If the bag containing the ashes is too large to fit into the urn, you may need to pour the ashes directly into your memorial urn. Not all urns are designed the same way. Box urns may be better equipped to hold an entire bag of ashes, or you can look for an urn with a wide opening.
If the bag doesn't fit, there are three options:
A funnel may be used to fill the urn directly with ashes. If you wish to keep the ashes in the bag, a new bag will first need to be inserted into the urn with the opening of the bag on the outside.
SIZE. One of the most important things you need to ensure is that the ashes will fit inside the urn. There's a simple way to determine the size of the urn you'll need. One pound of the person's body weight is the equivalent of one cubic inch of cremated remains.
Can two people's ashes be mixed together? Yes. Mixing ashes is a common process known as “commingling.” Commingling means that the couple's cremated remains are mixed, or “mingled” together in an urn, most often a companion urn.
Most cremation chambers will not mix the remains of your loved ones—they'll usually leave that up to the family to do. In those cases, crematories will return cremated remains in a temporary urn so you can transfer the remains into an urn of your choice.
Some typical volumes of cremation urns are as follows: Individual cremation urns will hold around 200- 250 cubic inches of cremated ashes. Companion urns will hold approximately 350 - 500 cubic inches of cremated remains. Child and infant urns range anywhere from 12 - 90 cubic inches of ashes.
A common question that we find in the cremation diamond industry is do ashes have an expiration date? The short answer is they don't; at least not in our lifetime. It would take around one million years for ashes to dissolve since they are made solely of inorganic material.
You can read more about the superstitious aspects of urns and ashes, but with few exceptions in special cases, nothing scary happens when you open an urn. Most likely, it won't even be messy because the ashes should be sealed in a protective plastic bag within the urn.
To unseal the lid, you may require a few cotton swabs, a fingernail polish remover, or an epoxy solvent. Dip the cotton swab in an epoxy solvent or a fingernail polish remover and run the cotton swab along the sealed part of the urn.
As a rule of thumb, each pound of body weight equals roughly one cubic inch of ashes after cremation. It is suggested to select an urn a bit larger than the space, expected to use. Usually, created remains weigh 3-7 pounds and require about 180-220 cubic inches capacity.
The general rule is for every pound of body weight, allow one cubic inch of cremated remains. If you are measuring in Kilograms, the conversion is 1 Kilogram = 2.2 Pounds. It is important to note that when choosing a cremation urn, you should concentrate on the volume of the remaining ashes rather than their weight.
The amount of ashes released after the cremation
The average amount of ash left over after the cremation of an adult is about 3 to 3.5 liters or 183 to 213 cubic inches. For a child this will be 0.8 to 2 liters or 54 to 122 cubic inches and for a (premature) baby 0.3 to 0.7 liters or 18 to 43 cubic inches.
Depending upon various factors, many funeral homes, cemeteries, and other institutions will seek a more permanent manner of housing unclaimed cremated remains. In such cases, these businesses will bury the urns and temporary cremation containers in their possession in a single mass grave in a cemetery or memorial park.
The ashes are often buried in a large collective grave, or in a columbarium (above ground mausoleum for urns). Ashes may also be stored in morgues, funeral homes, medical or private storage facilities. The state usually keeps a record of the person's identity, if known, and where the urn was buried.
However, if family and friends are all agreed then there should be no legal issues, and in most cases that is a moment of solemnity and families and friends are willing and ready to split the remains and that is when people buy small urns to share ashes.
The process of cremation is highly regulated, and the remains are subjected to high heat (usually between 1400-1800 degrees Fahrenheit) that destroys any bacteria or viruses that might have been present in the body. This means that cremated ashes are sterile and completely safe to handle.
Cremains contain what is known as rest energy, sometimes referred to as free or dormant energy. This type of energy is still subject to the restraints of natural law, and can have no physical or spiritual impact on those around it.
Burying Ashes on Private Property
This is the interment option with the least amount of red tape, and it offers an endless amount of options, as you can use ceramic, wooden, biodegradable urns, or no urns at all.
While wood ashes are considered nontoxic, they contain alkaline material in the form of potassium carbonate and potassium hydroxide, often referred to as pearl potash and potash, respectively. These compounds are very soluble in water and react with water to release hydroxide ions which can produce a pH as high as 12.
Can you get DNA from ashes? Yes. In rare cases, DNA can be extracted from cremated ashes.
Cremation Urns
However, even in the best conditions heat and moisture will creep in. The only damage this will do is to cause the remains to harden together and "clump" to some extent inside the urn.
If preferred, the ashes may also be placed directly into the urn if specified beforehand, like the urns available here in this online urn store. However, in most cases, funeral providers will keep the ashes within a plastic bag if possible. Additionally, most will not seal the urn permanently.
What do ashes smell like? In most cases, cremated remains are odourless. They may have a slightly metallic odour or some people say they smell somewhat like incense in some cases. However, it is common for ashes to have no distinct smell.
The heat and duration of the process means that the only thing that are left are those that do not combust (burn) – bones and the metal parts e.g. metal nails from the coffin and false hips etc.