Boy and Girls,

This tip was originally published on 1st. December 2021 on LJ's and followed up with a supplement on the 17th. September 2022 by a slightly wiser me.

 

Rather than regurgitate both, I shall attempt to force you into reading this, by combining both into a unique prattle never read before, however, much of the content will/may be backdated circa original publication(s).

 

I believe I didn’t make a video for this as I unsuccessfully searched for a video by me for countless hours, but feel free to try and advise me if you find one.

Stop searching… I did make a video and I actually found it,

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Boy and Girls,

While contemplating the publishing of my next puzzle project… a visitor to my workshop instigated a conversation that led me to document this "Workshop operational tip"... (though I was tempted to post it as a Review of the wrench).

Being a vino drinker, I have been briefed about decanting… though there's a tad difference between being briefed and demonstrable actions... as I don't decant my cheap cask-o-vino.

Nevertheless my education has percolated down into the workshop, and as I usually buy in "bulk", I adopted the art of decanting for some of my degradable liqufied consumables.
If you decant too little, you can always decant some more, but if you decant too much, unlike vino which you can drink the excess, you can't, at least shouldn’t, "undecant" the surplus shop liquids in case of contamination.
 
Consequently I stockpile glass jars,

to store the surplus decantations in.

Unfortunately many "chems" like tung/Danish/linseed oils, shellac, varnish and wipe-ons that I religiously decant, have the tendency to gum up the lids of their respective underbelly jars, and if you are slack like me and wait days before the next coat (or months before the next project… unless it's a puzzle), finish up struggling to get that bloody lid off… and when/if you eventually succeed, you find your 2nd. decantation over the front of your shirt (or nightie).
 
Out of desperation, I initially resorted to using one of these "kitchen utensil" lid openers,

to remove gummed up lids, however, the jagged edges tended to perforate the lid, potentially degrading its air seal. I looted the kitchen again, and imported this gizmo into the workshop,

While it exerted a decent grip, it still had the tendency to indent/distort any lid that wasn't a close fit to any of its 4 profiles.

Somehow I legally got hold of one of these rubberised "strap wrenches", as opposed to a wrench that staps, I saw on a discount table at my local Mitre 10 hardware store, 

designed for oil filter removal… and often used by plumbers on PVC fittings. These proved to be the best alternative to maintain the integrity of the tight lids for removal and subsequent sealing.
 
I try to buy "snacks" packaged in square jars,

so I can place them into my vice for a grip on the glass jar while I tackle the lid with the "wrench",

 You don't have to get too close to your screen to see the congealed liquid around the rim,

that used to give me so much grief in the past.

I found a second "wrench" ideal for times when I ran out of square jars,

for that complimentary grip on the round jar… or just felt vindictive against the square ones.

While the larger ones would work on smaller jars, I found two smaller ones 

more practical with my dodgy left hand and recalcitrant right thumb.
Word of warning… You need to take care if lying the jar on it's side to just barely loosen the grip, otherwise you'll spill the contents… its preferable to keep the jar vertical.

Feeling self-complacent about sharing this knowledge, I decided to resurrect my acting career, donned the animal nightie and made this video for yazall too lazy to read the above prattle.

I appreciate that a lot out there are hip and refuse/cannot buy square jars 

and rather than hammer one till its square to fit the vice,

I have a suggestion.

 

Zip off to your local rubber supplier… no, not the chemist, but someplace like Clark Rubber here in Aussieland (with all my tips, this may become more popular than HF)… and buy some rubber strips (off rolls) like this,

which is a the semi-soft 6mm x 100mm (to length) rubber strips to grab round jars in my vice,

I can crank it up to a reasonable force without fear of mega floor sweeping and cuts in the base of my thongs (flip-flops) from broken glass shards.

Final suggestion... No matter what process you use to remove the jar lid, eventually you're gonna disfigure a few.
Before you throw out that surplus glass jar, take off the lid and build up a cache of lids

for those white knuckled instances that mangles the lid, and now you can select a fresh one to keep a sealed lid on the subject.

BTW: Shellac (liquid) has a limited shelf life, however, expired shellac mixed at 1:10 (depending on your cut) with metho (DNA), make a brilliant sanding sealer…. So don't throw out that non-tackie shellac (test used for determining expiry). Aren't you glad you didn't stop reading…

 

Keep safe, jocks... and your jocks, safe!