# new old canning jars



## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Just wanted to share this

When my grandma died last year, my dad bought a piece of property she owned, across the street from her house, off of the estate. The property had a garage on it that my Grandad built about 25 years ago.
Well, dad was cleaning some stuff out of the rafters and found several boxes of jars. He just brought them over and gave them to me. Many of the jars are unusable to me, lug style lid threads, but grandma always saved every glass jar because when she was still canning, you sealed jelly and jam with Gulf wax. So those jars will go to recycling center.
But I did get about 3 or 4 dozen Kerr, Ball, and Golden Harvest jars in pints and quarts. All around good jars.
There were also a lot of old mayo jars, peanut butter jars, and pickle jars in there.
I almost pitched all of those, but noticed something. They don't have lug style threads, regular canning rings and wide mouth rings screwed right on them and tightened down.
Obviously, I won't use those in the pressure canner, but anything that can ne water bath canned should be fine.

It makes me wonder though, when did the food industry switch from full threaded lids to lug style lids?

I also found one old porcelain lined zinc lid in one of the boxes, so it is up on a shelf now on an old blue ball jar. I also came across a rather curious jar, made by ball, and a fully threaded neck, but was almost half inch wider than a wide mouth ring. It wasn't marked on the sides of the jar, but had the ball logo on the bottom. Would this maybe have been a specialty jar for some company, or at one time was there a larger sized lid that was used?

In any case, free canning jars are free canning jars, not a bad deal at all.


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## TerriLynn (Oct 10, 2009)

I have always used those old mayo and pickle jars that would accept a lid and a ring in my pressure canner and have never had a problem with breakage. If you really look at the thickness of that old glass, most of the time they are more "heavy duty" than the canning jars that are made today.

I have gotten lots of cellars of old jars from nearby farmhouses that couldn't find anyone to give their jars to when I started canning about 25 years ago, most of the little old ladies I got them from were just tickled that someone was willing to put them to their intended use.......too bad those days are gone! Anyway most all of them were either made by Ball or Anchor Hocking, I think those were the 2 major glass manufacturers around then. 

I don't know exactly when the commercial jars switched lid styles, but I do remember that when I started canning about 1990 you could still get jars that took a standard lid in the grocery stores with other stuff in them, but it was getting to be more the exception than the rule by then.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Thanks for the insight on the jars not breaking. I may end up trying a couple.

I do have some, made in China, Walmart special jars that I have been advised against using in my pressure canner. I weighed one the other day, it was something like .9 ounces lighter than my Ball brand jars, so I reserved those for water bath canning only.
I might weigh some of these old jars too, just to see.


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## Chixarecute (Nov 19, 2004)

The old mayo jars work great for canning apple juice - which has a pretty short WB processing time.


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## ROSEMAMA (Jan 12, 2007)

Congrats on your new jars, Dixie! Better that they were a "gift" from your Grandma 

I have a bunch of old threaded neck mayo jars that I use for stuff that doesn't get pressured. The lug-style necks, could you maybe use them for some other storage? Maybe make some jar candles? Drinking glasses? With so many things coming in plastic jars nowadays, I try to find as much use as I can for the glass ones.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Dixie Bee Acres said:


> Just wanted to share this
> 
> When my grandma died last year, my dad bought a piece of property she owned, across the street from her house, off of the estate. The property had a garage on it that my Grandad built about 25 years ago.
> Well, dad was cleaning some stuff out of the rafters and found several boxes of jars. He just brought them over and gave them to me. Many of the jars are unusable to me, lug style lid threads, but grandma always saved every glass jar because when she was still canning, you sealed jelly and jam with Gulf wax. So those jars will go to recycling center.
> ...


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## Pelenaka (Jul 27, 2007)

Dixie Bee Acres said:


> I also came across a rather curious jar, made by ball, and a fully threaded neck, but was almost half inch wider than a wide mouth ring. It wasn't marked on the sides of the jar, but had the ball logo on the bottom. Would this maybe have been a specialty jar for some company, or at one time was there a larger sized lid that was used?


