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About 2 years ago, pint jars, especially wide mouth pint jars, were almost impossible to locate.
Mason and Ball jars were scarce as hen's teeth along with rings and lids! 😳

The wife and me wandered in Atwood's on the north side of town and discovered the Mother Lode of canning jars!
No wide mouth, but beggars can't be choosers.
We grabbed two 12 jar cases and some extra lids and rings.
They were "Pur" (long U, pronounced "pure") jars and lids.
First thing I did was begin hot water bath canning some tomatoes.
They worked okay.
Later in the fall, I grabbed tomatoes to go in some soup.
The underside of the lid was beginning to corrode! 🤯
It wasn't "toss 'em" bad, but it wouldn't have been much longer until REAL corrosion set in.

Nothing but Mason or Ball for us any longer.
The Pur jars even weigh less than a comparable Ball or Mason jar.

Have any of you used Pur canning products?
Product review?

Nope - I stick to Ball stuff....

Those that can, should treat jars, rings and LIDS like they are primers. Don't get caught without the next time they get scarce.

We keep enough lids on hand for several years. My wife’s mother and grandmother had untold numbers of jars stashed away in their cellars. We just go get those as needed.

Hell, they had old Ball, Mason, pickle jars, coffee jars, and anything a canning lid would screw onto.

We looked at Pur Last year and decided to pass on them. We stick with Ball and Kerr but mostly Ball. One thing we did get last year that we never had before is widemouth ½ gallon Ball jars. We been using them for dry canning and vacuum sealing for things like flour, rice, beans and pasta.

Also been playing around with fermenting foods.

A neighbor has s huge garden and sells produce from his home.
Last year, he sold tomatoes into October when the frost finally killed the plants.
Any tomatoes with cracks, bird pecks, cat faces, etc, he put in crates and sold 9n the cheap ir gave away.
He "gave" me a crate. I took them home, canned them and gave half back to him!
He was all about that!
He opened an old camper sitting beside the house and started handing me canning jars!
I'll wager there are a ton of jars stuffed in that old camper!
All sizes and shapes.

I've got one "OLD" canning jar. Ever hear of "Knox" canning jars?
They are square-ish instead of round.

Knox is common around here. We've got quite a few. Lots of Knox jars have a scale on the side for measuring.

Wife has been buying jars, lids, and rings for a couple years now, regular and large mouth. She's got a whole cabinet full.

I have thousands of jars
thousands of lids and bands

Number one......Ball
Number two......Kerr
Number three....Golden Harvest


There is no number four

The regular sized lids and rings have always been
easier to find in my area especially when the wide
mouth are rare. JMO- I seldom use or need the
wide mouth anyway, so it's not really an issue for
me, but I know a few that only use the wide

Good Luck

Knox jars are fine.

I've never seen Knox jars. I'm sure there are others that work. I've seen people use mayo and salad dressing jars.

They work well as any.

As long as the glass isn’t chipped around the mouth and a lid will screw on. They’ll seal. That’s all I’m looking for.

When my mother made jelly, the only requirement she had was "glass".
She never water bath canned jelly. She just cooked it down, poured it in jars and allowed it to cool.
Once it cooled, she melted paraffin and poured that over the top about 3/8" thick and stuck them in the cabinet.
I've "opened" many a jar of blackberry jelly by breaking the paraffin and removing it


One hard and fast rule at my mother's table!
"Spoon only in the jelly!"
Knives or forks broke the jelly up and made it runny!

That's the same way we do it here.

I forgot about Kerr - and I agree, those are good..

Im canning this very min

One of the ones I grabbed is a 1960s mayo jar


Mayo jar







Bob White Syrup jar







And a no-name no embossed smooth jar






The rest in the pot are golden harvest

I’ve got a lot of Atlas jars too

Knox, Atlas, and Presto jars here too besides the usual suspects, along with Bob White jars, and lord knows what else.

Only Ball.