All light colors, such as light blues, pinks, drabs, yellows, etc., that you are desirous of making old gold need but to be washed with soap and hot water prior to entering in bath. Prepare your bath with two ounces of turmeric and one gallon of boiling water, more or less matters not. Enter your feathers, and let them remain in bath about two minutes, after which add a small pinch of copperas, about the size of a bean. Let your feathers remain in bath about one minute longer, after which take feathers from bath and add thereto a few drops of diluted Bismarck brown; let them remain in bath about one minute longer; take them out, cool off a small portion of the bath with cold water, add a small handful of starch, pass your feathers through and dry. If wanted a very dark shade of gold, a few drops of diluted logwood added to bath will have the desired effect; and if wanted lighter, a smaller quantity of copperas in bath.
If the shade be found entirely too dark for sample, a solution of oxalic acid in luke warm water will draw off a portion of the color and brighten what is left. If wanted a very yellowish shade of gold, use more turmeric, less copperas and no logwood, and be particular to have your bath at all times at a boiling temperature.
SLATE—page [47]. GENDARME BLUE—page [57].
FELT DRAB—page [46]. GARNET—page [40].
GARNET.
It is not necessary to wash your feathers, except they are very dirty and greasy. As a rule all old colors, excepting greens, navy blues or blacks, can be used for this color without bleaching. Prepare bath by boiling about one pound of logwood to a gallon of water or more about fifteen minutes; strain off liquor from wood; add about two tablespoonfuls of extract of archil, and bring again to a boil. Enter your feathers and let them remain in bath about four or five minutes, after which take feathers from bath, rinse twice in clean cold water, and dilute a small handful of starch in a little clear cold water; pass feathers through and dry in the usual way. Should your color be found too dark for sample to be matched, dilute a couple of drops of sulphuric acid in your starch bath, and pass feathers through for a few seconds; first, however, adding a little hot water to increase temperature.
If found lighter than the desired shade, rinse your feathers thoroughly in cold water and dilute half an ounce of bichromate of potash in about one gallon of boiling water; pass your feathers through for a few seconds, rinse thoroughly and dry. Great care is necessary in passing feathers through this chrome bath, as the color will oxidize very rapidly.
If your sample to match be more on the brown shade, a very little archil, not more than one-half the prescribed quantity must be used; and if more on the purple or plum, add more archil than the quantity specified.