Dazey butter churns

If you like to collect antique kitchen or farm items, surely you have a beloved Dazey churn! I am lucky to have two on my Hoosier cabinet and yes, I have churned butter with it before, but it has been a long time! When we were young folks stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB, we would go to Young’s Jersey Dairy and get fresh cream to churn into butter!

These churns have continued to increase in value over the years and therefore have also been widely reproduced and that is a shame! To find the original metal churn top and glass bottom is difficult. The one-quart size churn is probably the most expensive, and the rip-off artists have produced many reproductions in sizes smaller than the quart claiming them to be “salesman” samples.

There were no such things made by the Dazey Company. Salesman samples were small versions of a product carried to show the consumer what the original looked like in great detail. There was no need to do that with Dazey churns as you could carry them easily already.

A young hardware man by the name of Nathan Dazey was fascinated by a butter churn designed by E.B. Jones. He bought part of the company interest from Jones and began producing a better version in St. Louis. The company did very well and churns of all sizes (except less than a quart) were produced.

During World War I there were butter shortages; Dazey came up with a recipe that included a pound of milk and a pound of butter that would produce two pounds of butter. This recipe worked well in their new electric churn models.

After the war, farmers and other folks began to move to cities, and the churn business declined. The company diversified and made kitchen utensils, wall can openers and other items. By the time we became involved in World War II, as many manufacturing companies switched over to producing products for the war effort, Dazey followed suit and made heavy duty can openers and even 20mm shells!

I hope you will further investigate these wonderful churns online, as there is just way too much interesting information to share here. It is also fun to teach children about churning butter; it takes time like churning ice cream. Most kids nowadays don’t know about the buttermilk, curds and whey from the butter making process. If you have a vintage butter mold, it can be a fun addition to the educational process as well.

Happy Collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 31 years and is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist. You can contact her through the Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com.

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