Tobacco Tins....Sealed.....or NOT???

[harkpuff]

Recently had some conversation concerning the issue of receiving postal damaged tins in the mail. One trader mentioned that he had received a tin that was damaged enough that the tin had lost its factory seal. This discussion caused me to wonder more about the issue of sealed tins.
I was reading through some of the tobacco reviews and read where one writer was expressing his disdain with one of the well known tobacco manufacturers because he had discovered two tins he had purchased at different times that were not factory sealed when they arrived.
This leads me to ask several questions:
How can a person test a tin for seal without attempting to actually open the tin?
Are there always the tell tale signs present which indicate that the tin was in fact sealed? The slightly audible "Whoosh" of air entering the tin for example? I have opened tins before and was not really sure that I sensed a sealed tin. Mostly the smaller rectangular tins seem more difficult to tell.
Do some tin shapes seal better than others? For example the round tins whith the screw-on lids vs the square with simple press-in-place lids.
As a result of the above questions, would it be best policy to ALWAYS open and transfer traded or even purchased tobaccos for that matter to mason jars just to be on the safe side; and not just assume that any tin is in fact sealed?
I have several tins in my cellar that I have received in both trade and purchase. Possibly, I had better get them transfered to jars before I discover one day they were not sealed and are now just dust.
Harkpuff ::

 

[gnatjulio]

I was just wondering the same exact thing this past friday. Looking forward to the responses. I was kinda thinking about dipping the tin in water and looking for bubbles but I don't want to rust the tin.....

 

[cigrmaster]

If you cannot open the tins with your hands then it is sealed. I have only run into a damaged tin one time and it was dented pretty badly. I just smoked it, it was no big deal. The square and round tins can take a pretty good beating before they pop their seal. I am much more concerned with tins that have the pull tops and the plastic lids. I have seen many of those go bad after a decade and the tobacco inside get bone dry. I would transfer those to jars before worrying about square and round ones.

 

[johnnyrebel]

I had brought this up a week ago when i got myself an unopened tin. Personally i like the idea of putting the piece of paper over the seal like they used to do with tins and alcohol. I believe its the tax stamp? Anyhow, that seems to be a pretty full proof way of dealing with that in my opinion. Plus i always thought they looked cool.

 

[nehemias88]

I seal tins all the time with paraffin wax and then in large rubbermaid containers to let them age in time, I recently opened one of my 3 year old tins which went through the waxing process and there was no wax in the tobacco. But I only do this to let them age.

 

[sergemoat]

The square and round metal tins should be slightly concave from the vacuum inside. I'm not sure if there's a way to verify the seal on pull top tins besides a general visual inspection for damage. I've only had one open tin, and I'm pretty sure it's because I dropped it. The tin should not feel/sound like there's air coming out when you squeeze it(unless you're sasquach and manage to crush a sealed tin).

 

[hfearly]

If you cannot open the tins with your hands then it is sealed. I have only run into a damaged tin one time and it was dented pretty badly. I just smoked it, it was no big deal

Au contraire! I once bought a tin of Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake (FVF) that I had to fight with for a bit for opening with a coin/knife/spoon/... and it HAD lost seal somewhere along the way from the Lakeland to the B&M in Canada where I bought it. The contents where so dry they crumbled to dust when I touched them.

 

[cigrmaster]

nic, that sucks, never had that happen to me. I think considering the number of tins I have and have smoked, the mfgs do a pretty good job making sure our tobacco stays fresh.

 

[harkpuff]

Amazing......a tin you could not open with your bare hands and was STILL found to have a defecive seal.

 

[topd]

I prefer my tins sealed and have never received an open one. I'm not saying it can't happen, I've

just been lucky. But, we aren't concerned with botulism or some other bacteria being inside like we

would if it was canned food. Your tobacco wont age and may dry, but it's nothing that can't be fixed.

I'd smoke it....

 

[dukdalf]

All the tobacco I smoke comes from tins that are at least ten years old and in some cases more than fifteen years, and have been stored with no special precautions: at room temperature in the back of a cupboard. Some seals are intact, other tins have been opened once or twice at one time or another. With a full tin, that shouldn't be a problem. Sometimes, they even give that 'whoosh' on re-opening. If you smoke half a tin and then close it up for a longer period of time your tobacco will lose much of its moisture content but like TopD pointed out, that shouldn't be a major problem. I've never encountered problems with mold, but that could just be my luck. Some of the blends I smoke have hardly changed in color and flavour over time, others have become a uniform pitch black and have developed a deeper and more mellow taste.

 

[mrenglish]

The rectangular tins, like Penzance, can pretty easily loose their seal, especially over time. I decided to jar up my Kingfisher tins and was pretty happy I did, because all of them opened by hand. If I had not decided to jar them, I would have ended up with dry Kingfisher. The same thing happened with a majority of my Penzance tins when I decided to move them onto a shelf.

 

[harkpuff]

QUOTE: The same thing happened with a majority of my Penzance tins when I decided to move them onto a shelf.
Funny you should mention Penzance. One writer in another blog said they had two occasions with Estorica products that they received with bad seals.