Male wedding rings

[HalcyonSon]

1 minute ago, regex said:

I find it comforting and I have never been surprised hours later if I took it off for some reason (usually only to do the dishes since I wear nitrile gloves when working on engines and such). To each their own, obviously, but thanks for pointing that out. Tungsten rings do, in fact, feel heavy.

Haha true enough.  I've had a few panic attacks from forgetting to put my ring back on after washing up with pumice soap.  

I wonder... does Tungsten feel cold for a long time after you put it on?  My old Stainless ring never seemed to warm up, but the Titanium almost immediately matches skin temperature, or even feels slightly warm.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, HalcyonSon said:

I wonder... does Tungsten feel cold for a long time after you put it on?  My old Stainless ring never seemed to warm up, but the Titanium almost immediately matches skin temperature, or even feels slightly warm.

It seems to warm up fairly quickly, usually a minute or two before I stop noticing a cooler ring. May just be me. vOv

[tater]

8 hours ago, Shpaget said:

The prospect of snagging the ring on something and losing a finger does not worry you?

I've had mine on for... 18 years. It's been off a few hours in that time period, probably, though perhaps not even an hour. It's a little dinged up from hitting stuff. Mine is white gold I think. I honestly didn't care what it was, and might have chosen steel or something like the cool ones pictured above had I given it any thought at all (I bet I thought about it less time that it takes me to order a hamburger, lol, we were arranging for her ring (matched to engagement ring I bought), and I said, "that looks fine, there."). Even with dings, I doubt it will wear out before I do, So I'm good.

My wife, OTOH, has to take both of hers off all the time, so she has a thick, gold chain she wears to hang them on (in the operating room, mostly, or doing procedures in the office where she has to scrub).

1 hour ago, HalcyonSon said:

Haha true enough.  I've had a few panic attacks from forgetting to put my ring back on after washing up with pumice soap.  

I wonder... does Tungsten feel cold for a long time after you put it on?  My old Stainless ring never seemed to warm up, but the Titanium almost immediately matches skin temperature, or even feels slightly warm.

My gold one never seems warm or cold, I never notice it at all... but gold has good conductivity.

[WinkAllKerb'']

i do not remember the first weding i have heard of in history book, but that's fairly new as far as i know, much more than sepultural ritual stuff much much more ; ) i do wonder why they added that at some point and why we continue using it, there prolly a few reason [insert ruleZzzzzzz here / self censored §]

Edited January 3, 2017 by WinkAllKerb''

[MaxxQ]

4 hours ago, regex said:

I find it comforting and I have never been surprised hours later if I took it off for some reason (usually only to do the dishes since I wear nitrile gloves when working on engines and such). To each their own, obviously, but thanks for pointing that out. Tungsten rings do, in fact, feel heavy.

Yeah... tungsten is a pretty dense metal.  And hard, as most of you know.  There's a reason it's used in the sabot rounds fired by tanks, as unpowered darts.  A bit more devastating against other tanks than HE (High Explosive) rounds, and wasted against lightly armored targets - it goes straight through without causing much damage.

[James Kerman]

13 hours ago, MaxxQ said:

Yeah... tungsten is a pretty dense metal.  And hard, as most of you know.  There's a reason it's used in the sabot rounds fired by tanks, as unpowered darts.  A bit more devastating against other tanks than HE (High Explosive) rounds, and wasted against lightly armored targets - it goes straight through without causing much damage.

@p1t1o Congratulations on your engagement.  I hope you don't need armour piercing ordinance in your relationship.

They are some very nice rings you have been looking at.  I asked my wife if She wanted to get remarried so I can get one of them but She said She wouldn't have me back.

[p1t1o]

Thanks to all for the congratulations

Current front-runner - "damascus" steel (Well...at least "pattern welded" steel...) Not a definitive choice, but this material ticks boxes, and this is a quite nice understated example:

https://stonebrookjewelry.com/collections/damascus-steel/products/damascus-steel-ring-wedding-band-dome-style-genuine-craftsmanship

[TheSaint]

18 hours ago, tater said:

My wife, OTOH, has to take both of hers off all the time, so she has a thick, gold chain she wears to hang them on (in the operating room, mostly, or doing procedures in the office where she has to scrub).

My wife is in healthcare as well, so when we got married her criteria for wedding rings were:

• No prongs to poke the patients,
• Interlocking rings that keep the rings on when she's constantly washing her hands, but make it easy to take the rings off when she needs to,
• Inexpensive, no more than $2,000, less would be better.

I went into a local jewelry store and told the salesman that I was shopping for wedding rings, and he starts to give me the whole, "three-months salary" sales pitch. I laughed and told him that if I spent three-months salary on my wife's wedding ring she'd beat me to death with it. We had a good laugh, went over to the cheap seats, and found just the ring for her for about $1,100. (Gold was a lot cheaper back then.)

[Kerbart]

19 hours ago, WinkAllKerb'' said:

i do not remember the first weding i have heard of in history book, but that's fairly new as far as i know, much more than sepultural ritual stuff much much more ; ) i do wonder why they added that at some point and why we continue using it, there prolly a few reason [insert ruleZzzzzzz here / self censored §]

In most cultures the topology of the ring symbolizes infinity (as it has no beginning/end), thus symbolizing a long marriage (which is what most people wish for, at least at the time of the wedding). The use of wedding rings has been recorded by the Egyptians nearly 5000 years ago although initially it was not used in Christianity because of its "pagan origin" (the Romans did exchange rings though).

