Wedding Ring-Filter

June 12, 2005 3:57 PM

I have a question about wedding rings that aren't gold or platinum.

So I was at a jewelry store today looking at wedding rings and the clerk showed me some titanium rings in a matte finish that looked really snazzy. Is there any downside to getting a titanium or tungsten wedding ring? I'm slightly paranoid about whether your average ER would have the equipment to remove it if it needed to be removed, but other than that are there any problems I should know about?

posted by bshort to shopping (10 answers total)

You're OK on getting titanium cut off.
posted by plinth at 4:11 PM on June 12, 2005

I've got a Titanium wedding ring - I lost my first band, which was platinum, a mere four years into the marriage, so when it came time to replace, I opted for Titanium. It looks great, weighs next to nothing, and best of all, when someone asks you what the ring is made of, you can tell them it's Adamantium, the same metal Wolverine's claws are made from, which is pretty sweet. Sure, it's a lie, but how will they know that?
posted by jonson at 4:26 PM on June 12, 2005

Only positives here. My husband and I have had ours titanium rings for 6 months and we both love them. In particular we both love the gray-silver color as well as the lightness. Plus there is the whole anti-materialism side of me that abhors the bloody history of gold and diamonds.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:31 PM on June 12, 2005

Well, no matter what you wear watch out for tricky fences. I'm sure his ring was gold or silver, so if there's going to be a problem your choice of materials likely won't matter at all.

On a tangent I have one of these: You really can't tell that it opens at all - awesome bar trick - and I was able to get it tighter than I would have otherwise. I've dislocated/broken my ring finger a couple times, so my knuckle is a lot bigger than the base of my finger.
posted by true at 4:34 PM on June 12, 2005

My husband's engagement ring is titanium, and he really likes it. It shows absolutely no wear and tear after a couple of years (unlike our white gold wedding bands and my engagement ring). People notice it because it's a pretty big ring, and he loves to show off how light it is.

The only downside is that they do not resize. So if you're devoted to wearing the same ring forever, you can't gain or lose much weight. I suppose if you lost a little, you could have a sizer bar welded in, but they definitely don't get bigger.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:50 PM on June 12, 2005

Also, titanium rings were talked about in this askme post.
posted by schnee at 4:58 PM on June 12, 2005

So at this point I'm leaning away from the titanium rings because it sounds like they scratch pretty easily.

Has anyone had any experience with tungsten rings?
posted by bshort at 5:06 PM on June 12, 2005

One advantage of a nice 18 karat gold ring is that they do visibly age. It's kind of a nice tribute to the staying power of your marriage when your ring gets a bit beaten up...
posted by MattD at 6:30 PM on June 12, 2005

I have a tungsten carbide wedding band from artcarved. After three months it developed a hairline crack. They replaced it and the one I'm wearing now has been fine so far. I really liked the looks of it and we got to repeat our wedding vows in the jewelry shop lobby ...
posted by roue at 7:07 PM on June 12, 2005

I had a tungesten wedding ring, but I had to stop wearing it as I developed an allergic reaction to it after about a week. I ended up getting a platinum ring as a replacement that I'm happy with though it scratches so easily that it almost looks likes its supposed to be scratched up.

I'm pretty sure that I was reacting to some nickel in the tungesten ring's alloy (somethink like 5% of the ring). Apparently nickel allergies are the most common form of metal allergies out there.

If you do get a tungesten ring, I'd look to see if there are any that don't contain nickel (unless you know you aren't alergic to it).
posted by freshgroundpepper at 11:22 PM on June 12, 2005