# Mason Jars Question



## Pinky1441 (Dec 16, 2011)

Hello!

I have done some canning with my fig tree before we moved. But I got new jars or reused a few that I had previously used and added a new lid. But my smarts in the area are limited.

I was wondering. I see so many mason jars in garage sales, 2nd hand stores, etc. Most costing a LOT less. Is it possible to use jars when you don't know how old they are or where they came from as long as you wash them really well and get new lids? Or should I just buy new ones to add to my collection since I know where they have been.


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## Chixarecute (Nov 19, 2004)

Used canning jars will be fine. Check the rims/lips - you don't want any with chips or nicks out of them. Some older glass mayo jars might be found with canning jars. Opinions vary on re-using those jars...they are great for storing dry items like pasta, beans, etc. Wash in hot, soapy water & you should be good to go. 

I would just be cautious about the odd jar or two if they appear near the lawn and garden items, perhaps seem oily. A jar may have been used to mix a pesticide.


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## arrocks (Oct 26, 2011)

Many of us couldn't survive canning season without good old used yard sale jars. Personally I have some that are over 30 years old and I grab every garage sale jar I can find. Just check them good for fine cracks or nicks in the rim and take a pass on those.


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## Pinky1441 (Dec 16, 2011)

Thank you for your replies!!! I will keep them in mind the next time I come across them.


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## Aseries (Feb 24, 2011)

I buy old canning jars because some of the older ones are bigger, some are cooler looking, some are made better or thicker, and for the most part cheaper. Most people I know buy pickles from canners and toss them in the recycling, and I cringe, because you can not only use them for canning, but I store dried goods, and vacum seal stuff in them, use them for drinking glasses etc.

I store 40 lbs of flour in mason jars, rice, dried beans, etc. And if you get the really old ones that are no longer used for canning, they not only look good they also to are good for dried stuff. I repack spices, and everything in the yucky plastic, into glass jars. And I'm sure the suggestions will continue from others.

I always run my fingers around the top of the rim to feel for chips in the rim. People look at me weird when I'm like good, no good, good no good, mumbling out loud in the stores, picking jars. 

Thanks to thrift stores I have managed to get over 200 jars at probably 1/10th the price of what I would pay at regular store for a new box. Save money, you work hard to earn it why spend it on new when someone elses trash is your fortune right..

Just my to cents, I love glass jars...


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Yes, buy up all the canning jars you find. I have friends and my dh buy jars when they see them at sales. I nolonger need any. I 'd say I have between 3 or 4 thousand. My Blue/colored jars are the last I'll cann with-but last year I did have to use some,they are fine to use,but as others said check the rims,they can have chips but also a ridge of thin glass that would go thru the new rubber on a regular lid. Happy Hunting!


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## Becka03 (Mar 29, 2009)

I got the bulk of mine at yard sales , freecycle, and craigslist- and wait until I have coupons for the new ones! 
Go for it- just follow the advice of - no nicks or chips or cracks on them- the only problem i have had is we use a turkey fryer to can - and the older green ones seem to crack from the heat of the propane- I think it gets way hotter than a stove


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## blynn (Oct 16, 2006)

I use the 1976 Centennial ones that survived The Great Shelf Collapse at my mother's house, have used them many times with no problems. The great majority of my quart jars are from garage sales, and at least half of my pints.


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

7thswan said:


> Yes, buy up all the canning jars you find. I have friends and my dh buy jars when they see them at sales. I nolonger need any. I 'd say I have between 3 or 4 thousand.


WOW! Good for you!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

blynn said:


> I use the 1976 Centennial ones that survived The Great Shelf Collapse at my mother's house, have used them many times with no problems. The great majority of my quart jars are from garage sales, and at least half of my pints.


The Great Shelf Collapse-now that will send shivers down anyones spine......


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## blynn (Oct 16, 2006)

7thswan said:


> The Great Shelf Collapse-now that will send shivers down anyones spine......


