I looked and found information on wiki about national canners.
According to them or who ever it was that contributed to wiki they started in 1917.
Then went on to become National Presto now just Presto.
I decided to start this thread not only to show off my old canners but to discuss the use of these and what we have today.
The old ones like mine you have to darn near drive the things.
But they are what I was raised up with.
One was an old Kook KwicK with the band around it and the other was an old All American that is different than the ones they have today.
Both were huge, both were ran at the same time on the stove.
I remember where my mother picked up the old KooK KwicK it was in Mt Grove Missouri at the once a month rummage sale they had in town.
I think she paid something like $5 or $10 for it, this was back in the 60's.
I have no idea what my sister was up to but it didn't have a darn thing to do with canning preserving or cooking of any kind.
She was more or less the maid.
It was my job to take care of the critters and the kitchen stuff.
I can still see my little 5 foot 2 inch French mother lifting this huge canners around the kitchen with a home rolled cigarette in her lips.
Once the jars were cooled it was my job to haul them down to the basement and put them away on the shelves.
I was a wee thing at the time and had to be vary careful not to drop any and break them.
Sadly I have came to the realization not many of us are left around that know how to operated these old canners.
They are very safe today and have a redundant system to let pressure off.
The weight and the over pressure pop out plug.
Mine just has the adjustable pressure release valve and the other valve that can be closed all of the way or adjusted to let steam off at any given rate.
The adjustable safety release valve should NOT be able to hold any more than about 20 PSI or maybe around 21, 22 NO MORE and then it should go off.
I have mine set for just a little over 12 PSI when I use it plus I never get involved in anything else.
These old canners can hold one heck of a lot more pressure but I dont want to rupture one just to see how much.
What do I like about the old ones over the new ones?
That pop off release valve, when it goes it can be closed when the pressure goes down.
That darn plug is out and you will have a geyser (Old Faithful) on your hands.
This will happen if the steam vent is plugged on your weighted canner and you aren't looking at the gauge.
None of this is of concern as long as you follow the rules and instructions.
Now back to the restoration.
I am using wet dry sand paper with oil/kerosene and carburetor choke cleaner to get the old grease and such off.
It is quite the job.
No way will it look completely new.
Worth