Storing Flake Tobacco in Mason Jars?

[matchstickman]

So I just got a goodly amount of some Gawith 250 gram boxes of various flakes in the mail and need to start storing them in Mason jars. Now I know that to some, this is going to seem like a stupid question (trust me, I am prone to asking them from time to time), but for the guys that stock large amounts of bulk flakes, how do you store your flakes in Mason jars? Do you just cram the flakes into the jars and not worry about whether or not they get a little broken up in the process? I jarred some MacBaren Navy Flake a few weeks ago and I basically just took all the flakes and stacked them on the thin sides of the flakes, and I made two stacks on top of each other like this in the jar and still had a lot of room left over. Does having this much air space affect aging/storage in any way? Is there a better way to do this or am I just overthinking it? Im using quart sized Mason jars, if that helps.

 

[northernneil]

I usually just stuff as much in as possible, not really worrying about maintaining the integrity of the flake.
Nonetheless, I would be curious if there is a benefit to not storing in this fashion.

 

[judcole]

I rarely store large amounts of flakes before - I just put an open tin in whatever jar I have on hand. For the three tins I have in rotation now, that means half-pint. The one time I did it, I just use the pint jars I had on hand, and put 'em in end first.

 

[matchstickman]

Same here...stand 'em up on end.

Thats the same thing I did with the MacB Navy Flake. I have broken flakes and coarse cut mixtures in mason jars but for those I just cram them in with hand pressure until they are full. I didnt know if anyone here did this with flake, but from the looks of it it doesnt sound like thats a popular procedure.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

The Gawith flakes are quite long. I use 500m wide mouth jars - the flakes fit in perfectly lengthwise. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what a "quart" is so I can't tell if your jars are large enough.

 

[captainsousie]

Peck, a quart is 0.95 liters.

 

[magoo65]

I bought some larger jars for the SG bulk flake boxes but ended up cutting the flakes to fit 8oz ball jars.
It made sense to me to use more small jars instead of 1 large one so could leave them sealed until I was going to smoke them. Using 1 large box I figured I'd have to open it several times to pull a quantity of tobacco out and didn't want to interrupt the aging process.
ETA: Exactly what Roth said.

 

[cigrmaster]

All of my SG bulk flakes fit perfectly in the jars I use. I lay them in gently making sure I do not break them and pack the jar so the flakes stand up with no sagging. I have jars that can hold 1.5, 2 and 5 pounds each. The 5 pounders are wide enough so the flakes don't have to stand up.