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Initially, I could not figure out how this object works. This handsome, sealable Canister – S, from Japanese manufacturer Neighbor & Craftsman, has a proprietary valve hidden in the knob of the lid. Pressing the knob down closes the valve and forms the seal—that part I understood.
What threw me is that in some of the product photos, the lid is shown as recessed into the body of the canister.
But in the other images on the product page, the lid appears to sit flush atop the canister.
There's only one model/style offered, in three different finishes and two different heights, but no mention of a lid variance on the product page's ordering options. These photos all show the lid sitting atop the canister:
At first I thought maybe the three photos above are of the raw billets before the object is formed—but the in-store photos show the same form:
It seems unlikely that they'd display raw billets with a knob on top, so what the heck is going on here? How can the lid have that bevel that we can clearly see, in the shots where the object appears monolithic, yet still somehow recess into the body, as in the photos with the coffee beans?
The answer was discovered by reader Sage Sitz, who helpfully found the following demonstration:
Man--that's a long way to go for a sealed container! It's no wonder the tall one retails for ¥25,000 (USD $227) and the shorter one for ¥15,000 (USD $136).
Thanks to Ms. Sitz for spotting the vid!
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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(UPDATED) Manufacturing Mystery Solved: Minimalist Sealed Metal Canisters With a Valve Hidden in the Lid Knob
The answer is WILDER THAN YOU THINK: https://twitter.com/info_neighbor/status/1159752661375131648
great invention.
My 2 cents; it's a double lid. The one with valve sits on top, the other one, recessed, with small handle sits inside. 1 question remains, why? To protect the bottom of the valve?
Correct, two lids, and inner and outer - a lot of Asian tea urns are designed the same way to keep them as airtight as possible.
I wonder if there are actually two lids, an inner recessed one (without the valve) and an outer flush one with the valve
From what I can make of the images the 3rd image of the recessed lid is another part all together (maybe to serve as a fill limiter, extra barrier (?)). The clearance on the sides suggests that as well. Another giveaway is the different knob on top of this lid, it does not have the valve and has a tapered shape which is different from the lid which includes the valve.