VARIOUS RECIPES
MADDER for BROWN. (1 lb. wool.) Mordant with 1 oz. copperas and 1 oz. cream of tartar. Dye with 6 ozs. madder.
MADDER, etc., for FRENCH BROWN. Mordant with 3 per cent chrome. Dye with 8 per cent fustic, 2 per cent madder, 1 per cent cudbear, 2 per cent tartar. If not dark enough add 1 per cent logwood. Boil for 1/2 hour. Wash and dry.
TAN SHADE. (6-1/2 lbs. wool.) Mordant with 3 ozs. Chrome for 45 minutes and wash in cold water. Boil for 1/2 hour in a bag 5 oz. madder, 4 oz. Fustic, 1/2 oz. logwood. Enter the wool, raise to the boil, and boil for 45 minutes. By altering the proportions of madder and fustic various shades of brown can be got.
GREENISH BLACK. (For 1 lb.) Mordant with 3 per cent Chrome. Dye with 2 ozs. Fustic, 2 ozs. logwood, 1 oz. madder, and 1 oz. copperas.
DARK GREENISH-BROWN. (1 lb.) Mordant with 3 per cent chrome. Dye with 2 ozs. logwood, 4 ozs. madder, 1 oz. fustic, 1-1/2 ozs. copperas. Boil for 1 hour.
CHAPTER IX
GREEN
Green results from the mixing of blue and yellow in varying proportions according to the shade of colour required.
Every dyer has his particular yellow weed with which he greens his blue dyed stuff. But the best greens are undoubtedly got from weld and fustic.
The wool is first dyed in the blue vat; then washed and dried; then after mordanting, dyed in the yellow bath. This method is not arbitrary as some dyers consider a better green is got by dyeing it yellow before the blue. But the first method produces the fastest and brightest greens as the aluming after the blue vat clears the wool of the loose particles of indigo and seems to fix the colour.
If a bright yellow green is wanted, then mordant with alum after the indigo bath; if olive green, then mordant with chrome.
The wool can be dyed blue for green in three different ways:—1st in the Indigo vat, 2nd with Indigo Extract with Alum mordant, 3rd with logwood with Chrome mordant. For a good bright green, dye the wool a rather light blue, then wash and dry; Mordant with alum, green it with a good yellow dye, such as weld or fustic, varying the proportion of each according to the shade of green required. Heather tips, dyer's broom, dock roots, poplar leaves, saw wort are also good yellows for dyeing green. If Indigo Extract is used for the blue, fustic is the best yellow for greening, its colour is less affected by the sulphuric acid than other yellows.
According to Bancroft, Quercitron is the yellow above all others for dyeing greens. He says:—"The most beautiful Saxon greens may be produced very cheaply and expeditiously by combining the lively yellow which results from Quercitron bark, murio sulphate of tin and alum, with the blue afforded by Indigo when dissolved in sulphuric acid, as for dyeing the Saxon Blue."
"For a full bodied green" he says "6 or 8 lbs. of powdered bark should be put into a dyeing vessel for every 100 lbs. wool, with a similar quantity of water: When it begins to boil, 6 lbs. murio-sulphate of tin should be added (with the usual precaution) and a few minutes afterwards 4 lbs. alum: these having boiled 5 or 6 minutes, cold water should be added, and then as much sulphate of Indigo as needed for the shade of green to be dyed, stirring thoroughly. The wool is then put into the liquor and stirred briskly for half an hour. It is best to keep the water just at the boiling point."