Now, "generic" to him is pickle and mayonnaise jars to me. Yes, I've heard of folks using these with no problems. I'm uncomfortable with it, though and have sorted out 30-40 jars with no markings of any sort. I've also become the proud owner of 2 dozen (+\-) glass jars with the glass lid/baling wire closures. I boxed those and will go through them at a later time. This pulls down the "usable" jars to approximately 175.
As I made my way through the boxes of jars, I kept finding brand names I'd never heard of - but that didn't concern me much 'cause I certainly don't know it all. Part of my evening was spent looking up these brand names and I may have some collectibles. Some of these jars date back to the 60's and 70's and may be worth up to $10.00...each. So, there's about 25 of these...bringing my "usable" total down to 150 (+\-).
Even with losing half of the jars, I'm still ahead cost-wise. I also received a box full of lids and rings and other unknown stuff ((I haven't gone through this box yet)).
NOW - to the whole point of this thread - would you be wary of using 20-30 year old glass jars for canning??
I'm thinking it won't be a problem - I don't believe these jars haven't seen a lot of use. But I won't be using the lids as the sealing goop around the rim is most likely useless - the little boxes are so old they've come unglued.
Ok, I'm done now
