If the color to be matched be very dark, repeat the bath of logwood and mix a bath of one-quarter ounce of bichromate of potash in a gallon of boiling water. Enter feathers and let remain in about half a minute; after which rinse off in cold water, and starch and dry. If a very brilliant shade be required, when you have rinsed feathers from bichromate of potash bath, wash thoroughly in soap-suds and rinse in luke warm water. Dilute a small quantity of starch in cold water, pass feathers through and dry. The above recipe produces a most beautiful shade of slate color, perfectly fast to light, and the depth of shade is regulated by the quantity of logwood. Should you find your color altogether too dark for sample, proceed to extract by passing through a solution of one teaspoonful of oxalic acid to one gallon of boiling water for about half a minute, and then rinsing off twice or three times in boiling water; after which repeat in a milder form.
ORANGE COLOR.
Prepare feathers by washing and rinsing thoroughly. Prepare bath by diluting about two ounces of turmeric in a gallon of boiling water, and enter your feathers, letting them remain in bath about two minutes; then take them out and add a few drops of diluted Bismarck brown and about a teaspoonful of oxalic acid; re-enter your feathers and bring bath to a boil, and let remain in about three minutes; after which take out, and cool off a small quantity of bath, add a small handful of starch, pass feathers through and dry.
Should you desire a very full dark shade, use about twice the amount of turmeric, add a few drops more Bismarck brown; and if wanted much lighter, use less of each color. If wanted more yellow, use very small quantity of Bismarck brown; and if a very reddish shade of orange, a little more Bismarck brown than amount prescribed in recipe.
There are numerous orange anilines in the market that are used successfully in dyeing shades of orange, but it is almost necessary to have a different shade of aniline for every shade of color made. Should your sample to be matched be rather dull, use no oxalic acid in bath, as the oxalic acid is used in developing and brightening the shade. To remove the color, should it be too dark, the first method is to wash well in soap water, rinse and pass through a solution of oxalic acid in warm water, about half an ounce to the gallon.
SCARLET.
Wash and rinse your feathers thoroughly, and if required to remove a surplus of any old color, pass through a bath of permanganate of potash, as per recipe; after which prepare a bath of half a teaspoonful of oxalic acid to one gallon of boiling water and about a teaspoonful of turmeric; enter feathers and let them remain in bath about half a minute, after which take them out and add to bath about half a teaspoonful of rocceline; dissolve powder thoroughly, and return to bath; let them remain in about one minute longer, then cool off a small quantity of the bath and add a small handful of starch; pass your feathers through, squeeze out and dry as usual.
If wanted a very dark shade, add a little more rocceline and let remain longer in bath. If shade be a little on the orange, use more turmeric and less rocceline; and if more on the cardinal, vice versa. Should you, through carelessness, get your color too dark, to remove color rinse off and wash thoroughly in a soap bath, and rinse off in boiling water about twice, which will have the effect of reducing the color several shades; mix a new bath as per recipe, and enter feathers, using more care and judgment and proceed to starch and dry as called for in recipe.