Yeah, it was pretty bad. We were sitting around the kitchen table one night, when all of a sudden the most horrific noise came from downstairs. My parents and I ran downstairs to see what it was. The cupboards that were mounted to the wall and had been in place for over 30 years had chosen that moment to break loose from the wall. Fortunately Mom hadn't canned in years, so all the jars were empty. They were stored in those cupboards and I guess Dad had been storing cans of paint in there, so the entire floor was covered in broken glass and paint. I think about 5 jars survived.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

I sold or gave away my jars before I moved last summer. That said, as long as the jar rim is intact, the jars are fine to use no matter how old they are (and honestly, I don't know how you could tell anyway). I'd be hesitant to use the green or blue glass jars for canning, because I've seen air bubbles in the glass. They're fine for other storage.

I've been canning for over 20 years, and could count the broken jars on one hand. Maybe 10% don't seal in the canner, and I just put those in the refrigerator and use them within a few weeks.


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## used2bcool13 (Sep 24, 2007)

Just a thought, keep in mind how much you can buy a jar for new. I can get a dozen quarts or pints for 7-8 dollars as a best price. This equates out to about 0.60 cents a jar that comes with a ring and a new lid.

So for me they have to be less that 0.50 cents each to make it "good" for me. Or they have to be cool looking or something.

Good luck

Don't forget word of mouth!! Ask family and friends.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Becka03 said:


> I got the bulk of mine at yard sales ,


I've bought hundred+ of them at yard sales over the last 40years. They are fine. They aren't the bulk of what I have, but there are enough that I can safely say they are fine.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

blynn said:


> Yeah, it was pretty bad. We were sitting around the kitchen table one night, when all of a sudden the most horrific noise came from downstairs. My parents and I ran downstairs to see what it was. The cupboards that were mounted to the wall and had been in place for over 30 years had chosen that moment to break loose from the wall. Fortunately Mom hadn't canned in years, so all the jars were empty. They were stored in those cupboards and I guess Dad had been storing cans of paint in there, so the entire floor was covered in broken glass and paint. I think about 5 jars survived.


That must have been awful! 
I had a similar experience when I inadvertently locked a racoon in the shed ( where the jars were stored) and opened it in the morning to find inches of broken glass on the floor and a sleeping racoon.


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

The Great Shelf Collapse is the stuff of nightmares! All the work, and all the food, it could be wiped out in a single moment. *shudder*

I have to share a little jar story. I bought jars right and left when we were first married, oh, about thirty *cough cough* some years ago. I canned furiously for quite a few years. But then I went back to school to get my ag degree, and they kept me on afterward to teach. (Horse stuff; it's always about horses, you know?) I was training and teaching, doing stuff for our county 4-H, and I was way too busy to garden. So the jars got moved to the old garage.

In time, the old garage fell in. I had quit teaching and taking outside horses, and really yearned for a garden again. A guy came and took most of the garage down and the jars were there, some broken, some not; but absofreakinglutely the filthiest things you'd ever seen. Crud in the bottom. Thick with dirt. Some of them were opaque with stuck on dirt. So I filled an old wash tub and added some soap, and one nice spring day I started cleaning with the washtub and a hose. Got them clean enough to check the rims, and was pleased to see that many had survived intact. (I threw away those with bands on though, because I figured the traces of rust I couldn't sand off would interfere with the seals.)

The washtub soaping got them clean enough to take into the house. There they got a good soap and hot water wash, and a rinse, and they went into the dishwasher on the sani-cycle. 

When I opened the dishwasher door, I had bunches and bunches of jars that looked absolutely brand spanking new. They sparkled and stood ready for use; and if a jar could speak they were asking to be put to work again feeding the family. 

Now they line my laundryroom shelves and are filled with meat, vegetables, and fruit. I love my old jars. I'm glad I rescued them, and I'm especially glad they waited for me so patiently all those years.


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## Catalpa (Dec 18, 2011)

That's a great story! Glad you were able to rescue the jars.

