# From ashes to ashes...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-ashes-to-ashes/20653
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 27, 2000, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-ashes-to-ashes/20653 "2000-05-27T00:29:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2000, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-ashes-to-ashes/20653/1 "2000-05-27T00:29:39Z")
I just cleaned out to the barbecue to start the dinner process, and a question occured to me. I know what went into the collection of ashes I emptied out (+/- 2# of charcoal and whatever last night’s steak left behind).
What puzzled me was the apparent volume versus the volume of ash I received from the crematorium when we flamed my dad (9 years ago, so, no, I’m not grieving). It appeared to be about 20% or more as much from the barbie. Admittedly the quality is much different, the barbie ash is much finer than my father’s were, which just confuses the volume issue a bit more.
So, I guess I’m wondering how much ash one would expect from a 5’10" 175# man? Whenever my mom signs off, should I expect, based on her diminutive size, about half as much as we got from dad? Or is it more likely that, as I’m beginning to suspect, I’ll get one standard scoop from the oven?
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2000, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-ashes-to-ashes/20653/2 "2000-05-27T00:46:54Z")
Was your father not cremated in some sort of coffin? (Obviously not the $6,000 brass-handled, titnaium hinged model.) I was under the impression that a fair amount of the ash was the result of the coffin used to carry the body to the fire.
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### Author:  [@Asmodeus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asmodeus)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2000, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-ashes-to-ashes/20653/3 "2000-05-27T03:43:49Z")
Was watching a show last nite…
It seems with cremation there are bits of bones left. They have a machine that they put the ashes and bones in that uses steel balls to equal out the ashes…so to speak. No more bones…just ashes…
As for me…give me the pyre.
Or the animals.
Sorry to be so macabre.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2000, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-ashes-to-ashes/20653/4 "2000-05-28T13:15:49Z")
Any opinion I’d offer would just be guesswork, and I don’t wanna make an ash of myself.