If your feathers are old, dirty whites, wash and rinse them thoroughly. If light colors, remove the same by passing through permanganate of potash process, and use great care in rinsing to remove all the acid before entering in bath. Prepare your bath with one gallon of luke warm water and a small handful of starch; enter your feathers and rub them around well in bath between the hands to expand the fibres. Take out your feathers, and add to bath a small piece of copperas about the size of a bean and about a quarter cupful of logwood liquor; re-enter your feathers, and let them remain in bath a few minutes, meantime adding a small quantity of hot water to increase temperature of bath; then add a couple of drops of diluted safranine to bath, let remain in bath one minute longer, squeeze out and dry as usual.
If wanted more on the shade of felt drab, use, instead of safranine, a few drops of Bismarck brown; and if wanted more on the steel, use a few drops of diluted violet in bath. If a darker shade should be desired, use only a little more logwood liquor, and allow them to remain a short time in bath.
Should you find your color to be altogether too dark for sample to be matched, rinse off starch, and dilute a half teaspoonful of oxalic acid in hot water; pass your feathers through, rinse off a couple of times in luke warm water and lastly through boiling water, for the purpose of removing all acid. Then prepare a fresh bath according to recipe, and pass through until you have obtained the desired shade.
COFFEE COLOR.
Old faded out light colors need only to be thoroughly washed and rinsed to prepare them for this color; and darker colors can be prepared by bleaching with permanganate of potash, taking care to rinse thoroughly in hot water for the purpose of removing all the acid. Prepare your bath of about one teaspoonful of turmeric and copperas about the size of a bean in a gallon of boiling water. Enter your feathers and let remain in bath about two minutes; remove feathers from bath and add a half cupful of logwood liquor and return feathers to bath, letting them remain in about one minute; after which remove feathers and add to your bath about two tablespoonfuls of diluted Bismarck brown and hot water to increase temperature of bath; re-enter feathers and allow them to remain in about two minutes; after which cool off a small quantity of the bath and add a small handful of starch; pass feathers through and dry.
If found to be too light, return to bath, first adding more logwood liquor and Bismarck brown, and let them remain in bath about one minute. If too dark for your sample to be matched, dilute a few grains of oxalic acid in luke warm water; pass feathers through for a few seconds and rinse off three times in luke warm water. Then prepare bath as per recipe, using more care in the preparation.
If found too much on the yellow, a few drops of diluted safranine added to your bath will produce the desired effect. Use clean starch in drying; if a table or board is used, see that it is perfectly clean and free from acid.
PEA GREEN.
Prepare your feathers by washing thoroughly in hot water, and rinse thoroughly to remove any soap that may adhere to the feathers. Then prepare a bath by diluting a handful of starch in a half gallon of hand warm water, and rub feathers around between the hands. Remove feathers and a add a few drops of diluted Victoria green and a couple of drops of diluted picric acid. Enter feathers, letting them remain in bath about two minutes, keeping them well under the surface to insure an even color.
If wanted a shade more on the yellow, add a drop more of picric acid; and if more on the blue, leave the picric acid out entirely. Take out and dry in starch, being careful to beat out on a clean board in the usual way.