What Happens to the Items inside a Coffin When It's Cremated

There is an urban myth that the handles on the coffin are unscrewed before the cremation so they can be reused. This is not actually true, most coffin handles are not worth that much money. The entire coffin complete with handles and everything you place inside it with your loved one is cremated in the furnace.

All metal items including jewellery, screws, handle parts will not disintegrate during cremation and are left over. A large magnet collects all metal items after the cremation which are then taken to be recycled. This is done because the bones that are left after the cremation are processed in an industrial pulveriser to create the powder knows as cremation ashes. If there are metal parts left in the remains it will interfere with the process of creating the ashes. 

If you would like to keep any metal part such as rings, diamonds, necklaces you must instruct the crematorium before the cremation. It is probably better to not place these items in the coffin to start with as they will be damaged in the cremation process. You could instead put the items in the with ashes after the ashes have been returned to you. This way you know your loved one will always be with her favourite items.