Parting Stone Review
They turn all of your pet's ashes into a handful of smooth stones you can hold, and unlike a memorial diamond, everything that comes back is your pet. $1,195 flat for a dog or a cat, 10 to 12 weeks, and a guarantee that lets you change your mind for a year if you send the stones back to be turned into ash again.
Parting Stone solidifies cremated remains into a collection of smooth, hand-sized stones. A dog returns an average of 5 to 40 stones, a cat 2 to 10, depending on the volume of ashes provided. The process was developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory, the company is a registered Public Benefit Corporation, and it sells both directly to families and through a partner network of funeral homes and cremation societies.
Quick Facts
| Provider | Parting Stone |
| Website | partingstone.com |
| Services | Memorial Products |
| Coverage | Nationwide by mail from their New Mexico lab, plus a partner network of funeral homes and cremation societies |
| Price range | Contact for pricing |
What They Do Well
You get all of your pet back. This is the single fact that separates Parting Stone from every other transformation product, and it is worth being precise about. A memorial diamond uses about half a cup of ashes and, as Eterneva publishes on its own site, the personal carbon ends up being 10 to 15 percent of the finished stone. Parting Stone takes the full volume of remains and returns the full volume, converted into a form you can pick up. Nothing is kept, nothing is blended in, nothing is left over. For families who find the idea of a partial or diluted memorial troubling, that difference is the whole decision.
The guarantee is real and unusually brave. You can request a full refund within one year of receiving the stones, and they will convert them back to an ash-like powder and return them to you. The condition is strict and reasonable: you must send back 100 percent of the stones, because reprocessing needs all of it. Almost nothing in the memorial industry can be undone. This can.
Every batch is processed individually. One pet per batch, tracked step by step, with the same identity concerns the cremation industry takes seriously. Customers consistently describe weekly progress updates by email, and the recurring theme in reviews is not the product but the communication.
They accept water cremation remains, so families who chose aquamation are not excluded, which is not true of every memorial product.
It solves a problem people are embarrassed to name. A lot of families keep ashes in a closet because a plastic bag inside a box does not feel like the animal they loved, and scattering feels final. Stones sit in a bowl, get carried in a pocket, get shared between family members. Several published customer accounts describe giving one stone each to the vet, the groomer and the grandchildren. That is not something an urn allows.
Public Benefit Corporation status is a legal commitment, not a marketing line, and the partner network of funeral homes and cremation societies means many families will be offered this through their crematory rather than having to find it themselves.
Where They Fall Short
One flat price regardless of species, and that lands unevenly. A dog and a cat both cost $1,195. A dog comes back as 5 to 40 stones, a cat as 2 to 10. So the owner of a small cat can pay the same as the owner of a great dane and receive a small fraction of the material. Nothing is being hidden here, the counts are published, but if you have a cat or a rabbit you should look at those numbers before deciding the price is fair to you.
Ten to twelve weeks is a long time. Their own current estimate is roughly a week before processing begins and 10 to 12 weeks to completion. Some published customer accounts describe about two and a half months. That is faster than a memorial diamond by a wide margin, and far slower than an urn you can order today. If you need something in your hands within weeks, this is not it.
You have to post everything. Not a portion, all of it. They send a collection kit and the process is well documented, but there is a period where every physical trace of your pet is in transit, and no amount of tracking makes that feel like nothing.
The refund is a genuine guarantee with a genuine catch. Getting your money back means giving up the stones and receiving powder instead. That is the honest trade and they state it plainly, but read it as what it is: an undo button, not a partial exchange. You cannot keep a few and refund the rest.
The appearance is not chosen and not predictable. Color, texture and shape vary by animal and are described as entirely natural. Most families treat that as the point. If you have a specific look in mind, you will not be able to specify it.
It is not cheap in absolute terms. $1,195 is roughly three to eight times the cost of the private pet cremation itself.
Pricing Deep Dive
Pricing is flat and published, with no size or weight tiers:
- Dogs, complete solidification service: $1,195
- Cats, complete solidification service: $1,195
- Humans, for comparison: $2,495
Rabbits, rodents, birds, reptiles, horses and fish have their own product pages, and species not listed are handled by enquiry.
What you get back, as an average by volume of ashes provided:
- Dog: 5 to 40 stones
- Cat: 2 to 10 stones
Included at that price: the collection kit posted to you, return shipping, individual batch processing with one pet per batch, step-by-step tracking, the return-to-ash satisfaction guarantee, and an anytime money-back guarantee within one year of delivery.
Timeline: roughly one week before processing begins, then 10 to 12 weeks to completion. Published customer accounts describe around two and a half months end to end.
Refund, stated precisely: a full refund is available within one year of receiving the solidified remains, and during the waiting period before the collection kit arrives, with applicable shipping fees deducted. No refund is processed unless 100 percent of the stones are returned for reprocessing back to an ash-like consistency. You are trading the stones back for powder and your money, not keeping both.
Water cremation remains are accepted.
For scale. Private cremation itself typically runs $150 to $450. A handmade urn runs from about $50 to several hundred. A pendant holding a small portion of ashes runs $50 to $300. Eterneva's memorial diamonds start at $3,499 and take 7 to 10 months. Parting Stone sits between the keepsake tier and the diamond tier, at roughly a third of the diamond entry price and about a third of the wait.
A strong fit if:
- Families who want every part of their pet returned rather than a portion used
- Anyone who has kept ashes in a cupboard for months because the container does not feel right
- Families who want to share a memorial between several people, since stones divide naturally
- People who want the option to undo the decision, which almost nothing else in this industry offers
- Families who chose aquamation, since those remains are accepted
Consider alternatives if:
- Anyone who needs something in hand within a few weeks
- Cat, rabbit and small-pet owners who find one flat price for a much smaller return hard to justify
- Families not comfortable posting the entire volume of ashes
- Anyone wanting to keep some stones and refund the rest, which the guarantee does not allow
- Budgets where $1,195 on top of the cremation itself is not realistic
Other Options to Consider
Eterneva: the other way of turning ashes into an object, but a fundamentally different trade. It uses about half a cup, the personal carbon is 10 to 15 percent of the finished diamond, it starts at $3,499 and takes 7 to 10 months. OneWorld Memorials: if what you actually want is somewhere dignified to keep the ashes rather than to transform them, pet urns run from about $50 to $275 with a 60 day money back guarantee on unengraved items.
Our Verdict
The question underneath every memorial product is how much of your pet you are actually getting. It is an uncomfortable question and most companies do not invite it. Parting Stone's answer is the cleanest in the category: all of it. The full volume goes in, the full volume comes back, just in a form you can hold in your hand instead of a bag you cannot bring yourself to open.
That is a real distinction from a memorial diamond, and if you are weighing the two, it is probably the distinction that decides it. A diamond is a beautiful object containing a trace of your pet. Stones are your pet, reshaped. Neither is more loving. They are different things and they should not be compared on price alone, though it is worth noting that Parting Stone costs about a third of Eterneva's entry price and takes about a third of the time.
The criticism we would actually make is the flat pricing. $1,195 buys a dog owner up to 40 stones and a cat owner as few as 2. Both prices are published and nobody is being deceived, but the value gap between those two customers is wide, and if you have a small animal you should look at the stone counts before you look at the price.
The rest we can recommend without hedging. Individual batch processing, weekly updates that customers single out unprompted, aquamation remains accepted, Public Benefit Corporation status, and a guarantee that will turn the whole thing back into ash and refund you within a year. Very little in this industry can be undone. This can, and saying so out loud is the strongest thing on their website.
Frequently Asked Questions
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