Cremation Urn

[Doug Herzberg]

As those of you who read my last post may have surmised, I needed to make a cremation urn. Thanks for the advice. This one is only 160 cubic inches, but if the rule of thumb of one cubic inch per pound of body weight holds, I think it will be fine. One of the children requested a "keepsake pouch" from the mortuary. My plan is to place any extra ashes in the smaller urn, in lieu of the keepsake pouch if the large one is inadequate. I still need to buff and clean the ABS threads.

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The wood is cottonwood, from a tree that has special meaning. Curt, it's half a crotch and I got some curl, but nothing like the one you had. Finish is gloss WOP. The large one is about 10 x 7 inches.

[Roger Chandler]

Doug........you did a nice job on these! I think your lid is very appropriate and appears like some commercial urns I have seen. You should be proud of these!

[Lori Kleinberg]

Beautiful pieces

[Michelle Rich]

always a sad job, but so well done. Beautiful.

[Dave Fritz]

Well done. What an honor to be able to do it.

Dave Fritz

[Mike Golka]

What a great final resting place, well done.

[Pat Scott]

Wow, nice looking Cottonwood! The urns are nice looking too :), nice shape. One of these days I want to make an urn too. Did you rough out the blank and let it dry before final turning?

[Doug Herzberg]

Wow, nice looking Cottonwood! The urns are nice looking too :), nice shape. One of these days I want to make an urn too. Did you rough out the blank and let it dry before final turning?

Pat, this tree was cut down about three years ago in Aurora. I saved some large crotches whole, not knowing what the grain might look like inside, storing them in my barn, out of weather and sun with the end grain anchor sealed. A month or two ago, Curt Fuller posted some cottonwood with fantastic curl and advised that the wood came from a crotch, not the base of the tree. Other pieces with interesting grain that I did rough out twisted and checked horribly as they dried, even in the controlled environment of my refrigerator kiln.

The whole tree had this coloring. It died a little prematurely at about 35 years of age, so I don't know if it was diseased or if the color comes from minerals in the soil, as some have speculated.

Anyway, there was some checking and I wasn't able to turn all of it away, but this urn will be buried, so I am not too concerned about it.

[Doug Herzberg]

Doug........you did a nice job on these! I think your lid is very appropriate and appears like some commercial urns I have seen. You should be proud of these!

Roger, I'm more relieved that I was able to turn it to completion than proud, but I am grateful that my skills have improved to the level that I was able to complete a project under time pressure from beginning to end without a major mistake. The hollowing was done with a swan necked tool and it's pretty smooth inside with a uniform thickness of about 1/4". That's something I couldn't do last year.

[Harry Robinette]

Doug
All I can say is Beautiful just unbelievably beautiful. Everything about them the wood the work the finish is just Beautiful.

[Gus Dundon]

Absolutely gorgeous and graceful. I like the wood. Thanks for sharing!

[steven carter]

Really good job! I'm sure it will be appreciated.