# Old canning jars questions



## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Yesterday morning I was chatting with a lady in the grocery store. She ended up giving me her canning jars, just come and get them. Lives about 7 miles from me. The conversation started over eggs and I mentioned I had chickens, and she said she had a lot of cartons and would give them to me. 

I took the jars as is. Some were full and I said I would empty them at home. I got almost 240 jars, of which 70 had contents in them. Stuff about 20 yrs old so no saving anything. Stored in a celler so the bands that were on are real rusty.

I spent a good amout of time today cleaning the jars. I have 9 that I cannot get the metal screw bands off. I did manage to get the flat part off, and it was like rolling a sardine can lid with a pair of pliers. So all the jars are empty and the last stubborn ones are soaking. Is there a easy method to get those collars off ?

Other question is...a LARGE quanity of the jars are wide mouth quarts. HEAVY old jars but no name on them. A mold seam up the sides. Some tiny numbers on the bottoms of a few of them. All take the standard wide mouth lids. 
Is there a company that did not mark their jars ? 
Or am I to assume they are all old mayonaise type jars ? 
They are over 20 yrs old and just plain heavy and rugged.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

ladytoysdream said:


> Other question is...a LARGE quanity of the jars are wide mouth quarts. HEAVY old jars but no name on them. A mold seam up the sides. Some tiny numbers on the bottoms of a few of them. All take the standard wide mouth lids.
> Is there a company that did not mark their jars ?
> Or am I to assume they are all old mayonaise type jars ?
> They are over 20 yrs old and just plain heavy and rugged.


Prior to the introduction of lug caps, nearly every glass jar sold could be used for canning with one of the 3 main size lids. Although many of the larger companies such as Hormel and Monarch had the name on the jars, most were plain so as to allow the label to be smooth. Most of the time, the glass manufacturer did not put a name on the bottom although one can find Ball on some which they made. Anchor Hocking's AH is another that is often found on the bottom. 

Also, one can indeed buy canning jars with no markings. They are made for the specialty canners who again want a smooth surface for labels. They are every bit as strong, if not stronger, than what is currently being manufactured by the Jarden Group of companies.

Martin


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Paquebot said:


> Also, one can indeed buy canning jars with no markings. They are made for the specialty canners who again want a smooth surface for labels. They are every bit as strong, if not stronger, than what is currently being manufactured by the Jarden Group of companies.
> Martin


Thanks  
I have not handled jars as heavy as these quarts are. I was planning on selling them but now I think I am going to hang onto them for myself. 
I do can some meat and I sure like the wide mouth jars. 

I did buy some new standard quart jars this fall because I needed them for grape juice. They seem lightweight is the only way I can describe them. I bought them at Walmart. 

I used to can a lot when the kids were young. At one time, I had close to 1000 canning jars. I canned like 600 jars a year. So I have handled quite a few jars through the years. 

I just KNEW these jars were different I got yesterday but did not know why. 

At a garage sale this summer, I did pick up some number 63 flat lids. I have no jars to fit them, but who knows, what I may find in my travels


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

ladytoysdream said:


> Thanks
> At a garage sale this summer, I did pick up some number 63 flat lids. I have no jars to fit them, but who knows, what I may find in my travels


Hang onto those #63s. You'd be surprised how many things still come with 63mm screw threads. Most are in the half-pint range which are great for certain specialty foods. Wyler's bouillon jars have always been 63. If you buy honey, the 2# Queenline jar has also always been 63. Lots of people still have some #63 flats around but not many have good rings to go with them. The rings haven't been made in about 30 years. 

Martin


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## LonelyNorthwind (Mar 6, 2010)

What an amazing find! I'm drooling.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

GrammasCabin said:


> What an amazing find! I'm drooling.


I've kicked myself many time for allowing a sister-in-law to "borrow" about 800 jars about 25 years ago. Probably not 10% of them was an actual Ball, Kerr, or name brand. Years later, when her 4 daughters had fled the nest and the quarter-acre garden had dwindled to a few dozen tomato plants, I asked about the status of my jars. Her aunt ended up with manu of them and died. Her mother/my ex-mother-in-law got the other half and died. But, I was at the auction of both households and they weren't there. Those jars represented a big chunk of the 1940s and 1950s store brands with glass so thick that they would literally bounce off a cement floor! But what I regret most is loss of probably a hundred or so #63s including a lot of brown pound jars. 

Martin


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## katy (Feb 15, 2010)

Ladystoy,

Congratulations, what a wonderful gift. I like the heavy jars, not nearly as much concern with breakage in the canners.

MARTIN, What is a brown pound jar ? and what was it used for ? I have a few older jars, but have not set them aside for special treatment or display...... yet. lol


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

katy said:


> MARTIN, What is a brown pound jar ? and what was it used for ? I have a few older jars, but have not set them aside for special treatment or display...... yet. lol


There are two liquids which were traditionally sold by the pound around here, honey and sorghum. They are both about the same specific gravity and a pound of each equals about 12 ounces of water. Thus a pound jar is about 3/4 pint. The clear jars were for honey while the brown was for sorghum. (The brown was to prevent a color change when exposed to light.) Many of the pound jars, clear or brown, were made by Ball and their logo is on the base. That brown fact has not been lost in 2010. Earlier this year, I stopped at a cheese factory store in Arena, WI and glanced at their specialty area with local jams, jellies, etc. Some brown jars jumped out at me due to normal screw cap and apparent pint size. Sure as heck, it was sorghum in a 22-ounce pint jar and brown glass. It was the first true pint jar that I've ever seen in brown glass with 70mm mouth and standard threads. $6.50 tourist price was much more than a normal person may shell out for it but I just had to have one. I have one! 

