What Happens to Coffin Handles After Cremation?

When it comes to cremation, the body is prepared through washing, drying, embalming in the case of a public viewing service, and dressing. Before the body is placed in the cremator, all jewelry items are removed, as well as implants, pacemakers, prosthetics, etc. The body is then placed into a combustible vessel strong enough to hold the weight.

A coffin is not a legal requirement for cremations, but the deceased typically do need to be cremated in some sort of vessel, even if it is made of something simple like cardboard or wicker.

What Happens to the Coffin During Cremation?

There is an urban myth that coffin handles are unscrewed before the cremation so they can be reused. However, this is not actually true—most coffin handles are not worth enough money to make this extra step worthwhile.

The entire coffin, complete with the handles and the deceased's body, is placed inside the cremator together. Some crematoriums are happy to use a board, but others prefer a coffin. The cremation coffins are built in such a way that they are completely destroyed during the cremation process. Extreme heat is needed to cremate a body, so much so that by the end of it, there is normally little to nothing left of the coffin among the ashes.

The ashes themselves are made up mostly of bone fragments. The precious metal items, including screws, handles, or implants that do not disintegrate in the cremator, are collected with a large magnet after the cremation and taken to be recycled. This is done because the bone fragments are ground down with an industrial pulverizer to create the powder known as cremation ashes.