Blacker's Art of Fly Making Part 17

Boil your hackles, &c., in a little crystal of tartar; procure two table-spoonfuls of cochineal, bruise them a little, and boil them gently over the fire for an hour or two; take the hackles you have just boiled in the tartar, and put them into the dye-pot, and simmer them slowly for some time, say half an hour; then take your "spirits of grain,"[I] and put into the dye-pot a tea-spoonful or a little more; take them out occasionally, and look at them between your eyes and the light, and when the right shade is obtained, rinse them and dry.

If you are in a hurry for scarlet, you may drop the particles of block-tin into aqua-fortis till they are dissolved, and add a little to the scarlet dye; the other is best, as it gives a more brilliant shade;--boil slow.

If the extract of bis.m.u.th is added to the red liquor of the cochineal in a small quant.i.ty, it will change it to a purple or violet colour.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote I: Spirits of grain for scarlet,--a quarter pint of spirits of nitre, a quarter of an ounce of ammoniac, add half water in a bottle, and drop into it half an ounce of block-tin in grains till dissolved.]

CRIMSON RED IN GRAIN.

Boil your hackles or hair in a quarter of an ounce of alum, and the same quant.i.ty of pure tartar, an hour gently; wash them out of this, fill your dye-pot with clean water, or as much as will conveniently boil; put in an ounce of well-powdered dye stuff they call "grain," with one drachm of red a.r.s.enic, and one spoonful of burnt wine lees, this gives a l.u.s.tre; wash and rinse well after boiling a short time, and the colour is good.

TO DYE GREEN DRAKE, FEATHERS AND FUR.

Boil your hackles, mohair, or fur, in alum and tartar, a quarter of an ounce of each; rinse them well, and put them into the dye-pot, with an ounce of savory, and as much green-wood as the pot will contain; (it is best to boil off the savory and green-wood first, throw away the wood, and boil the feathers in the liquor;) boil gently, and look at the feathers occasionally to see if they are the right shade, these give the natural shades of yellow green. The quant.i.ty of tartar and alum, and of dye-stuff is given in this dye; and the preceding which will show what must be used in all shades of colour, according to the quality or your own taste.

TO DYE CLARET.

Boil two handfuls of red-wood, or ground Brazil-wood, for an hour, with a handful of log-wood; then take a table-spoonful of oil of vitriol, and put it into half a tea cup of cold water; and when the dye-pot is a little cold, add it to the liquor, stir it, and put it on with the hackles or hair, and boil it gently for two hours; take out your material, and put it into cold water; add to the dye it comes out of a little copperas, and a small quant.i.ty of pearlashes, about the size of a nut of copperas, and a quarter that size of the ashes; put in your hackles or material again, and when the proper shade is obtained, rinse and wash well, and finish in urine, which brightens them, and your colour is good.

ANOTHER WAY TO DYE CLARET.

Take a handful of nut galls and bruise them, put them into the crucible and boil them half an hour, add to the dye a table-spoonful of oil of vitriol in half a cup of water, put in the hackles and boil two hours; then add to the liquor a little pearl ashes, and a piece of copperas the size of a nut, boil gently for two hours or as long as required to suit the taste of the dyer, rinse and wash them well, the ashes need not be used in this dye, but if used a very small quant.i.ty will suffice.

Another way:--boil red wood powdered for two hours (two handfuls), and then put the hackles in, boil an hour longer, let the liquor cool, and put into a tea cup half full of water nearly a table-spoonful of aqua-fortis and pour it into the dye, stir well occasionally and keep the hackles down, boil for two hours more and rinse off, finish in a little urine. If a very dark claret is required lay them in to boil for a day and night with a scalding heat.

TO DYE BLACK.

Boil two good handfuls of log-wood with a little sumach and elder bark for an hour, put in the stuff or hackles (boil very gently), bruise a piece of copperas about the size of two Spanish nuts, put it in with a little argil and soda; take out the hackles and hold them in the open air a little, then put them in again and leave them all night gently heated, wash the dye well out of them and your black will be fine. The argil and soda soften the dye stuff of the copperas, but a small quant.i.ty must be put in.

TO DYE GREENS OF VARIOUS SHADES.

The greatest nicety of all is in finding the exact quant.i.ty of ingredients to put in, so as to prevent the dye stuff from injuring the fibres of the hackles, &c.; for the light shades add the smallest quant.i.ty, and augment it by degrees. Dye the hackles a very light shade of blue first, in prepared indigo,[J] as I said before, take a spoonful and put it into the dye pot and boil it softly for half an hour. Add a very small quant.i.ty of alum and tartar to the dye, put in your hackles, and boil for a short time; add to the dye a table-spoonful of the best turmeric, savoy, or green wood, a little of each would do best, boil slowly for an hour, take out the hackles, rinse them, and you will have a green: you may have any shade of green by dyeing the blues darker or lighter, and putting in more yellowing stuff and less blue when light yellow greens are required, boil gently, and look at the hackles often to see that they have taken the shade you want.

TO DYE LAVENDER OR SLATE DUN, &c. &c.

Boil ground logwood with bruised nut galls and a small quant.i.ty of copperas, according to judgment: you may have a pigeon dun, lead colour, light, or dark dun. The ingredients must be used in small quant.i.ties, according to taste. You may have raven grey, or duns of various shades, by boiling with the logwood a small quant.i.ty of alum and copperas.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote J: Half a tea cupful of water, and the same quant.i.ty of oil of vitriol, put into a bottle, the indigo to remain in twenty-four hours to dissolve.]

BLUES.

Dissolve some indigo in oil of vitriol for twenty-four hours, put a couple of spoonfuls in your pot, add a little crystal of tartar, put in your hackles and boil, or at least keep them at a scalding heat, or the vitriol will burn the feathers, furs, &c., take them out, rinse them well, and the colour will be lasting.

If to the above liquor some fustic chips, well boiled by themselves, and the juice added, you may then have any shade of the best green.

A SILVER GREY.

Boil some fenugreek and a little alum half an hour, put in the white hackles, &c., and add a little pearlash and Brazil-wood, boil them gently an hour, rinse them, and your colour will be lasting.

A COFFEE OR CHESNUT.

Boil the hackles, &c., that have been previously dyed brown, in some nut gall, sumach, and alder bark, then add a small quant.i.ty of green copperas to the liquor, allow it to remain a day and a night in water that you can bear the hand in, and all the stuff will enter the materials.