r/askfuneraldirectors • u/Embarrassed-Log-4750 • Jun 09 '25
Embalming Discussion What embalming/medical tools are these ?
I’ve acquired some interesting medical tools and I’m not 100% sure what everything is ! It all came from an estate sale of a funeral director in New York! Thanks in advance would love to find out more about all these haha!
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u/Dry_Major2911 Jun 09 '25
Photo three is used to help button shirts.
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u/tawnyleona Jun 09 '25
My great grandfather used one of these because his thumbs had been cut off in a manufacturing accident.
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u/Yersinia_Pestis9 Funeral Service Educator Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25
Bunch of random stuff, not all embalming instruments, and I hope you didn’t pay a lot for them at some “oddities” fest.
Edit: just realized you said estate sale. Sorry, I have an issue with some of the things sold at oddity markets for 5x what buying one from a regular supplier would cost. No one should be paying $$$ for some angular forceps you can get anywhere. Most of us could embalm someone just fine with items sold at any major retailer (with a very few exceptions) so I kind of roll my eyes when I see instruments being sold for ridiculous prices because laypeople think they are spooky.
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u/ourcavedinribs Mortuary Student Jun 09 '25
i think the 6th image, or what another individual accurately referred to as sperm looking things appear to be the “needle” part of a needle injector! not quite what they look like today, but they are definitely reminiscent! all of this is super cool, especially the older and weirdly intricate cannulas! i recently acquired a very old glass bottle of embalming fluid made by a brand that doesn’t exist anymore, it’s unopened and still has all the fluid. old embalming equipment is all super cool. i find looking at the history, especially the tools, to be very cool stuff!
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u/Inevitable_Produce60 Jun 09 '25
The round end has a number on them which I assume is the gauge? And the bulb on the other end seems to get bigger in size.. possibly another method for draining?
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u/Inevitable_Produce60 Jun 09 '25
The wires for the needle injector usually have a spike on one end but maybe in earlier times that wasn’t the case? I’ve been a director for five years so I only know what’s recent haha
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u/ourcavedinribs Mortuary Student Jun 09 '25
interesting… i cant even imagine how they could be used for drainage! super weird looking things lol
2
u/Top_Cobbler6717 Jun 09 '25
The photo #4 looks like a Cystocope for cystoscopes (bladder visualization) atleast the two long scopes on the top look like that to me lol
1
u/qwertyroguemaster Jun 10 '25
4th slide you have a hydro aspirator (biggest one) second to it is an autopsy hydro aspirator towards the middle is a stopcock far end are screw on arterial tubes can’t make out everything but in 5th slide the second largest thing is an angular drainage forcep or an angular aneurysm hook, tissue separator on the far top right there’s quite a few instruments I see that are just different versions of the same thing like there are so many different tissue/ incision separators, angular forceps, collapsible/ evolution trocars etc
1
u/queersatz-haderach Jun 10 '25
I used to be an embalmer and I’m now a surgical tech. A lot of these are surgical instruments that wouldn’t be used for embalming. 4th photo is some sort of scope, probably a cystoscope like a previous comment said. 6th photo is a set of dilators, they look close to Bakes dilators that are used for the common bile duct. 7th photo has various types of retractors or maybe curettes. If you want more info, I’d suggest posting these photos on a surgical tech or sterile processing subreddit!
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u/KhaalidaS Funeral Director/Embalmer Jun 10 '25
I worked as an embalmer at a 100 year old funeral home. The fourth slide has many of cannulas I used to inject embalming fluids. I wish I would have gotten more pictures.
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u/BroBohemus Jun 09 '25
I don't think any of these are embalming tools.
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u/ourcavedinribs Mortuary Student Jun 09 '25
many of them are :)
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u/BroBohemus Jun 09 '25
This is like an ENT surgeon kit or something. There's nothing here that particularly points to embalming. Its curettes and spreaders.
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u/Donnaandjoe Jun 09 '25
This is an uncomfortable post. You acquired tools that a funeral home uses on our loved ones. It seems you are here to hear morbid stories. Please, funeral homes, do not describe what these are for. (And he ends his post with “haha!”
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u/lacosaknitstra Jun 09 '25
Dude, this sub is literally r/askfuneraldirectors. This post is quite relevant to the purpose of this sub. You don’t get to come in and make up arbitrary rules based on your comfort level with what happens to our mortal coils after we depart. Pipe down, Donna.
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u/SassyKnickers Jun 09 '25
Hey Donna, looking at your post and comment history I can imagine you’re still very much grieving your husband and perhaps this sub has been able to help you in some aspects of this.
However, it is a funeral director sub so perhaps it may be a better idea to find some support subs specific to your loss as these posts will come up here from time to time.
Just be mindful of what you are viewing and how this may affect you. Platforms like these are very open and it’s for you to look after yourself here.
P.s I’m not a mod or anything, just hoping you can find support through your grieving, I’m so sorry for your loss I can’t imagine how hard it has been for you
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u/Inevitable_Produce60 Jun 09 '25
I don’t think any funeral director is using a speculum… and if they are, perhaps there’s a bigger issue at hand.
Also, if you google “embalming instruments” you find pretty much the same thing in these photos. Yes we respect our deceased loved ones, however this is a public topic. It’s okay to be curious about that. Think about all of the precious moments these instruments have created when families viewed their loved ones.17
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u/Inevitable_Produce60 Jun 09 '25
The first photo shows a speculum and maybe an incision spreader? I’d imagine that’s what the second photo is as well. The fourth photo shows a variety of cannulas! Those are used to inject embalming fluid into the arteries during the embalming process. Different sizes are used depending on where the artery is located. The top two on the fourth photo are part of a drain tube. The instrument is placed in the vein and by using the plunger, it can help facilitate drainage during the embalming process. Fifth photo you have an aneurysm hook that can be used to get through layers of tissue, fascia, muscle. You had vein forceps used to open up the vein for drainage.. and another incision spreader! The spreader helps open up the embalming site for a better view. The sperm looking things? No clue. Photo seven are other forms of incision holders. The cable thing? No clue!