Period recipes

[Clark Badgett]

Ok this has probably been done to death, but anyone have any good recipes to make useful items? Have a couple for candle and some for leather treatments. How about lye soap? Need a good formula for that. Any good dye formulas from the era?

[vbetts]

Re: Period recipes

Here are some soap making instructions from period newspapers, along with some descriptions of store-bought soap:

http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/soap.htm

Here are similar instructions for dyes in Southern newspapers:

http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/dyes.htm

Here's a table of Confederate dyes:

http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/dye_table.htm

And here's the bibliography that goes with it:

http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/dyes_sources.htm

And here's a catch-all of recipes and helpful hints not already in some other file:

http://www.uttyl.edu/vbetts/recipes.htm

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[Jarnagin]

Re: Period recipes

Here are a couple of easy and cheap period methods of waterproofing leather. All of these receipts were taken out of an 1867 book on tanning.

Melt together in an earthen Pipkin
Tallow 2 Lbs.
Lard 1 Lb.
Turpentine ½ Lb.
Beeswax ½ Lb.

Dry the leather well and warm it. Rub the composition into them with a piece of tow dipped into it, that articles being held near a hot fire until they have had rubbed on them as much as they can take up.

There is another mixture much used by fisherman which consists in melting together
Beeswax 1 Lb.
Rosin ½ Lb.
Suet ½ Lb.

(Copied straight form the book)

Vegetable Tanned leather cannot take a lot of heat without damage, no more than 150 degrees. If you cannot get a pure form of tallow you can contact me and I will get it from the tannery.

A waterproofing canvas recipe

This invention is also applicable to canvas and similar fabrics. One hundred and twelve pounds of’ soft soap being dissolved in 30 gallons of boiling water, the solution is then heated at 212 F., with 56 to 66 pounds of white vitriol (sulphate of zinc). An exchange of bases takes place, insoluble oleate of’ zinc and soluble alkaline sulphates being formed. The first rises to the surface of the liquor, and must be reboiled in fresh water to purify it of all soluble mutters.
Five pounds of pearlash are next boiled with 50 gallons of’ raw linseed oil, until the mixture assumes a soapy appearance; and to it, while still hot, are added, and well stirred in, 2 ½ pounds sugar of lead, 2 pounds litharge, 4 pounds red lead, and 21 pounds black rosin. The whole is boiled for an hour during constant stirring, and at the end of that time, 30 pounds of the metallic soap are added. The mixture is subsequently treated with 2 gallons of a liquor made by dissolving caoutchouc, in the proportion of 24 ounces to one gallon of spirits of turpentine. The mixture must be allowed to cool to 160 F., and it may then be applied with a brush. Two, or at most, three coats suffice; but there must be a sufficient interval between each to insure perfect drying.

Caoutchouc: is India Rubber

The Arts of Tanning and Currying 1852



djarnagin@bellsouth.net

http://www.jarnaginco.com/leather%20definitions%20index.htm