rusted steel wool, it will yield a bown dye that you can add to your henna or indigo mix.
 
Thanks Codger . I do have a supply of the husks and maybe some whole nut/hull/husks . They have been kept in a big plastic baggy all summer and honestly I cringe at opening it . It has been kept in the dark but not a cool place .

I should take them out to process them and perhaps stabilise what remains .

I have to prioritise hunting for now and beyond stabilising them will have to wait for the winter months . I am also hopelessly sloppy with dyes and stains . I found this out when opening a bottle of black alcohol based dye . I didn,t realise how thin and splashy (technical term) the liquid would be .

I now have an interesting splatter all over my freezer top . L:O:L
 
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