Walnut Dye - Early American Fabric

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[DanMaker]

wool dyed dark brown with walnut then overdyed with indigo produces a reasonable black.

[saraneel]

We had a black walnut tree in our backyard growing up, and the nuts were my grandpa's favorite. He just passed away a few weeks ago and this makes me remember gathering the nuts for him and getting stained hands. I'll miss making him black walnut fudge, but happy to have this memory today :)

[thecheaperthebetter]

just fyi, the recipe actually describes a mordant... copper tartarate... the use of a copper pot and the addition of the tartare makes the mordant while dyeing the cloth.
you can actually get different shades by boiling it in an aluminum pot (brighter colours) or an iron pot (darker colours). I love natural dyes the chemistry is so fun!

[erinhowett]

My blood pressure goes down when I watch Townsends.

[gregorymalchuk]

You should do a video on frontier processing of fibers like flax, hemp, and wool for both cloth and cordage.

[UsDiYoNa]

Been making and using walnut dye for my whole life, taught by my elders.

[MerkinMuffly]

I made the mistake of gathering a bunch of black walnuts and hitting them with a baseball bat, my hands looked like it had crap on it for weeks.

[ravenwolf]

Nice dye episode! I had an unfinished bookshelf and literally walked to the yard and grabbed a bunch of rotting walnuts off the ground (with gloves) and rubbed them all over the shelving. Turned the inexpensive pine into gorgeous dark brown with the grain visible in lighter brown. Brushed off excess and let it dry. I've been using that shelf for years with nothing but an occasional polish--still looks great.

[daysoffproductions]

This reminded me. My grandmother loved the color brown. Strange color to love to me but she would say “ what a pretty brown”. I miss her so much. Thank you for the memory. Also she lived her entire life cooking these dishes and dying clothes and living off the land. Had a 3rd grade education. And by 3rd grade I mean 3rd grade in the 40s. But she was smart and wise. Couldn’t read a lick. Couldn’t write her name. But she could handle bout anything else.

[markvoelker]

I learned about walnut dye when I decided to harvest some walnuts from street trees growing in my neighborhood. Only after picking the nuts did I find out the green juice from the outer fruit was almost a permanent skin dye! My hands were green for over a week!

[SamPanamaOfficial]

“Well, we’ve had a great day experimenting here on the homestead with the dyeing process.”

I know full well what you mean…but that line made me laugh more than it should have.

[sgbradley]

Slimy walnuts is also used to be a rust prevention for trapper traps.

[katiemoyer]

My dad had an ongoing war with squirrels. All because the squirrels liked to throw the staining hulls on his new 1957 Yellow Chevy. He was very fond of the ‘57 Chevy. The squirrel war lasted for about 25 years (how many generations of squirrels was That 🤷🏻‍♀️❓). …till an ICE storm took out the walnut tree. (Yes, walnut dye is strong.). The adored car did not get hurt by the tree…just the house.). 😂. We sure cleaned purple/black spots off the yellow car very often

[annad]

I've been processing black walnuts for years, I've even made a hair dye with it. Yesterday when I was processing some my gloves ripped and I didn't have any more but I didn't really care about them staining my hands. BIG MISTAKE. I know the juglone in black walnuts is toxic to some plants and horses and will kill them but I had never heard of it being caustic to humans. Well the toxic is sensitizing meaning the more you touch it the more sensitive you become. Apparently in some people it can cause some redness and irritation and in extreme cases chemical burns. I've never had a problem until yesterday and didn't even know it could happen but I now have CHEMICAL BURNS on my hands. Just typing this is physically painful but I wanted to warn others that this could happen to them. Please wear gloves so this doesn't happen to you too.

[AfterMarketGaming]

I made some just a month ago from the tree in my yard, super dark!!!! Also, show more cooking, gardening, and maybe cookware stuff (like the earthen oven)

[helenel]

Using the papery "skin" off of an onion (the skin is called the "tunic") will produce a yellow dye. Combining this with a dip into a walnut dye pot will make a warmer brown. The iron from the pots used during this period "sadden" the resulting color (that was the term used) and make the resulting color cooler and greyer. I process sheep's wool, dye and spin it and have experimented with easy to obtain natural dyes. BTW, beet is not colorfast.

[lisakilmer]

My daughter and I did a big natural dyeing project a couple of years ago. It's amazing what a nice variety of colors are available from roadside plants, although most that we worked with are very interesting in how they are not color-fast. The most dramatic is pokeweed berries, which produce a bright magenta that fades in weeks to a sort of khaki. Turmeric (obviously not a roadside weed) requires a tiny amount to produce an orangey gold, which I got to fade to pale yellow in two days of summer sunshine.

[fumastertoo]

The black walnut tree was always my favorite in Ohio, and I love the smell of the green hulls before they start to decay. You can do so much with the walnut tree, Dave Canterbury has a great video on its many uses.

[edith]

We use this fruit dye (long cooked fruits, not the tasty nuts, in french Brou de Noix) to colour our beams. After several layers, we finish with pure line oil. It makes a dark colour, well protecting the wood. Gives the house quite an authentic ambiance.

[DanielSMatthews]

The iron addition mentioned may be ferric acetate, from cleaning rust off iron using vinegar, it will bind with the phenolic compounds that make the brown colour to form a permanent black or dark brown in much the same way as iron gall ink works.