Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking
Shop
A tradition of woodworking excellence
Using pine and maple harvested from the woodland surrounding
Saint John’s Abbey, the monastery’s skilled woodworkers
and their lay associates have crafted an extensive range of excellent
furniture forcampus residence halls, classrooms and offices.
For over a century and a half they have also applied the skills
of fine furniture making to construct similarly excellent coffins
for the burial of monks. Now Abbey Woodworking’s
line of traditional and custom designed furniture as well as
its distinctive selection of burial containers are available
to any interested person.
Design and construction
We classify our burial containers as coffins, caskets orurns.
A coffin has an old-world, even ancient, “body shape” in
which the sides angle inward from the shoulder toward either
end. Coffins have a one-piece lid to allow for full viewing. Our
craftspersonsuse a traditional cabinet-maker’s joint known
as a spline miter to strengthen and add beauty to the shoulder
joints.
We build caskets in a rectangular shape with a two-piece, hinged
lid for partial viewing.
Our urns to contain cremation remains have solid wood sides,
top and bottom.
We use natural pine for our coffins, soft maple for our caskets
and red oak, pine, cherry or maple for our urns. (Saint John’s
Abbey uses pine coffins for the burial of its deceased monks.)
With attention to quality, we follow basic traditional designs
to construct our burial containers. We emphasize elegant beauty,
not ornamentation, and every detail of all Abbey Woodworking
products reveals the care and commitment of a skilled furniture
builder.
Finish: We apply a clear varnish that enhances
the wood’s grain and reveals the fine detail of the workmanship.
Hardware: The sides of the coffins have six
painted steel handles attached.
For caskets, individuals may choose six brass plated steel or
custom wooden handles, solid brass hinges and a lid stay.
Regardless of choice, we attach all handles using techniques
that conceal hardware from view.
Lining: We build burial containers that
are dignified and simple and, except by request, we do not add
a fabric lining. Our Benedictine monastic tradition encourages
us to honor those who have died and to treat their bodies with
reverence and respect while not seeking to hide the reality of
death.
Our burial containers meet the standards of industry for strength
and size and all will fit within a standard burial vault.
Persons may request non-standard size coffins or caskets as
well as containers constructed of other kinds of wood. However,
because of the shop’s heavy production schedule, all custom
orders must be placed well in advance of their need.
Know your rights
Many people are unaware of their right to obtain a burial container
from a source other than a funeral home. They even have the right
to build their own. Nonetheless, occasionally a funeral director
will try to dissuade families from obtaining a coffin or casket
elsewhere, and sometimes even argue that it is not allowable.
Learn your rights. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s
web site for more information: www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/
Ordering and storage
Abbey Woodworking has a small staff of skilled workers and produces
a wide range of furniture as well as burial containers in the
sequence of orders it receives. The shop does not maintain
an inventory of its products, so it is essential that interested
persons order any burial container well in advance of its need.
Although we do not have space to store finished products, we
do make referrals for storage options elsewhere.
Visit Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking shop here: sjawood.org
(320) 363-3434 | info@saintjohnsabbeycemetery.org
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