"Very Yellow Buff Coats?" Topic

I'm a bit confused about Buff Coats, in some illustrations / re-enactments etc they look very yellow as opposed to a lught brown leather.

For example this: link

Or is the one in this link not a Buff Coat but infact some other sort of yellow coat?

"Buff" refers to the material – buffalo leather – not the colour of the coat.

Wikipaedia is wrong (as usual) about this.

The coat in the linked picture does not look like a buff coat to me. Buff coats were so called because they were made from undyed leather.
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""Buff" refers to the material – buffalo leather – not the colour of the coat."

Not quite. By the 17th century they were most frequently made of oil-tanned cow leather.
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In fact it is unlikely that buff coats in Europe were ever made from buffalo leather since the European buffalo (or Wisent) became extinct in the 14th century.
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Just to be pedantic, the European buffalo isn't extinct, there's still some in Poland.

But they haven't lived in the UK in historical times so buff coats would be made of cow leather.

All paintings showing such and actual buff-coats I have seen were yellow not buff. It's to do with the preperation.

The buff coat in this picture:
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doesn't look yellow to me.

The oak bark liquor used to tan the leather be it cow or buffalo would oxidize during the drying process giving a quite vivid yellow ochre colour at first. As with most other vegetable dyes this would fade with continued exposure to sunlight and the elements leaving a more subtle shade of brow.

n. oops.

The color balance in the pictures in the OP's link are a little off, too, so that might be part of the issue.

It is possible those original buffcoats were more yellow when first produced – they have been around a while. I read something about fish oil being used to treat leather in those days (buffcoats and sword hangers, etc.) maybe giving them a yellowish hue (?). I'd say both colours are acceptable for your minis.

I thought the best material for buffcoats were elk hide.

Probably it is, but Britain is as short of elk as it is bison.

Could the hides not have been imported?

While buff coats were not dyed the process used to prepare and soften the leather often resulted in a coat with a yellowish colour, some preserved coats have a fairly strong colour while others are pale.
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The Popham buffcoat is actually rather brown
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Exposure to light will increase the paleness of the coats as can be seen on the preserved buffcoats of Gustavus Adolphus
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As can be seen in this 1819 drawing the Lutzen buffcoat was far mor yellow some 190 years ago.

This is another one of those "pre-industrial dye" questions.

There can be no 'right' or 'standard' shade of colour for any dyed kit before modern industrial chemistry. The contemporary technology and systems of production produced items that were individual – no two were exactly alike.

The practical upshot for wargamers is that you can paint your figures in whatever shade of 'buff' you like. Brown, yellow, tan….all will be historically accurate!

Be very careful using re enactment pictures for refernece on subjects. Be more inclined to use pictures of the period.

Buffcoats have a couple of general rules. The lighter the colour (Nearly cream) the more expensive the coat. The darker (Yellow ocher) the coat the cheaper. The leather was Cow leather and only a certain part of the hide can be used to make Buff leather. If I remember right it takes four or five cows hides (certain parts I think its the the flank) to make a coat. Fish oil whale and cod was used in the process and ?I think Tanin from Oak? and ?Urine?
Walton quotes a Buffcoat costing £10.00 GBP plus for a good one! (matchlock musket about £2, A good horse £8.00 GBP – £10! I will try and find a good link to a modern Buffcoat maker.