Leather blacking

[Milliron]

Can anyone point me to a reasonably correct leather blacking recipe or a good facsimile? I have a lot of good leather that needs re-blacking and I don't want to get into re-dying it if I can help it.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Leather blacking

Hallo!

On the more Period side...

Roy Najecki offers one ounce cakes of made of beeswax, lampblack, and tallow.

http://www.najecki.com/repro/Haversack.html

On an older, but still Modern side (circa 1920'), some lads use Huberd's Shoe Grease which is mostly beeswax. pine tar, and some modern junk.
Bob Serio at Missouri Boot & Shoe sells it, as do a number of on-line sites now.
Some lads use blackball for the field, and dress or maintain their black leather items with Huberd's back at home in the Modern World.

Curt

[poilu1917]

Re: Leather blacking

Bob,
Not sure if this is something that you are looking to do, but this is definitely a good "easy" way to get a blacken look without using modern dyes: http://www.dererstezug.com/blackeningboots.htm

Hope this helps.

[Jam3853]

Re: Leather blacking

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?23157-shoe-blacking&highlight=blackening

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Leather blacking

Very interesting...but what about citations/documented methods in the 19th c. for blackening/polishing shoes/boots?

Paul B.

[Jam3853]

Re: Leather blacking

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?21883-Waterproofing-for-shoes-Workwoman-s-Guide

[Milliron]

Re: Leather blacking

Thanks Kurt, I shall be dropping Mr. Najecki a line. His goods seem to be exactly what I had in mind.

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: Leather blacking

From the 1855 Rules for the Management and Cleaning of the Rifle Musket, Model 1855, page 30:
Mr. Dingee’s Directions for Reblacking Belts.
Brush them with a hard brush to clean the surface; if they are very greasy, use a wire scratch-brush; then, with a soft brush or sponge, apply the following mixture, viz.: One gallon of soft water, two pounds of extract of logwood, half a pound of broken nutgalls, boiled until the logwood is dissolved. When cold, add half a pint of the pyrolignate of iron – made by dissolving iron filings in pyroligneous acid, as much as the acid will take up.
The dye thus prepared should be well stirred, and then left to settle. When clear, decant it free from sediment and keep well corked for use.
Dry the belts in the shade; then apply a little sperm or olive oil, and rub well with a hard brush.
Should any bed spots appear, scratch up the surface with the wore-brush, and wet two or three times with a simple decoction of gall nuts, or shumac, and again apply the dye as above.
The addition of the logwood is not essential; and a solution of copperas may replace, but not as well, the acetate of iron.
If you are unfamiliar with this, let me explain: boiling nutgalls produces tannic acid. Dissolving iron filings in pyroligneous acid produces iron sulfate.
The combination of tannic acid and iron sulfate produces a black liquid known as, (wait for it) ink. So if you want a period recipe for re-blacking your belts, go to the art supply store, get a bottle of black calligraphy ink, and get to work.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Leather blacking

Hallo!

Just some added trivia...

Period dyeing with acid was economical in the short run but not so much in the long run. If too much acid dye was used, or if it was not neutralized enough, the acid eats away at the leather causing it to flake, crack, fall apart, and disintegrate over time.

Not too much of a concern when the field life expectancy of accoutrements was months. But for reenacting it can be problematic as we do not like to see our kit replaced every so many months or years.

I have a John Tobey made .58 cartridge box and waistbelt that were iron/acid dyed. After 2-3 years, the belt cracked and fell apart, and the flap on the box has started to do the same.

Curt

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: Leather blacking

I don't doubt the truth of Curt's posting for a moment. But if period dyeing is harmful in the long run, it does make you wonder how all those originals survived all these years. ;)

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Leather blacking

Hallo!

Near balanced PH.

Curt

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Leather blacking

Very interesting...but what about citations/documented methods in the 19th c. for blackening/polishing shoes/boots?

Paul B.

Rice Bull wrote in Soldiering about blackening their "mud colored shoes before the Grand Review.

[John McPherson]

Re: Leather blacking

Last December I had the pleasure of reading the collected diary entries and letters home written by Sgt. Charles Bowen of the 12th U.S. Infantry. Throughout the book he writes many requests to his family to send him cleaning items to the field as his pay was always late in coming. In the following reference from his letter of October 8th, 1862, Bowen comments on the cleanliness of his unit as compared to others and what he needed to do the job:

“I visited the 14th New York this A.M. and saw many I knew at home. I used to think sometimes that I should have done better to have enlisted in the Volunteers as the pay is the same & the chances of promotion much better, but one hour in a Volunteer camp is enough to sicken anyone from the life of a Volunteer soldier. I thought we were about as dirty & forlorn a set as could live, but our camp is a parlor compared to theirs & our men clean. I don’t believe as dirty a shirt could be found in the ranks of our whole brigade, as I saw on the back of a captain in the 14th, & to make the matter still worse, if possible, he had a beautiful (!) louse, crawling on the collar . . .

And then to see the men fall into drill. Some had no blouse on but went out in shirt & pants, ragged, dirty, uncombed the worst I ever set eyes on. No wonder some of the new recruits are homesick. Its enough to make a hog homesick.”

