All old colors, excepting dark brown, bottle green, navy blue, black,
garnet, etc., can be dyed a good shade of ecru. Begin an old color by
passing them through a solution of hot water, about one ounce of soda
to a gallon of water, for about 30 seconds; after which take them out
and rinse by passing them through clean boiling water, which will draw
off more color than it would seem possible the feathers could contain.
If all the old color, or enough of it, be not removed, put feathers
through the permanganate of potash process. For dirty white feathers
simply wash them thoroughly with soap and hot water, and rinse well;
then prepare your bath as follows: One gallon of hand warm water, add
a small handful of starch, and enter feathers, rubbing them around
thoroughly, and getting the starch rubbed into the flues; then add
to bath a small quantity of copperas, about the size of a bean, and
re-enter your feathers and let remain in bath about one minute or less;
after which add a few drops of logwood liquor and about a teaspoonful
of diluted aniline brown, first removing feathers from bath; enter
feathers and let remain in bath about one minute, being careful to keep
them moving in bath. If found a little too brown to match your sample,
a small pinch of turmeric added to bath will reduce the shade. If they
are found a little too yellow for sample, a drop of diluted violet will
answer.
If the dyer, through his own carelessness, should allow his color to
get too dark, proceed to extract color as follows: dilute in about one
gallon of luke warm water one-half teaspoonful of oxalic acid. Enter
feathers, first rinsing off starch in cold water; let them remain in
about half a minute, and rinse off about three times in hot water to
remove acid. The acid will turn the feathers a bright yellow, and after
rinsing off well the yellow color will have entirely disappeared,
and the feathers a light shade of dust. Prepare a fresh bath as per
recipe, and, using more care, enter feathers and pass through until you
have acquired the desired shade.
In the first bath, should a very dark shade be required, add a little
more logwood and copperas than directed in the recipe, and if a very
light color, a little less.