DON'T BE FOOLED!  This Report will save you HUNDREDS of Dollars and help you spot A FAKE Dazey Butter Churn! 

Buying an Original Dazey Butter Churn is much trickier than it used to be.

Cheap Reproduction churns are flooding the market, trying to take advantage of the huge values placed on the smallest one-quart Dazey Glass Churns. 

Many people are spending hundreds of dollars buying the reproductions, but there are several ways to protect yourself and know you're getting the real thing.

Hand-Crank Glass Dazey Churns were used for making butter in the early 1900's and came in several sizes.  The most common was the 4-quart or family size, typically with a 40 showing on the glass and molded into the cast iron handle.  There were larger 6-quart (60) and 8-quart (80) models that were for large families or industrial use like perhaps a small restaurant or church.  Smaller churns were also produced including the popular 2-quart (20) and the 3-quart (30) plus the MOST collectible Dazey Churn, the one-quart (also the one that is being reproduced, and quite poorly reproduced I might add).  Original one-quart Dazey Churns can fetch hundreds and into the thousands of dollars, depending on condition. 

To my knowledge, the older tall blue painted TIN CHURNS with the huge handle-wheel on top are NOT being reproduced and still represent a tremendous collector value when found with original blue paint, a hint of an old round sticker and original wood paddles and top with knobs.  Tin churns are OLDER than glass churns, but watch for RUST on the inside bottom where liquids could have accumulated over the years.  Tin churns are harder to display because they often were nearly two feet tall compared to their shorter glass jar counterparts.

An original 1900's Dazey Glass Butter Churn will have several things you can look for.  Since an original will most likely have been used by a family, look for some wear on the bottom of the glass jar from sliding across counter tops and tables.  An original glass jar will likely have some minor flecks or chips underneath the metal lid, where the lip of the glass was bumped, chipped or clunked against something.  These flea bites as they are known do not hurt the operation of the churn, but some collectors look for little or no wear on the rim of the glass jar, which can increase collector value.  Most old jars have glass bubbles from when the glass was blown and the imprint in the glass will be fairly crisp raised letters, not smooth hard to read words, typical of repros.  The latest Reproduction Jars have lettering that looks "hollow" and has a flower on the bottom of the jar.  A REAL OLD Jar may have a flower, but it will not be a "perfect" flower and the letters will be raised full letters, not hollow outlined letters.  Also, the cast iron Dazey Logo and the word "DAZEY" will be different than on an Original Churn.  Every once in awhile, you'll stumble across a churn that was either still in the original box or was used very little.  These are valuable and highly sought after because of their unused nature and spectacular condition and that can raise suspicions.  There are also several different styles of glass and Dazey Logos on the glass that raise the bar on price, such as a beveled corner with horseshoe design glass jar, old flower bottoms and many other scenarios.

The wooden handles on Original Dazey Churns are often plain stained wood or painted black wood and are normally over two-inches long and smooth oval shape.  Reproduction churns have very short wooden handles, around an inch long and may appear to have a knob on the end.  An original Dazey Churn almost always has the symbol of a Dazey Flower cast into its iron top and the Dazey is always the same style and shape.  The word "Dazey" is almost always across the top, not in HUGE WIDE letters (typical of repros), but in an older style of lettering typical of cast iron molding of the day.  Modern reproduction churns have completely different looking lettering, much larger and wider than the original tops.  If you look through the listings on eBay, the difference is obvious between OLD and NEW REPRO.

Metal is pretty smooth on original old cast iron.  You can run your fingers over it and not worry about getting cut or scratched from rough edges.  There won't be any rough edges or very little roughness in the metal crank or the metal lid bracket.  Repros on the other hand, were not crafted by the same meticulous craftsmen of yesterday and will have roughness in the metal bracket and handle crank.  Old pieces were marked or imprinted right into the underside of the cast iron handle with the size of the churn, such as a 10H on the handle crank of a 1-quart, or 40H on the handle of a four-quart size.  This was done to make putting them together easier at the factory.  Some handles interchange such as the 3-quart and 4-quart (30H or 40H).

The tin lid will typically have some minor surface rust in an original and will be riveted to the top bracket.  Watch for RED RUST, which is a true sign of NEW METAL.  Old cast iron will have some silver paint missing and the exposed cast iron is very dark, almost black or dark brown and very smooth texture.  No roughness or very little, but certainly no sharp edges as you will find in repros.  No screws, no welding, the originals were held to the lid by rivets that went through three flanged brackets into the lid, very secure.  You will see some OLD churns that have been soldered to the lid if the rivets broke or the lid tin cracked around the rivet.  That doesn't always hurt the churn's performance, but it does degrade the value compared to one that has all original rivets intact.  Keep that in mind while bidding.  Also, the rarest one-quart is attached by rivets, but in a circullar smaller radius to the center post because of its smaller size.  Paddles are typically wooden, either two paddles or four, and sometimes were made with metal paddles in later versions.  There should be no damage to the paddles and very little roughness to the wood.  Run your hand over repro paddles and you may get slivers in your fingers.  The repro paddles are ROUGH, not smooth or sanded.

The best way to know whether you're buying an original old Dazey Butter Churn is to go into eBay, search for "Dazey Butter Churn" and spend some time looking them over.  Supersize the pictures if you can on several listings.  The new stuff should stand out like a sore thumb!  I have seen some repros that are VERY DIFFICULT to tell from Originals if you're inexperienced.  If you deal with sellers who have tons of positive feedback and guarantee their churn to be old and antique, you probably will be okay.  When you see sets of three of the reproduction 1-quart, 1-pint and smaller churns, they are BRAND NEW, are for decoration only and have NO antique value.  You won't live long enough to see them increase in value because they're still making them in China.  I'm not sure you can even throw some heavy cream in them, churn it for a few minutes and actually get homemade butter from it?  I DO know the OLD churns will still churn up delicious chemical-free homemade butter!  YUMMMMM....

All of us have paid some tuition by attending the "School of Hard Knocks" which means we've all made mistakes and purchased junk!  That's how we learn.  Hopefully, this saves you a little tuition as you try to purchase an Antique Dazey Glass Butter Churn on eBay, through an Antique Auction or from a dealer or private party.  The old ones are like money in the bank, only a better investment!  Happy buying!

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