Falling between dubbin and shoe polish both chronologically and in application and use, blacking is a leather treatment, specifically for boots and shoes, for restoring, preserving, and coloring. Below are two recipes for making one's own (from a time before Amazon), the first being for those always on the move whereas the second is more appropriate for home use than it is for travel.

Black Ball:
Melt together, moderately, ten ounces of Bayberry tallow, five ounces of bees’ wax, one ounce of mutton tallow. When melted, add lamp or ivory black to give it a good black color. Stir the whole well together, and add, when taken from the fire, half a glass of rum.
Liquid Blacking:
Mix a quarter of a pound of ivory black, six gills of vinegar, a table-spoonful of sweet oil, two large spoonsful of molasses. Stir the whole well together, and it will then be fit for use.


Source:
The American Housewife
by an experienced lady
1841




iron noder

Black"ing, n.

1.

Any preparation for making things black; esp. one for giving a black luster to boots and shoes, or to stoves.

2.

The act or process of making black.

 

© Webster 1913.

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