ptschram said:
Kinda creepy and I can't imagine a mortician, er, funeral director allowing someone to bring their own coffin.
It happens pretty regular. Lots of Amish over here who are king cheapfucks. I can sell them a casket that would look very much like the ones they build, only with a better designed interior, for the same amount of money as it would cost them for lumber to build their own. But they don't think that way. They would rather build their own, avoiding small details that makes a casket better. Things like an adjustable bed; a fat person and a skinny person need to sit at different level in the casket body to look natural. It's not a universal fit. The bed needs to adjust so the lid does not hit them in the forehead, or so that you do not have to look down inside the casket to see them. Little things like that make all the difference.
Another scary part about homemade caskets is how the handles are attached. It's happened before where the handle break off. Typically it's because only one screw was used to secure the handle lugs. Dumb shit they do not think about. One screw may be enough to handle the weight of the casket, but not once you put a 200lb person inside.
The Amish will also sometimes use a particle board bottom on the caskets. It's cheap and you do not see it. But particle board does not hold much weight. Even less if it's raining. May as well just use cardboard.
People think caskets are expensive at funeral homes. At some funeral homes they very well may be. But most funeral homes just use quality caskets and they cost more. If I sold a casket to someone and the bottom fell out of it when the pallbearers went to pick it up, I'd be out of business pretty quick. So I sell quality caskets. If you want to bring your own, that's okay, too.
Funeral homes have to make money to keep the lights on. Selling caskets helps to pay for that. So if it ever becomes a problem that homemade caskets are the norm, or if we ever see booming casket stores, funeral homes will just sell caskets at whole sale, and raise their services fee to make up the difference. Right now it's not a problem, so we do not care if you bring your own.