Here’s another commentary on the cleanliness of the Regulars from a letter written by Sgt. Bowen to his friends at home. He also refers to the reaction of the rebels to the recently-released draft of the Emancipation Proclamation:

“If we do not get pay soon I shall have to have a dollar sent to get some emory paper & chalk for my gun and brasses & some ink & black ink for my belts & boots for we have to keep as bright and shining out here in the field as we did in quarters.

I see the rebs talk of raising the black flag & using all noncommissioned & commissioned officers as felons if taken. Well we can raise as many black flags as they can & I rather think capture as many prisoners. Let them wiggle. I know it hurts.

Hope they won’t catch me though. If they do they’ll have to play a sharp game.”

Bowen's letters are priceless in their honesty. For those interested in this volume, here are the particulars:

Bowen, Charles T. (2001). Dear friends at home: The civil war letters and diaries of sergeant charles t. bowen, twelfth united states infantry 1861-1864. Edward K. Cassedy, editor. Butternut & Blue: Baltimore, MD.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Leather blacking

Please don't misunderstand - I wasn't doubting that men blackened/polished their equipment in the period, but I think what's missing here are period examples of the 'What' and 'How'...a few gentlemen have posted some citations to answer some of that - but the use of blackball (well to me, in my pessimistic mind - is questionable...certainly if it was a common practice, we ought to have a contemporary reference promoting the use of a wax brick/ball of some sort).

Period references I've come across include blacking, polish and include both paste/wax/liquid...just to show I'm not looking to troll on this; here's a few citations to get this rolling along in the direction the discussion probably needs to go:

298. A celebrated Blacking Cake for Boots and Shoes. - Take one part of gum tragacanth, four parts of river water, two parts of neat's-foot, or some other softening, lubricating oil, two parts of superfine ivory-black, one part of Prussian blue in fine powder, or indigo, four parts of brown sugar-candy; boil the mixture; and when the composition is of proper consistence, let it be formed into cakes of such a size that each cake may make a pint of liqud blacking."

"299. Good Blacking for Boots and Shoes. - Take of ivory black, one pound; lamp-black, half an ounce; treacle, one pound; sweet oil (olive oil), one ounce and a half; coarse gum Arabic, half an ounce; green copperas, three-quarters of an ounce; and stale vinegar (weak vinegar), three pints and a half. Mix all well together, having first dissolved the fum in a little water; then add gradually, briskly stirring the mixture, half an ounce of oil of vitriol, let is stand two days, occassionally stirring it, and it will be fit for use.

Or, two ounces of ivory-black, one tea-spoonful of oil of vitriol, a table-spoonful of sweet-oil, and two ounces of sugar-candy, to be mixed with half a pint of vinegar."

"300. Liquid Blacking. - Ivory-black, quarter and a pound; treacle, half a pound, well mixed; to which add sweet oil, one pennyworth, and small beer three pints; add after, oil of vitriol, one pennyworth, whihc will cause it to boil. Fir for use in three days."

"301. French Polish for Boots and Shoes. - Logwood chips, half a pound; glue, quarter of a pound; indigo, pounded very fine, quarter of an ounce; soft soap, quater of an ounce; isinglass, quarter of an ounce; boil these ingredients in two pints of vinegar and one of water, during ten minutes after ebullition, then strain the liquid. When cold it is fit for use. To apply the French polish, the dirt must be washed from the boots and shoes; when these are quite dry, the liquid polish is put on with a bit of sponge."

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Leather blacking

From the 1855 Rules for the Management and Cleaning of the Rifle Musket, Model 1855, page 30:
Mr. Dingee’s Directions for Reblacking Belts.
Brush them with a hard brush to clean the surface; if they are very greasy, use a wire scratch-brush; then, with a soft brush or sponge, apply the following mixture, viz.: One gallon of soft water, two pounds of extract of logwood, half a pound of broken nutgalls, boiled until the logwood is dissolved. When cold, add half a pint of the pyrolignate of iron – made by dissolving iron filings in pyroligneous acid, as much as the acid will take up.
The dye thus prepared should be well stirred, and then left to settle. When clear, decant it free from sediment and keep well corked for use.
Dry the belts in the shade; then apply a little sperm or olive oil, and rub well with a hard brush.
Should any bed spots appear, scratch up the surface with the wore-brush, and wet two or three times with a simple decoction of gall nuts, or shumac, and again apply the dye as above.
The addition of the logwood is not essential; and a solution of copperas may replace, but not as well, the acetate of iron.
If you are unfamiliar with this, let me explain: boiling nutgalls produces tannic acid. Dissolving iron filings in pyroligneous acid produces iron sulfate.
The combination of tannic acid and iron sulfate produces a black liquid known as, (wait for it) ink. So if you want a period recipe for re-blacking your belts, go to the art supply store, get a bottle of black calligraphy ink, and get to work.

Just to follow-up on Bob's post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink

I know it's Wikipedia, so take it for what it is.

Paul B.