Straight sided no shoulders ? Might be a freezer jar. 

BTW you know your food put up are especially blessed because the jars came from your Grandmother.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

My wife actually talked to her mom a couple weeks ago about canning jars. Wifes grandma is in a nursing home now with altzimers. Anyway, wifes mom is getting ready to sell grandmas house.
Wife asked her about all of grandmas old canning jars since she use to can what seemed like 1,000s of jars per year.
Come to find out, the grandmother gave them all to the mother a few years ago when she quit canning. The mother wouldn't know what to do with a canning jar. She told my wife that once she took them home they were just taking up space and collecting dust, so she gave some to a lady from church and the rest she took to the recycling center.
My wife told me that, my jaw hit the floor. I wanted to drive 35 miles just to smack the woman.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Dixie Bee Acres said:


> I also came across a rather curious jar, made by ball, and a fully threaded neck, but was almost half inch wider than a wide mouth ring. It wasn't marked on the sides of the jar, but had the ball logo on the bottom. Would this maybe have been a specialty jar for some company, or at one time was there a larger sized lid that was used?


Store brand peanut butter came in jars like that.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I've got an old mayonaise jar in a box that Pop used to can potatoes in, at least a dozen times. It's in with the batch that needs to be returned for refilling.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Have several jars of pickles made in some of those jars today.
I did come across two jars (after filling them with cucumbers and brine....) That have threaded necks, and look the same size as canning jars, but the rings would not screw down on them.


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## shelljo (Feb 1, 2005)

My Great Grandparents place recently left the family. The family who bought the homestead told my Mother she was welcome to go out and look around any time she wanted to. We went out this past Sunday afternoon.

In the cellar, we found shelves and shelves of canning jars with food still in them. Since the Aunt who most recently lived there never NEVER canned anything, Mom wondered if they had been canned by her Grandma...who died in 1957. After discussing, and looking at some of the jars, we decided they'd only been there since the mid '70's, when Florence stayed there with Great Grandad. 

Still...jars, full of food canned prior to 1977.

I "liberated" one blue Ball jar, and three jars of different sizes which had the checkered pattern in the glass. Since these jars were stored with rings on them, I'm hopeful I can get the darn rusty things off and use the jars. Two still have food in them. One had rusted through and just has some petrified food in it. There were all kinds of jars there, tea jars, peanut butter jars, mayo jars, tons of jars. I'd love to liberate more jars...someday. Imagine, having some jars that belonged to my GREAT Grandmother! (I'm positive the blue Ball jar was hers  )


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

I have a few jars with the checkered pattern. I was told they were coffee jars, never heard of coffee jars before.
Congrats on your score, hopefully you can get more.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

We torn down an ols house a few years ago and found a can of green beans put up in 1956 and still sealed.


Wade


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## Jan in CO (May 10, 2002)

Wonderful finds and good to know someone has used the mayo jars for pressure canning. I have that type of jar from the veggie vendor, who sells a lot of pickled items and other things like salsas that I'm sure were pressure canned commercially, so I'm washing them, removing the labels and been trying to get my courage up to try pressure canning something in them. Up to now, I've used them for tomatoes, fruits, etc. I have my first load of them in the pressure canner now with pizza sauce in them that contains meat. Wish me luck!

My Mom told me of a woman she knew whose husband injured his back so they had no money and had to go to Lone Tree, Wyoming for the winter so he could recover. Her parents had an old house there when they were alive. The couple lived in their motor home and ate the canned food in the cellar all winter. She said the jars were all sealed, but the food in them was so dark they couldn't tell what it was, but they ate it, survived and were glad to have it. Don't know that I'd be that brave! I have been given jars from under houses where the lids have rusted through and food was still in them, so I removed the lids when I could, dumped the food in the compost and reused the jars. Glad to have every one of them!


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