ART
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
CRAFT
CULTURE & HISTORY
ENTERTAINMENT
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD & DRINKS
REVERSE ENGINEERING
SCIENCES
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
WEARABLES
Sumac Leaves: Cut, Dried and Ground for Tanning and Dyeing
Sumach, the tanner's sumac, is the leaves, leaf stalks and young shoots of Rhus coriaria, dried and ground. Andrew Ure (1839): it is rich in tannin with a little yellow colour, and tans light-coloured leathers such as morocco.
The picture: Rhus coriaria, "sumac des corroyeurs" (the curriers' sumac), painted by Pierre-Joseph Redouté.
Beginner
A day's cutting, a week or two drying
Instructions
1
1
Cut the young shoots
Cut the young shoots
Cut the leafy young shoots of the sumac in summer with a knife or shears, leaving the old wood to grow again.
Materials for this step:
Tanner's Sumac (Rhus coriaria)1 pieceTools needed:
Pruning Knife
Pruning Shears
Balance Scale2
2
Dry in the shade
Dry in the shade
Spread the shoots thin on racks in an airy, shaded place and turn them until the leaves crumble (our choice: shade keeps the colour pale).
Tools needed:
Drying Rack3
3
Strip and grind
Strip and grind
Strip the leaves and leaf stalks off the dry shoots, grind them on the quern and sift. Keep the powder dry in sacks.
Tools needed:
Quern Stone
Sieve
Burlap Storage Sack4
4
Your drying ratio
Your drying ratio
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
Materials
1- Placeholder
Tools Required
7- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
This blueprint makes
CC0 Public Domain
This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.
Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.