My First Black Jack

Several years ago, a new family moved to the Barony of Lochmere. The head of the household, Lord Geoffrey de Cardeville, happened to be a master leatherworker. He offered a series of classes to the Barony, and I was one of several who took advantage of the opportunity.

Lord Geoffrey's specialty is the Black Jack, and it was this project that he offered for his series of classes. We worked each Sunday as a group with Geoff leading us step-by-step through most of the construction, but we did complete some of the tooling and sewing on our own at home.

First, we chose which shape we wanted for our Black Jack from among the patterns Geoff has developed over the years. I chose a larger, more "manly" pattern for a mug that would stand up straight (he also had patterns for smaller mugs, and for mugs that lean back slightly). After tracing the pattern onto the side of leather, I cut it out using an Xaxto knife--this is a somewhat tedious, labor-intensive step.

With the pattern selected and the leather cut, I knew what my surface area was for tooling the design. My homework after the first Sunday was to decide what I wanted to tool. I chose a variation my SCA device (Azure, a dog's head couped contourny between three mullets and on a chief argent three shamrocks vert -- in this rendering, the dog's head is not contourny). For the background, I created a pattern of two of the major elements of my device: white stars and green shamrocks. I decided that the stars would be "pushed in" while the shamrocks would be "raised."

The following Sunday, the holes for the stitching were drilled into the leather. This was accomplished using a Dremel tool--SO much easier and faster than trying to do the holes by hand with an awl! After the holes were drilled, I traced my design onto the leather.

Then the tooling began. I accomplished the majority of it while I was working the overnight shift at the airport--I was able to work relatively undisturbed for several hours at a stretch, and the project helped keep me awake on those long, winter nights!

The following Sunday, construction began. Under Geoff's careful tutelage, I began to stitch my Black Jack together using waxed linen thread and two tapestry needles. This is a slow, painful process and is, by far, my least favorite part of any leatherwork project. I break countless needles each time I have to sew something, and it makes my fingers ache fiercely. It's worth the pain and suffering, though.

First, the handles were stitched together, along with an extra insert of leather to give extra strength and rigidness to the handle. Then the bottom of the mug was soaked in water and fitted in, and then that was stitched into place as well with a double row of stitches. Surprisingly, the bottom was much easier to stitch than the handle! It led me to wonder if this was because the leather was wet, and I have made a mental note to experiment with soaking the handle prior to sewing it in future projects.

When the stitching was complete, the entire piece was thoroughly soaked in water. After that, I poured sand into the Jack until it was completely filled. Then, using a dowel rod, I packed the sand down into the mug. This stretched the leather and gave the piece its final shape. When the desired shape was achieved, the Black Jack was set aside to dry for many days.

When the leather was completely dry, the sand was poured out and it was time to paint the design. Geoff had us use acrylic paint for this step of the project, which is not a period paint. However, it is durable, sticks well on the leather, and offers a range of bright, vibrant colors.

Once the paint was dry, it was time to coat the exterior with beeswax. Geoff used a crock pot to liquefy the wax. While it was melting, he heated his oven and we placed the Black Jack inside, warming the leather. This made it more absorbent of the wax, which we applied generously to the outside of the mug using a pastry brush. Extra wax was applied to the stitches, to prevent the sealant that would be poured inside the mug from seeping out.

When the wax had hardened, it was time to pour the sealant. While in period they would have used pitch or wax, we used a modern poly-resin mixture called Envirotex Lite. There were three separate pourings of this sealant, which was allowed to dry completely (taking a minimum of twenty four hours) and was then sanded between the first-and-second and the second-and-third pouring. Once the third coat was completely dry, we put the Black Jack into a heated oven again to evenly melt off the excess wax, and VOILA! The project was complete!