Black deer skin

[tenngun]

My wife and I just took a drive through the winding stair mountains in Oklahoma. First time I was there and very beutiful. All along the way were historic markers and nature posters. I get withdral symptoms if I pass a road side marker in a park with out reading it.
On one display it talked about the Caddo who lived in the valleys harvesting Osage orange for trade. Also trading black deer skins.
I have never read about this. Every one would have smoked skin yellow or brown, even dark brown so nothing special to trade there. I have never read about any native people using bark or any tannic acid tan. Pete will make a skin very dark almost black after a year or more in the tank. Has any one ever heard of making black deer skins?
There was of corse a deer skin trade, but I've never heard of this.most people kept a tanning pit, but that would have turned out a brown skin.
Of corse a dark brown could be called 'black'. Slightly darker celts and Germans were 'black Irish or black Germans. Even the dark forest could be black :idunno:

 

[LaBonte]

yep - walnut dye was used at least by some of the tribes to dye their hides black (more of a blackish/dark brown.)here are some examples of bags dyed black from the Great Lakes region:
Link to Bags

 

[tenngun]

I've never seen one of those in life. In photos I have often thought they were just very heavy smoked with a hardwood. Have you ever dyed a brain tanned skin?
Unfortunately when writing any sort of short statement on a board like a post by the Forrest service won't be too detailed. I wonder why they would mention trading something Osage Pawnee Illinois could easily have made would have been interested in trading from skins from the Caddo. :idunno:

 

[Black Hand]

The brain-tan was dyed to make it very dark/black and it can be done with walnut dye.

 

[LaBonte]

I've dyed brain tan lots of times. Also colored it with earth paints as did the natives

 

[tenngun]

Have you done it, does it stiffen the skin at all? I have done earth paints on rawhide and painted strips on leggings, but never tried to dye a hide, I'm interested in your results.

 

[Black Hand]

Any time you wet brain-tan, it will stiffen a little. Just work it between your hands to soften.

As an aside, it might take color better if dyed before smoking, though this might depend on the type of wood used for smoking. My experience with using fir sawdust for smoking leather is that it imparts a little "Scotch-gard" character to the leather that water-based walnut dye might have difficulty penetrating.

 

[tenngun]

My favorite is damp oak leaves, a deep brown color will form, but it is 'waxxy' water will bead until it gets really wet. Are you saying to dye it after braining and before break drying, hummm I can see some experiments in my future.