Martin


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Very interesting about the jars, Martin!

Ladytoysdream, I don't know any great way to get the bands and lids off. You might try something like WD-40 or a spray silicone. But break your neck on just a few first, and see if you can get enough rust off the lip of the jar to make it worth your while. I found some jars I'd abandoned in the garage with their bands and lids still on. I'd put them out there about 20 years ago. Some of them were okay; but some of them had bits of rust on them that I couldn't get off, not even with washing by hand and in the dishwasher, and careful application of fine steel wool. I tried one of them in a run of applesauce and it wouldn't seal. 

Now I've sorted all the rusty ones out and pitched them. For all the work involved, I'd rather spend the $$$ on a new box if I need more jars.


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## Gladrags (Jul 13, 2010)

My favorite old jars are the Atlas jars, made by the Hazel-Atlas Co. (logo is a large, upper-case H with a small uppercase A inside) What workhorses they are! Most of mine came from my mom, but whenever I see some at a yard sale or whatever, I snatch them up; they are so worth it.


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## VT Chicklit (Mar 22, 2009)

I have some old crown jars with the zinc and glass lids. I love the embossed crown logo on each jar. I also bought some old bale jars that seem to be about 12 ounces. They are tall, not squat like the usual pints that have a bale. These jars also have a much smaller diameter mouth than the normal jar. These jars had rubber rings on them when I bought them but I doubt that I will be able to get replacement rubber rings that fit when they need to be replaced. I currently use these jars for spices. I have about 20 and paid 10 cents apiece for them.


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## elinor (Jun 20, 2002)

I love finding 'older' canning jars. I don't come across many that have no logo on them, ususally old Ball or Kerr. They feel heavier, thicker and just more 'robust' . Most of the jars I buy come from thrift stores and generally wait till they are 1/2 price and buy the lot. 

I did see an odd jar the other day. It was a small pint size jar, squarish in shape and had an anchor on the one side. Never saw that logo before. 

Just to let you know, last year at WalMart (towards the last days of October) they had a major sale on their canning jars since the season was over. They had cases of the wide mouth quart jars for $5-6 dollars (instead of $10) and other sizes also nearly half off. I asked someone working there the other day if they were going to do the sale again this year and they said yes. 

Elinor


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## carogator (Sep 11, 2010)

I manage to get old bands off by using a 'church key' from the inside of band. It distorts the shape of the band just enough to loosen it. Good Luck.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

When I get a stubborn 'frozen on' lid, I peel it off with the needle nose plier on my Leatherman tool. Grab it around the inside lip, and peel it outwards. I've done hundreds thataway (with freebie jars full of goo) and only buggered one jar. 

I've gotten truckloads at a time of old jars full of whatever. I have a 'cache' of them... I poke a hole in the lid and set them on their side... the insects and weather clean them out perfectly. Must be on the side, and not facing up, otherwise they'll get full of water, freeze and burst. I've been pulling out of that pile for over a decade now! Down to maybe six cases or so...


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Guess I need to update this  

I did end up selling quite a few jars I found this year. I kept back for my canning jar collection the ODD ones with different names on them. I won't be canning in any of these, but hope to find a way to display them better. Or I may end up selling some of them as collectibles. 

I did buy some new quarts this year at Walmart to can my grape juice in. I believe I used 2 dozen of them. My problem is storage here. But I am working on that. In the meanwhile, I can just rotate the ones I have more often. I ended up selling a few dozen of the new ones still in the plastic wrap to a lady who came up short for canning jars, the end of the season. I am not impressed with the newer jars because they seem so light compared to the older jars. 

I have about 8 jars still with the collars stuck on. I have removed the flat lid part and emptied the contents and jars have been rinsed out. My one thing I did not try but plan to, is to put jar upside down in a small bowl with some vinegar and see if I can loosen the lid that way. And or see if I can find a adjustable wrench with a wide mouth to get a grip on these jars. I plan on wrapping the jar in a old towel and maybe a pair of work gloves to protect my fingers. I probably should toss these jars but I guess it all boils down to experimentation  What if i find a lot more like this and need to save them. 

Needle nose pliers sounds interesting ......maybe I will try that too


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

You can also try sitting them upside down in some Coke or Pepsi (or store brand soda).


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

The experiment continues  

I bought a 10" slip joint pliers today. NOPE. Needed the 12" ones I had in my hand but put back because, I did not want to pay more for a package of 2 pliers when I only needed one. 

Have one jar soaking in vinegar currently. 

And I did think of coca cola soda, but do not have any in the house. That will be tomorrow's experiment  

I still have to hunt down a pair of needle nose pliers sometime today 
in his tool box.


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