Geeez, I'm
still waiting for one of the Joisey guys to chime in here on the subject...
I first found out about painted tins after talking to John Chiola of J&J Tins from Belmar about a dozen or fifteen years ago - and the practice of using painted tins has probably been around long before most of us were born - myself included...
NJ is big tin country cause those guys know they work
real well under a lot of different conditions...
And I've heard when Joe and Jeff Jude show up in Jersey, it's like the Beatles are in town...
You know, somebody once said that continual discovery is the eternal joy of the ahistorical - which is half the reason why I spend time rummaging through dusty old fish books - if it's something that worked well fifty or a hundred years ago, it probably still will, more than likely.
Uncle Joe Jude has reintroduced something that a lot of people had either forgotten or were unaware of locally - hey, that godthamma Joe, he's one shmarta guy...