Choosing a casket after a loved one dies can hold feelings of longing, guilt, or uncertainty. You want to honor the deceased, but the costs are sometimes shocking. Pine caskets offer a simple and affordable solution when you choose traditional burial. They look great and are eco-friendly, but they don’t cost a fortune.
Why You Should Choose A Pine Casket
Making all the planning choices after your loved one dies is fraught with emotion. Of course, you want the best, but you also must consider costs. So you should forgo an expensive casket and choose a pine coffin instead. Pine caskets showcase simple elegance. Your family can customize a basic pine box, or you can choose a more elaborate one.
Why Is Pine Used For Caskets?
Pine makes an excellent choice for caskets since it is a relatively inexpensive wood. It is softer than hardwoods like oak or maple. Pine trees grow quickly and take less care than hardwoods.
So they get to market quickly, making the wood more affordable to a broader audience. That also makes pine caskets more environmentally friendly since the trees use fewer resources to grow.
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Just bury me in an old pine box.” It brings up memories of a simpler time when we cared for our dead at home. First, washing and wrapping them in a shroud and then placing them in a simple pine box that someone in the family made the night before.
Pine Caskets Are Affordable
Choosing a casket for your loved one doesn’t have to mean spending thousands of dollars to “show your love.” Instead, you might think about a cheap wooden casket. Then allocate more of your funeral funds towards the living.
Yes, I suggest you spend less on a casket and more on food for funeral attendees. Offering food and refreshments after a funeral gives you time to hear lively stories about your loved one. In addition, guests will enjoy chatting about their relationships with the deceased.
And I can guarantee you that none of them will remember the casket the following week. Instead, your guests will remember the loving tribute and gathering.
Pine caskets are lower-cost options that allow more of your budget to go towards the celebration of life. So let’s look at some affordable yet beautiful options.
Best Options For Pine Box Caskets
1. Eco I Pine Box – Cheap Pine Box Casket
Online casket retailer, Titan, sells several options for pine caskets. And with free shipping, their prices are hard to beat. So while you don’t get the personal hand-made quality from an independent company with three employees, you will still purchase a well-made, affordable casket.
Titan’s Eco I Pine Box is perfect for a traditional burial. However, it also works well for families who choose a funeral with the body present, followed by cremation. Because it uses peg and dowel construction rather than metal screws, this pine box will go into the cremation chamber with no issues.
No interior is included with this pine coffin in keeping with the simplicity of its nature. However, they are available at a modest cost if you choose to add one. While these pine boxes are cost-effective, they don’t look like cheap wooden caskets. Instead, they offer a simple reminder of a slower-paced time in life.
Read: Cheap Caskets Under $500 and $1000
2. The Old Pine Box – Old-Fashioned Pine Box Casket
Independent companies like The Old Pine Box in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offer elegant and affordable pine caskets. Their objective is “crafting unique vessels to cradle your loved ones in their final disposition.” And they meet that objective tenfold.
They even offer a plan where you can purchase the casket and store it with them until you need it. This service makes it simple to pre-plan your funeral.
Choose a simple, unfinished pine casket named “Peace” for a loving tribute to your beloved. It has flat panels and full-length through-grip wooden handles. There is an option to add an unbleached cotton muslin liner and pillow. And I like that the liner and pad are stuffed with pine shavings from the casket construction.
The Old Pine Box also makes traditional six-sided, toe-kicker coffins from pine, pine/cedar, or oak. This simple design evokes feelings of the Wild West and the Cowboy culture. It makes a beautiful tribute to your beloved’s free spirit.
3. Fiddlehead Caskets – Plain Pine Box Casket
For those of you on the East Coast of the US, Fiddlehead Caskets is another independently owned wooden casket builder. These individually handcrafted pine caskets are made from local New Brunswick pine. They are joined with cherry wood and contain no metal parts. So these pine coffins are environmentally-friendly, as well as beautifully constructed.
Like The Old Pine Box, Fiddlehead uses leftover wood shavings as the filler for organic cotton interior liners and pillows. This attention to detail reduces waste and shows the thought put into construction.
Pine Coffins Make Green Burial Obtainable
Pine caskets are often built without metal screws, so they are eco-friendly. Instead, using wooden dowels and non-animal-based glues makes green burial obtainable. The Green Burial Council defines eco-friendly burials in this way:
“Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat.”
Pine caskets use fewer resources, making them more environmentally sustainable than other casket options.
- No metal screws
- No animal-based glues
- No excess metal or resin ornamentation
- No metal lining
Titan offers two eco-friendly, 100% biodegradable pine caskets. I mentioned the Eco I Pine Box above. The other option is the similarly named Eco II Pine Box. This simple burial container features a high-quality build and design built from unfinished White Pine.
