Coloring braintan deer leather

[hawkeye]

About braintan deer hide, I stained them darker with a brew from wallnut powder and water.
Do you guys use other stuff to color them?

[Hungry Horse]

Traditional brain tanned buckskin is smoked to color it, and give it some weatherproofing. I use old punky cedar collected from old downfalls in the woods. Don’t use green wood.

 Hungry Horse

[jbigley]

What color do you want? HH is right about the smoke. Plus, different woodsmokes produce different colors. I've smoked deer skins with many different types of wood: cedar, pine, sagebrush, willow, pine needles, other unidentified punk wood, others. Willow gives a nice golden color; pine, somewhat brown; sagebrush a grayish tone; pine needles a light brownish tan. Of course, the longer you smoke it, the darker it gets. Braintan can also be colored with pigments, red and yellow ocher immediately come to mind. Other earth stains/pigments will work as well, but they tend to fade and "bleed" and stain your body and other clothing until they "set." Laundry bluing was an old-time favorite, although decidedly not 18thC. Some really good references are Blue Mountain Buckskin, by Jim Riggs; Buckskin: The Ancient Art of Brain Tanning, by Steven Edholm and Tamara Wilder; and Deerskins Into Buckskins, by Matt Richards, both book and DVD. They are all excellent references, although my personal belief is that if you buy Richards, get the DVD. It is pretty straightforward, while the book is not as much. There's a lot more I could write, but won't for now. HTH. --JB

[Hungry Horse]

 JB is right about simply rubbing any colored powdered pigment into the nap of the buckskin. I actually saw an artist that does beautiful pictures, and portraits using colored powders such as chalk line chalk, and masonry tinting powder.I used powdered pigment to tint the buckskin war shirts for some Order of the Arrow ceremonial regalia. I used a flat fixative spray artists use to keep chalk, and charcoal artwork from smearing to keep it from running or transferring when being transported. A very light coat will do the trick.
 By the way if you choose to rub pigment into the buckskin simply take a stiff bristle artist brush, and cut the bristles off quite short so you can work the pigment int the leather in small tight circles.

  Hungry Horse

[jbigley]

Like Hawkeye said, walnut dye is very good for darkening buckskins. It must be cold when the skins are dunked, otherwise they will shrink -- or worse. In time, the walnut dyed buckskins will fade with use --especially if you wash them (sorry, Bob McBride. I know that washing your buckskins is *sacrilege*. Har!) Even smoked buckskins will eventually fade, and become lighter in color -- which is why I *eventually*  walnut dye all of my buckskins. Walnut dye does seem to dry out buckskins, so I always add a little vegetable oil --or bear oil, or what have you-- to my dye pot. Mix well, and then dye. Your buckskins will thank you for it. --JB

[hawkeye]

It, 's not a particial color I desire. I used walnut to darken my smoked braintan. But was curious about other methods probably used

[jbigley]

It, 's not a particial color I desire. I used walnut to darken my smoked braintan. But was curious about other methods probably used

Sorry. Didn't mean to give TMI.  Braintan buckskin is one of my main interests.  Sometimes I get carried away. --JB