By Irina Jordan
Directly from the source: in this post Robert describes what it takes to make a wooden cremation urn.
A wooden urn starts with selecting wood such as black walnut, cherry, maple and the like. Wood is then cut into manageable size blocks to be stored and dried for later wood turning. A piece of wood is selected for the appropriate urn size needed. It is then mounted on the lathe and turned with various tools, gouges and chisels into the desired form.
The next phase is to hollow the urn on the lathe to the correct size. The urn is then sanded smoothly with various grit sandpaper. Applying the urn with a high quality gloss urethane is the next step in the process. Sometime two to three applications are necessary before the final sanding, polishing, waxing and inspection.
Handcrafted wooden urns are made individually and all of them are truly unique and signed originals. Shapes, sizes, grains of wood will vary slightly as often the wood dictates how the urn must be turned on the lathe. Natural occurrences in the wood such as small markings, spalting, small cracks are preserved as they were part of the growth of the tree, lines created by insects, mineral deposits in the wood - things that would not affect the functionality or longevity of the product. It is that same thumbprint that makes each urn truly one of a kind with its own character.