What do I need to know to become a coffin builder? Are there regulations I have to follow? How should I sell them? How much should they cost? [more inside]
posted by davey_darling on May 7, 2009 - 20 answers

How likely is it that a funeral home is dishonest? They're pushing a $11,000 mahogany coffin whose wood was apparently soaked in sea-water for seven years first. Google doesn't seem to think this is a standard carpentry practice, although I have found mention of briefer immersions in order to drown any parasites that might attack the wood during later storage and processing. [more inside]
posted by d. z. wang on Dec 28, 2008 - 27 answers

I'm looking for an old (pre-1900) patent and the USPTO site only allows patent number and classification searches for pre-1975 patents. [more inside]
posted by tommasz on Feb 27, 2006 - 16 answers