09-02-2013, 09:33 PM
Leather, like wool, is a protein material. Leather, of course, is not fibrous in the same way that wool is. However, the most likely way of getting a black wopuld be to use crushed oak galls (which contain a high concentration of tannin/tannic acids), together with an iron salt. This would make iron tannate - which is black. This was used to make black ink right up to at least the Middle Ages.
An alternative would be to use the hide of a black cow - though whether this would survive the tanning process is beyond my knowledge.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
An alternative would be to use the hide of a black cow - though whether this would survive the tanning process is beyond my knowledge.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
visne scire quod credam? credo orbes volantes exstare.