It uses rope handles for pallbearers to carry the casket to its final resting place. This pine box is suitable for burial or cremation since it contains no metal. In addition, it is well-made and affordable, both great qualities.
Amish Pine Caskets
Amish people in the United States are known for creating beautiful wood furniture. So it stands to reason that pine caskets also fall under that gorgeous Amish craftsmanship. If you live near an Amish settlement, then you may have the opportunity to purchase a pine coffin directly from its maker.
For the rest of us, selecting an Amish casket from an online retailer or your local funeral home is the easiest solution.
Olde South Caskets makes stunning Amish caskets, which they sell through licensed funeral homes. However, remember that not all of these caskets are made from pine, so this isn’t necessarily a low-cost option.
Olde South’s Plantation Pine Casket looks more like a traditional casket than a pine box. It features a hand-rubbed satin finish and a rose-tan crepe interior.
Titan Caskets sells the Lancaster Pine Casket, which has the building and design of traditional Amish caskets. The pine is intentionally left unfinished for a rustic effect. This casket has a latch closure system for easy opening and closing. And it comes fully lined with a crepe interior.
Can You Customize A Pine Casket?
Yes, you can customize a pine casket. There are as many ways to personalize a pine box as you can think of. So you are only limited by your imagination.
- Paint a scene that memorializes your loved one on the box. For example, nature lovers may like a mountain scene. Or crafters might appreciate a stenciled quilt painted onto the box. Another option is to paint “The Tree of Life” onto the casket as a reminder of life’s cyclical nature.
- Ranchers may choose to sear their brand into the side of the pine. What a lovely way to honor your loved one’s hard work and life’s devotion.
- Let family members or funeral attendees write messages or draw pictures on the pine casket. This level of personalization is not for everyone, but it can add an element of healing to the service, especially when children are in attendance.
- Glue or decoupage photos and images to the outside of the pine box. Surrounding your loved one with pictures of family and friends can be a loving way to send them off.
- Add military emblems or hobby stickers to the wooden casket. You can purchase almost every kind of sticker imaginable nowadays. So choosing one with significant meaning to your loved one is an excellent way to personalize a pine coffin.
- Adorn the casket with a large flower spray.
How Much Does A Pine Casket Cost?
Simple pine caskets cost about $800 as a starting price. Personalization and interior lining may raise the price. For example, elaborate designs cost more than a rectangle box with handles. But you might appreciate the more-finished look, so the added cost becomes a none issue.
Shipping Costs: Double-check costs for shipping when buying a casket online or from an independent company. While large companies absorb freight costs into the selling price of the casket, smaller companies generally pass shipping costs to the buyer.
Shipping and freight can add $350-$550 to your overall cost. However, it is cheaper to ship business to business, so sending the casket directly to the funeral home is your best bet.
Can You Build Your Own Pine Casket?
Building your pine casket is an excellent alternative to purchasing a ready-made one. Woodworkers like having some ownership of their casket. So making your own may give you peace of mind.
My husband is a woodworker who built all of our kitchen cabinets during our home remodel. He often talks of building his casket for (distant) future use. Many woodworkers design caskets in such a way as to incorporate them into your home design until such time as they are needed for their intended purpose.
For example, stand the box on its end and add shelving for a bookcase. Then, when the time comes, simply remove the shelving. Others may use the not-yet-needed casket as a storage container in the woodshop.
You can find many casket-building plans online if you think this project is for you. For example, Northwoods Casket has a very detailed plan and how-to articles. In addition, there is a significant online presence for DIY casket-making, so don’t hesitate to ask for advice.
Do Jewish Burials Only Use Wooden Caskets?
Jewish culture states that all men are created equally and are also equal in death. Therefore, a simple pine box means no elaborate show of wealth at funerals through the display of heavily adorned coffins.
In addition, the pine box decomposes in the ground, making it a perfect choice. However, not all Jewish burials include pine. Other woods are also acceptable, as long as the casket has no metal components. It also must use kosher glue and wooden pegs or dowels in the construction.
Furthermore, burial in a simple shroud is an acceptable method in Jewish culture. Technically, no casket is even necessary.
Conclusion: Everything You Need To Know About Pine Caskets
Pine caskets are an affordable solution for traditional burial when you don’t want to spend a fortune. Allowing the wood’s natural beauty to shine harkens to a simpler life. In addition, pine is a renewable resource, so choosing a pine casket is an environmentally-friendly choice.
- Purchase your loved one’s pine casket from an independent company or a trusted online source.
- Personalize the wooden coffin with paint, flowers, pictures, and even hand-written messages.
- Feel secure in using these burial containers in Green Burial practices, knowing they are eco-friendly.
- Safe money on the casket, so you have more to spend celebrating your loved one. Serve refreshments after the funeral service and share favorite memories of your beloved.
- Plan by building your casket. Or create a one-of-a-kind burial container for a loved one.
