Logwood, Haemotoxylin campechianum, comes from a tree native to the Yucatan in Mexico. We get ours directly from a sustainable farm in the Yucatan, which specializes in growing Logwood for dyeing, and allows us to give you fantastic prices about 1/3 of dyehouse cost.
Logwood has long been used in traditional leather dyeing as a key ingredient in the best natural blacks, as it transforms the grey charcoal black of tannin + iron, to a deep blackety black.Â
Logwood Paste:
Logwood releases its color quickly and easily, so one extraction gets almost all of it.
- Bring to a low simmer 8 parts logwood chips per 100 parts water.
- Maintain low simmer for 15 minutes. Stir often.
- Filter through strainer or t-shirt.
Logwood color and pH:
• Acidic (below pH 7) for brown/yellow tones.
• Neutral (pH 7) for purple or brown/purple.
• Alkaline (above pH 7) for violet, purple, dark blues. Adding 1 part soda ash in particular will bring out the bluer tones. Add 2% ferrous sulphate for a rich black.
To thicken:
Add 1 1/2 parts gum tragacanth.
Logwood
I have not used this yet. Plan to try and dye the leather black on some black rabbit hides.
