Tin cans...

[ggb3]

Hello all,
This may be old info, although I had not seen it before that I recall. I do not post much, however, read about daily. I will admit, I did not do a search. Anyway, I was watching Modern Marvels, episode "Hot & Spicy". At one point, they were talking about McCormick spices and black pepper. During the black pepper segment, a spokesman mentioned that the McCormick black pepper cans are tin.

Now, we use black pepper daily, and still do not go through many cans, however, one can would alloy a good bit of lead. Painful to think of all that are thrown in the trash. Anyway, what other "tin cans" are actually tin?

George

[doubledown]

I wondered the same thing . And how do you know or tell if they are tin? I know what black pepper I'll be using from now on .

[lwknight]

I do not happen to have a McCormic pepper can but I would bet that they are tinned cans instead of tin cans. Real tin cans have not been used since my great grandmother was a child as fas as I know.

Even if they were tin and tin was $15.00 per pound , you are looking at like 30 cents worth per can.

[exile]

I was wondering the same thing. So, what is your average "tin" can made of?

exile :happy dance:

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

steel.

[btroj]

Got a magnet? Easy to find out.

[Der SchizKoph]

Just put a magnet to a McCormick pure ground black pepper 4 oz can and.............it sticks, lol.

[Defcon-One]

I did the same thing, probably at the same time. My can really loves that magnet, just won't let go of it.

Almost all cans, except for soda cans, are Steel. Some are lined with a microscopic layer of tin to protect the food quality or more commonly now, plastic or lacquer.

Tin is just too expensive to make a can out of it any more.

[*Paladin*]

Yup. Steel. I just tried it. Magnet sticks right to it...

[uscra112]

I'm "seasoned" enough to remember actual tin cans. Steel with a tin wash, and soldered at the joint. If you ate too much tomato sauce out of them you got lead poisoning. Progress does improve SOME things, even as it degrades others.

[Longwood]

I did the same thing, probably at the same time. My can really loves that magnet, just won't let go of it.

Almost all cans, except for soda cans, are Steel. Some are lined with a microscopic layer of tin to protect the food quality or more commonly now, plastic or lacquer.

Tin is just too expensive to make a can out of it any more.
I am 68 and have never seen a new tin can. I do remember tin toothpaste tubes but not tin cans.

I have some of the old cans with the blob of solder in the center of the top used to seal them but I suspect it is pure tin.

Some new cans are even washed with gold. It depends on what you are going to put in them.

[David LaPell]

You guys are old enough to remember real tin cans, here I am in my mid 30's and when my son gets older I'll be telling him about the good old days of lead wheel weights and lead sinkers, along with rotary phones, the days before computers, cable TV, and Glocks.

[Longwood]

You guys are old enough to remember real tin cans, here I am in my mid 30's and when my son gets older I'll be telling him about the good old days of lead wheel weights and lead sinkers, along with rotary phones, the days before computers, cable TV, and Glocks.
Heck,,, you probably aren't even old enough to remember church keys.

[bumpo628]

Heck,,, you probably aren't even old enough to remember church keys.

After a quick google search....
Oh yeah, a bottle opener. Sure, we had these when I was a kid. (born 1973)
Never heard of it called a churchkey, though.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Churchkey01.jpg/800px-Churchkey01.jpg

[Longwood]

After a quick google search....
Oh yeah, a bottle opener. Sure, we had these when I was a kid. (born 1973)
Never heard of it called a churchkey, though.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Churchkey01.jpg/800px-Churchkey01.jpg


They went the way of the steel beer and pop cans and the keyhole shaped bottle openers.

[a.squibload]

Used to carry a churchkey under the battery strap of my bike, for oil and beer cans.

Related note (maybe), has to do with cans anyway:
I cast some ingots in the bottom of some aluminum bev. cans the other day,
the ingots picked up the tiny code from the cans. If you ever noticed the code
is on the outside surface of the bottom of the cans.
Several ingots picked up the code from each can.
I would have figured the letters would burn away, maybe they're etched?

[Simonpie]

Years ago the fine beverage "Old English 800" came in steel cans that were extruded and shaped exactly like modern aluminum beer cans. You can win a bit of bar money with your "aluminum magnet" if you have one of those cans.

[Echo]

>I< remember when ALL beer cans were steel - some were 'Keglined', with beeswax! Uncle Donald found that out the hard way when he poured some hot coffee in an empty can (there were more empty beer cans around than empty coffee cups). We were camping down on Galveston Island...

[Von Gruff]

I had me a bit excited there for a minute gents. With all the talk of "tin" cans I remembered my grandmothers old tin bath, babies bath that is. It dates from arround the 1920's so I rushed out with the magnet and found it stuck to it so it must be tin over steel. Pity as there is a good 10lb in it. Oh well nothing lost except the expectation.

Von Gruff.

[Dale53]

When I first started casting bullets (in the early Fifties) the tooth paste tubes were pure tin. They worked well in bullets, too. The read deal...

I was sure saddened when they started using plastic tooth paste tubes.

Although, to be truthful, in those days tin was pretty inexpensive. In fact, it was so inexpensive that I cast all of my bullets with pure metals (mostly 16-1 lead/tin). Then I discovered linotype. It was readily available from print shops and newspaper print rooms. Life was good...

Then came the regular use of WW's. Now, even wheel weights are going to way of the Dodo bird... Sigh-h-h...

Dale53