Looking back, I was pretty dumb. Years ago my Dad was rehabbing an old house that had hundreds of jars in the basement. It never occurred to me to take them. Now I wish I had every one of them! It's very hard to find jars at thrift shops or garage sales around here.


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## blynn (Oct 16, 2006)

Catalpa said:


> That's a great story! Glad you were able to rescue the jars.
> 
> Looking back, I was pretty dumb. Years ago my Dad was rehabbing an old house that had hundreds of jars in the basement. It never occurred to me to take them. Now I wish I had every one of them! It's very hard to find jars at thrift shops or garage sales around here.


It is getting harder and harder to find used jars. I am lucky my mom does the weekly garage sale circuit and she keeps an eye out for me in her part of the state. I live in Amish country and a neighbor told me that the Amish ladies snap up all the canning stuff.


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## gracie88 (May 29, 2007)

I have blue jars from my MIL that she got from her mother, I use some for canning juice and some for dry storage, they're older than dirt, but they work fine. She says they are for using, so I use them. She remembers when the clear ones came out and everyone wanted those instead of the old blue ones because food looked so much nicer in them  I also have lots of jars from little old church ladies, some I had to dump unrecognizable food out of, but a good scrub and brisk boiling and they're good to go, just look for chips on the rim.


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## Gladrags (Jul 13, 2010)

Yard sales, flea markets, thrift shops, the neighbors' basements and garages -- it's all good! Even if I can't clean them enough to use them for canning, I can always use them as pen caddies, etc.


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

I never pass up jars for sale because if I can't use them, chances are I know someone who needs them. My sis just started canning within the last couple years, so I give lots to her, I have a couple friends that are canning so I barter with them. You cannot have too many jars. You cannot have too many purses either :whistlin:


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## Anak (Jan 23, 2011)

Horseyrider said:


> ... A guy came and took most of the garage down and the jars were there, some broken, some not; but absofreakinglutely the filthiest things you'd ever seen. Crud in the bottom. Thick with dirt. Some of them were opaque with stuck on dirt. So I filled an old wash tub and added some soap, and one nice spring day I started cleaning with the washtub and a hose. Got them clean enough to check the rims, and was pleased to see that many had survived intact. (I threw away those with bands on though, because I figured the traces of rust I couldn't sand off would interfere with the seals.)
> 
> The washtub soaping got them clean enough to take into the house. There they got a good soap and hot water wash, and a rinse, and they went into the dishwasher on the sani-cycle.
> 
> ...


Most of my jars share a similar story.

My grandparents left behind a stash of old jars. Many proper canning jars, and many more old mayonnaise jars--old enough that if you look at the bottoms many are marked "Ball", "Kerr" or "Atlas". But man were those jars ever a dusty, grungy mess. Many had on the order of a quarter inch of dust in the bottoms. The basement was also Grandpa's workshop, thus the extra dust.

I actually kept the ones with rusty bands still on. I found that a Scothbrite pad would get all the rust stains off the rim, and almost all off the thread lands. Only on the very inside corners of the threads does any vestige of a rust stain remain, if any at all. Most came totally clean.

The transformation is amazing. I wouldn't hesitate for an instant on old, grungy looking jars. It is wonderful how well glass cleans up.


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## Packedready (Mar 29, 2011)

I also have about 6 cases of the 1976 Centennial Jars. My sister and I bought have sons born that year. My sister bought the jars even though she never canned and now I have them.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

Oh my. I frequently have daydreams about what must be tens of thousands of jars socked away in cellars, basements, sheds, barns, attics and closets across this country. I hate to think of them being wasted, have even cringed through a story told by dh's relatives about the time they threw *all *of their grandmother's canning jars into the pit caused by demolishing a building on the property! No one in the group canned - or knew anyone that did. I'm afraid that happens time and time again.

Consequently, I eagerly purchase canning jars whenever I see them at yard sales or auctions - often going for $1 - $2 a case (love it when they come in their box).

To get back to your original post, YES, of course I would purchase used jars and grunge wouldn't matter as a little elbow grease returns them to their original sparkle and usefulness.


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