Ideas for Wood Cremation Urns

Apr 29, 2006 10 Replies

Hi, I am looking for information on cremation urns. I plan on making one for my future use ( a long time from now, I hope) out of wood. I know they are sized at about 1 cu.in. / pound of person. Do they require a liner or are they just a fancy box? I have Doug Stowe's books on box making so I have a lot of ideas for boxes. Ideas and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks, JG



The only two I've seen ( one wood & one plastic) have the remains in a plastic bag. So I guess it's kind of a liner. The one my mother is in is about 7"H 7"W 5"D and she was 5'3" and around 160 give or take. It's not much bigger than a Ziploc freezer bag. I'm sure if you make it small enough for the mantle and not so big it needs wheels you should be fine. Jim

i agree - the only requirment i'm aware of is that the remains should be in a plastic bag just to prevent accidents if the urn should fall or just be opened.

My Dad had my step mother cremated. He is using an ornate antique jewery box made of wood for her remains. Her remains were returned from the funeral director in a heavy duty sealed plastic bag placed in a brown corragated cardboard box about 7"x7"x7" in size. He keeps the cardboard box inside the jewery box until he is gone and both my dad and step mother's remains will be poured into the ocean / body of water, together, per his request. The jewery box is approx. 12" x 9" x 9", large enough to contain the corregated box. I think it represents a respectful way of "storage"(a better term escapes me right now) until the time comes to carry out their last request.

It would probably depend on what state you're in and the state/county/city laws..

In CA, we found that the ashes have to be in a sealed metal container, done at the crematorium, then placed in whatever container you put around that..

If you're thinking of turning an urn, Check out this section of Bill Grumbine's site:

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My uncle makes those here in Oregon he told me that you are required the plastic bag and a container to put the bag in inside the urn. Like a hard plastic sealable boxt that would fit inside.

I hope this helps.

Al

I made the urn for my Dad. The funeral home said to make it about

8x8x8. They then offered to buy any extra I might make.

Mike M

The crematorium will put the remains through a pulverizer so that you are left with loose ash. The packaging may be different among different funeral homes but the one I have experience with was a plastic box about 4"x6"x3". The box I made for it is the simple teak box on this page:

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think turned urns are more popular than boxes.

Ken Muldrew snipped-for-privacy@ucalgazry.ca (remove all letters after y in the alphabet)

Has to be sealable; friction closure is not enough. The crematorium will place the ashes in a plastic bag which goes insode the urn so no liner needed.

I made boxes for the ashes of my Father, and neice. Both projects depressed me so much I couldn't go back in the shop for months.

I have since started making Jewelry / Findings boxes for all the family, as Christmas presents.

The ones I make are fairly large, 12L X 7H X 9D.

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