Authentic Reproduction Tin Cans

[Tsalagidave]

I always like the little details. The day that I can't find additional ways to enhance my personal and camp impression will be the day that I bore of this hobby and quit it for other things. One lack of detail that has always gotten me is that there is very little attempt by only a few manufacturers to simulate period correct tin cans from the mid-1800s era. I fully understand why folks have to use modern cans with period labels to simulate canned goods. However, I always wanted cans made in the real fashion to help with the illusion. I found a good maker (Dixie Tinworks) that makes these quality repros. The labels are a collection of Mike Hoskins, Sullivan Press, and the US Library of Congress. They are generally 1860-70s.
I am working on getting some earlier labels to use.

[Tsalagidave]

I even tried my hand at japanning a tin medicine bottle for my frontier medicine kit.

-Dave

[Forty Rod]

Great site.  Lots of labels available but very few cans.  I can use a few.

Had a friend bring me a one pint (a pint's a pound the world around) gunpowder can repro from Bent's Fort a couple of summers ago.  It's a copy of an original used to supply powder to mountain men.  The cans were filled from wooden powder kegs at 'rondyvoos'.

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[James Hunt]

Great source Dave - thanks.

[G.W. Strong]

Thanks for the link. I just placed an order.

[Tascosa Joe]

I even tried my hand at japanning a tin medicine bottle for my frontier medicine kit.

-Dave

Dave, when you have time please give us some insight on home Japanning.

T-Joe

[wyldwylliam]

Up until recently I was a pre-1840 man, but about a year ago I broke down and bought a Henry. Then an original Remington NMA. Then a '76.

So I'm thoroughly moderne now so this is a much appreciated bit of news. I had no idea anybody was doing this, so ta very much. Sure nice to see some fellers are serious about their authenticity. Good for you.

[wyldwylliam]

BTW, it just occurred to me to add that I read somewhere long ago that back in the day tin cans were called "air tights."

The early ones killed people until they figured out that using lead solder wasn't such a good idea.

[Tsalagidave]

Although the lead solder isn't good for you, tin items in general were assembled with lead solder. Actually, lead solder was used in American water piping up until the 1970s. I heard from an industrial historian that the real danger was in the lead-based coating used to keep the internal contents from corroding the tin can from the inside out. I'll try to find and post the source so that it does not become an unconfirmed reenactorism.

I did not know they were called air rights but would like to learn more. It makes sense because once the contents were sealed in the can with the exception of a pin hole in the top center of the lid. The contents were super headed and a drop of lead solder sealed the hole before the contents cooled thus creating a vacuum.

-Dave

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Taaigidave,

I automatically think of the Franklin Expediton of 1845 ... I think that is what some are alluding to when discussing lead poisoning ....

Funded as none before, the expedition EXPECTED to be frozen in the ice over the next winter .... but a second winter?

Then is when things started going wrong ... one ship was totally given up to the 'madmen' ... and when the second ship seemed about to succumb, the 'thinking' crew but huge sledges to hold their valuables (silver plate and all) and attempted to pull them to the nearest settlement (if I remember right, over 2000 miles away) ... not a 'thinking man's plan .... in fact, impossible from the beginning ..

Hardly the act of sane men. A late 20th century team exhumed the bodies and found rampant lead poisoning ... although the leaded tins of food were initially blamed, later it was blamed on the water distillation on the ships ....

One factor; Kinda a BTW ... the Latin word for plumber, plumbarius, meant one who worked in lead ... which most Roman water pipes were made of ... and from Caligula to Nero, 'most anybody who was wealthy was also 'Mad as a Hatter'

Which brings up another BTW: hatters used to chew hatbands that were soaked in mercury to soften them ... hence the phrase 'Mad as a hatter ...'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumber

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1897/what-caused-the-mad-hatter-to-go-mad

[The Elderly Kid]

In Sam Peckinpah's film "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" Garrett (James Coburn) refers to tin food cans as "airtights." That is the only time I have ever actually heard the term used for tin cans, though I'd read about the term way back in high school in the early '60s. I think it was in Foster-Grant's wonderful book "The Look of the Old West," which used to be in every junior high and high school library in the country.

[wyldwylliam]

Yes, my assertion of the dangers of lead solder in tin cans came from reading about the Franklin fiasco. I appreciate getting set straight on the newer info, I was not aware of the water distillation thing until now, thanks for that.

And as to the "air tights" I think it probably was in "The Look of the Old West" where I read that. It was sort of a standard reference work around our house when I was growing up. My mother bought if for me and my brothers back in the Sixties as well.

If you don't have this book, you oughta get it as it has all kinds of information on the ephemera of the doings back in the day that you will not find any place else.

Another great book which I recently received as a gift is "Age of the Gunfighter" by Joseph G. Rosa.

If I could have only two books on the Old West, it would be these two.

[Tsalagidave]

My first attempt at Japanning was more of a cheat. I painted on a black enamel paint. Hardening it through baking is the next step, however you may want to check the flashpoint of the enamel you use and also there may be a fume hazard depending on your mixture. The next attempt, I am going to mix the enamel myself.

(Disclaimer) I am quoting  so this is not my work. It is from "Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas Recipes Processes".

Japanning Tin

The first thing to be done when a vessel is to be japanned, is to free it from all grease and oil, by rubbing it with turpentine. Should the oil, however, be linseed, it may be allowed to remain on the vessel, which must in that case be put in an oven and heated till the oil becomes quite hard.

After these preliminaries, a paint of the shade desired, ground in linseed oil, is applied. For brown, umber may be used.

When the paint has been satisfactorily applied it should be hardened by heating, and then smoothed down by rubbing with ground pumice stone applied gently by means of a piece of felt moistened with water. To be done well, this requires care and patience, and, it might be added, some experience.

The vessel is next coated with a varnish, made by the following formula:

Turpentine spirit....     8 ounces

Oil of lavender.....:     6 ounces

Camphor...........     1 drachm

Bruised copal........     2 ounces

Perhaps some other good varnish would give equally satisfactory results.

After this the vessel is put in an oven and heated to as high a temperature as it will bear without causing the varnish to blister or run. When the varnish has become hard, the vessel is taken out and another coat is put on, which is submitted to heat as before. This process may be repeated till the judgment of the operator tells him that it is no longer advisable. Some operators mix the coloring matter directly with the varnish; when this is done, care should be taken that the pigment is first reduced to an impalpable powder, and then thoroughly mixed with the liquid.


I am very interested in seeing how this will turn out but I am going to consult a tinsmith that I know for further advice since this will be my first attempt at doing it entirely from scratch.

-Dave

[StrawHat]

I haven't been there in a while, but Lehmans Hardware (Kidron Ohio) used to sell a hand cranked machine for sealing food into tin cans.  Not sure if the style was authentic to your time from but something to consider.

[Tascosa Joe]

Dave thanks for the receipe.

Strawhat:  I have seen those machines for sealing cans but I always thought they were from the 20th century.  I guess this calls for a trip to the Wards Catalog. 

[G.W. Strong]

I love the japaning recipe. There are some mystery ingredients.

[StrawHat]

Regarding the Japanning of items, check into the old tools forums.  Those guys sometimes rejapan old planes and such.  The recipes should be the same.