It should then be treated to the same bath of suds (heated quite warm), and lay another day. Then pull it out and dry as before. Any oil will do, but good fresh butter is better than anything else. When the skin is dry rub it with ochre, which will give it a splendid yellow color.
Tanning and Buffing for Deer Skin Gloves.—For each skin take a bucket of water and put into it 1 quart of lime; let the skin or skins lay in from 3 to 4 days; then rinse in clean water, hair and grain; then soak them in cold water to get out the glue; now scour or pound in good soap suds for half an hour; after which take white vitriol, alum and salt, one tablespoon of each to a skin; this will be dissolved in sufficient water to cover the skin and remain in it for 24 hours; wring out as dry as convenient, and spread on with a brush 1/2 pint of currier’s oil, and hang in the sun about two days; after which you will scour out the oil with soap suds, and hang out again until perfectly dry; then pull and work them until they are soft; and if a reasonable time does not make them soft, scour out in suds again as before, until complete.
The oil may be saved by pouring or taking it from the top of the suds, if left standing a short time. The buff color is given by spreading yellow ochre evenly over the surface of the skin, when finished, rubbing it in well with a brush.
Dyeing for Buckskin, (Buff.)—5 parts of whiting to 2 parts of ochre (yellow), and mix them with water to a paste; make into cakes and dry. When a dressed skin is dry, rub one of the balls over the surface; rub the powder in. Take a piece of sand-paper and raise a nap on the leather by going over it. (Black.)—Take clear logwood; after it is dry use copperas water to blacken it. Be careful and not use too much. (Dark Brown.)—5 pounds of oak bark; 4 pounds of fustic; 14 ounces of logwood. Use alum water (strong) to make it strike in. (Drab.)—Mix blue clay with soft soap; add blue vitriol to shade the color. It can be made any shade you wish.
Dyeing for Morocco and Sheep Leather.—The following colors may be imparted to leather, according to the various uses for which it is intended. (Blue.)—Blue is given by steeping the subject a day in urine and indigo, then boiling it with alum; or it may be given by tempering the indigo with red wine, and washing the skins therewith.
(Another.)—Boil elderberries or dwarf elder, then smear and wash the skins therewith and wring them out; then boil the elderberries as before in a solution of alum water, and wet the skins in the same manner once or twice; dry them, and they will be very blue. (Red.)—Red is given by washing the skin and laying them two hours in galls, then wringing them out, dipping them in a liquor made with ligustrum, alum and verdigris; in water, and lastly in a dye made of Brazil wood boiled with lye. (Purple.)—Purple is given by wetting the skins with a solution of roche alum in warm water, and when dry, again rubbing them with the hand with a decoction of logwood in cold water. (Green.)—Green is given by smearing the skin with sap green and alum water, boiled. (Dark Green.)—Dark green is given with steel filings and sal ammoniac, steeped in urine till soft, then smeared over the skin, which is to be dried in the shade. (Yellow.)—Yellow is given by smearing the skin over with aloes and linseed oil, dissolved and strained, or by infusing it in weld. (Light Orange.)—Orange color is given by smearing it with fustic berries boiled in alum water, or, for a deep orange, with turmeric. (Sky color.)—Sky color is given with indigo steeped in boiling water, and the next morning warmed and smeared over the skin.