Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Late Thursday Trivia
DaleLenz
Sorry folks, I forgot, duh!
A few times a year folks bring me chunks of wood to ID. Some woods you can soak in warm water and helps you ID wood between two species by the color leaching out. There probably are more than one type of wood you can do this with but I'm looking for the wood I'm thinking of. Will drop hints in need be later in the day.
Re: Late Thursday Trivia
John Veerkamp
Oh Oh
Me think...
DaleLenz
you might be one to something there, John. Please take it a little further.
John is "hedging" around I think.
Horseapples it is
Dale Lenz
Mulberry and O.O. wood looks very simular, soaking them in warm water helps to ID. Boise d' Arc wood will leach out a dirty orange color. Some of the Native Americans dyed their cloths with the O.O., have often thought that's where the Osage Orange came from(?). Well done Tom and John, have a good evening.
Re: Horseapples it is
John Veerkamp
I've used OO to dyei fibers for years. It is a strong light fast permanent dye. It is the dye that in the presence of iron was used to dye army items olive drab. When used with alum as a mordant it produces a very bright yellow.
It is a great under dye used with indigo over to generate good strong greens.
John
Very interesting, John.
Dale Lenz
Maybe, I'll read up on "natural dyes" sometime.
So John...
Dale Lenz
since O.O. wood darkens to a walnut hue, will dyed cloth do the same?
Re: So John...
John Veerkamp
Dale,
OO as a cloth dye does not change dark. It remains whatever color it was after dyeing depending on the mordant used. I have yellows and olives that are just as vibrant over 10 years after dyeing. Natural dyeing is interesting. AS for trees used I've tried OO , Butternut and walnut hulls in domestic trees, plus several tropical woods like purpleheart and bloodwood.
mordant?
Dale Lenz
What that mean. Google and it says something about iron and AL and such. You just mix some iron and AL filling in with the brew?
Re: mordant?
John Veerkamp
A mordant is a metal salt in solution. A wide variety are used, some are quite toxic and others like alum and iron are very benign. They can be used on the material before dyeing, in the dye bath or after dyeint. The mordants do several functions, they help to "set" the dyes, modify the color and soften the fiber. There is a whole science going back a thousands of years on natural dyeing and using mordants. These were traditionally passed to apprentices in the guild systems. The first real codification was in the early 1900's. A very interesting historical study.(did you know it was treason to reveal the color process for British uniform red?)
Thanks, John, for the information.