Whanganui timber merchant branches out

A coffin suitable for a natural burial, made by MacBlack Timber. Photo / Rachel Rose

New equipment in the joinery workshop at MacBlack Timber was pressed into unexpected use recently — making a simple coffin suitable for a natural burial.

A customer’s father was sent home from hospital for end-of-life care and there was no time to waste. Whanganui has a specially dedicated area in Aramoho Cemetery designated for natural burials. It’s a concept popular with people who care about their environmental impact and don’t want to cause harm at the end of their life.

“It requires bodies to be buried without anything synthetic, to exclude chemicals that will leach into the soil and groundwater,” explains Mark Blackham from Natural Burials NZ, a volunteer-run charity. “That means no embalming, no plastics, no synthetic clothing.

“Most natural burials use a solid timber casket in an untreated wood that will quickly decay once underground and which comes from a renewable plantation species. MDF is out, because of the energy-sapping processing and chemical glues that hold it together. Some people even choose to be buried in a shroud, on a support board, bypassing the need for a coffin at all,” says Mark.

MacBlack Timber is a locally owned timber merchant, selling many varieties of New Zealand-grown timber — fast-growing, high-value species, not radiata pine or natives. Less well known is that it also has a joinery workshop at its Peat St yard where two experienced joiners do made-to-order work for customers throughout New Zealand. Sliding doors, benchtops, tables and shelves are the most common projects, and making a coffin was a first for them.

The timing was good because MacBlack Timber had won one of the sought-after Amplify business grants in late December, a welcome Christmas present, according to MacBlack managing director Richard Thompson.

“The workshop needed a better-quality table saw. We knew what we wanted, there was only one of that model in the country, and when the Amplify grant came through we bought it the same day. We couldn’t have done it without the grant, and we’re really grateful for the support.”

The joiners were already occupied making themselves a new piece of equipment that would also make their job faster and more accurate. This massive assembly table was painstakingly made from elm that MacBlack’s sawmillers had salvaged from a local shelterbelt. It takes four people to move it and is definitely the safest place to shelter under in an earthquake, says Richard.

The custom-dimension coffin was the first job to be made with the new gear. Joiner Chris Taylor-Connolly says he has a new appreciation for the traditional craft of coffin making. “There’s a remarkable amount of work in it. Going with the traditional hexagonal shape means seven sides plus a lid and lots of joins to neatly butt. Definitely, it would be easier to make a rectangular shape.”

“It was a really interesting prototyping exercise for our team and we learned a lot,” says Richard Thompson.

“We can offer some good advice now about timber selection and coffin shape if people want to buy timber from us to make a coffin themselves. We have lots to choose from, there are more than two dozen species in stock.

“We’re unlikely to add coffins as a standard product, but people are welcome to get in touch if they want a support board or a coffin made out of a special timber. Perhaps that is macrocarpa or redwood from their family farm, for instance. We also have second-grade boards that would make a rustic-looking coffin. It would be very inexpensive if someone has the woodworking skills to make it themselves.”

There’s a lot to be said for advance planning, says MacBlack co-owner Rachel Rose.

“I know people who made coffins for themselves and friends, fitted them with shelves and used them as a bookcase in their living room until they were needed. When my stepfather died and I had to make all the arrangements, it was really stressful. A lot of decisions had to be made very quickly.

“I’m much better equipped now for the funerals I’ll need to make decisions about in the years ahead. As for my own, my husband knows to organise a body board and a shroud. When my time comes, my body can help grow a little corner of native forest in the natural burial end of the cemetery.”

As for that coffin Chris made from rough-sawn rustic Corsican pine? Well, the 89-year old it was intended for made a full recovery, much to the astonishment of doctors and his family. So it’s now in storage, ready when it’s needed.

More information: www.naturalburials.co.nz