While there are all kinds of explanations why rings usually get placed on the ring finger of the left hand, practical considerations are likely to be the true reason; the left hand is generally used less often than the right hand (making it less suspectable to snagging, and the results of losing a finger less problematic), and for the same reason the "third" finger is chosen as it is the least-used finger (but still allowing for a bigger, more impressive ring than on the pinky).

[Elthy]

After seeing the prices for Osmium i should look for something other than a massive ring made from it. Now im thinking about vapor-deposition of osmium on a e.g. platinum ring, should be better for the properties anyway...

But maybe i should look for someone to share a ring with, first xD

[Racescort666]

My 2 cents: I have a nickel allergy that was bad enough to where I stopped wearing a watch (also, I worked in a factory that didn't allow jewelry so I got used to checking my phone for the time). I also have had several piercings and I've found that "surgical stainless steel" to be friendly to body contact. I've had no rashes like when I was wearing a watch with a stainless steel back. "Surgical stainless steel" is actually AISI 316L steel which has a high biocompatibility and is commonly used in medical implants as well as surgical tools. 

As for Tungsten Carbide, it is also used in metal fabrication tools like drill bits, end mills, and other cutter inserts. It looks like they crack tungsten rings with pliers for emergency removal. I haven't personally experienced this but I've broken plenty of tungsten end mills and can say that they don't like vibration. 

[Dartguy]

On 1/3/2017 at 8:48 PM, MaxxQ said:

Yeah... tungsten is a pretty dense metal.  And hard, as most of you know.  There's a reason it's used in the sabot rounds fired by tanks, as unpowered darts.  A bit more devastating against other tanks than HE (High Explosive) rounds, and wasted against lightly armored targets - it goes straight through without causing much damage.

Yes, tungsten is hard, heavy and very brittle.  Darts are almost all made from tungsten now (alloyed with nickel at 80-95% due to brittleness).  Titanium is very light.  I wore a titanium band and liked the feel of it.

 

I had a friend that wore a titanium band, he worked as a saleman in tools for factories.  He said once that he screwed up and had some kind of welder arc across his ring.  He was told that if it had been gold, he may have suffered severe burns that could have cost him his finger.  

[TheSaint]

19 hours ago, Racescort666 said:

My 2 cents: I have a nickel allergy that was bad enough to where I stopped wearing a watch (also, I worked in a factory that didn't allow jewelry so I got used to checking my phone for the time). I also have had several piercings and I've found that "surgical stainless steel" to be friendly to body contact. I've had no rashes like when I was wearing a watch with a stainless steel back. "Surgical stainless steel" is actually AISI 316L steel which has a high biocompatibility and is commonly used in medical implants as well as surgical tools. 

As for Tungsten Carbide, it is also used in metal fabrication tools like drill bits, end mills, and other cutter inserts. It looks like they crack tungsten rings with pliers for emergency removal. I haven't personally experienced this but I've broken plenty of tungsten end mills and can say that they don't like vibration. 

Actually, 316L stainless contains 10-14% nickel. Most common varieties of stainless steel contain nickel, including almost all stainless steel used in surgical implants. If you were getting a reaction from some other alloy that went away when you went to 316L then it may be some other metal that you have an allergy to besides nickel. Odd, but not unheard of.

My reaction was with any sort of stainless. The spring-temple glasses I was issued in the Navy made the area behind my ears look like something out of a horror film. The problem I had was that I never even realized that you could be allergic to nickel. I just figured that it was some sort of abrasion from the serrations in the springs or something. Then I went to a new optometrist after I left the Navy, she took one look at me and said, "Oh, you poor thing, you have a nickel allergy." I was all, "A what?" I actually thought she was pulling my leg, that she was just trying to upsell me ridiculously-priced titanium frames. But she swore on a stack of Bibles, she told me to wear them for three months and that if the rash behind my ears didn't clear up she would refund the entire cost, including my exam. It all cleared up, and (because I'm a tightwad) twenty-one years later I still wear those exact same titanium frames, I just have them put new lenses in periodically.

This is one of the reasons I went with a biological heart valve replacement rather than a mechanical heart valve replacement when I had my surgery two-and-a-half years ago. In the (albeit limited) time I had to research the pros and cons of each before the surgery I read horror stories of folks who had mechanical valves implanted only to discover afterwards that they had allergic reactions to the nickel alloys in the valve components. Think fibromyalgia on steroids. When I discussed it with the surgeon the night before the surgery he said that he believed the mechanical valve he used was nickel-free, but he wasn't 100% sure. He even looked it up on the manufacturer's website, and they weren't specific about it. There were plenty of other reasons to go biological, but that was a good one as well.

[Red Iron Crown]

First: Congrats @p1t1o!

I would avoid "trendy" rings. Fashions come and go, but your marriage will hopefully outlast all those trends. We went with simple, classic white gold wedding bands and they still look timeless 16 years later.

[adsii1970]

Congrats, @p1t1o! Making the decision to marry and who to marry are perhaps two of the most important decisions you will ever make.

Now for my two cents on the whole wedding band thing. I've been married three times and the first time, I, like you, didn't want to do the whole traditional thing. I wanted to be different, so we had platinum rings. They were fairly expensive and the bill for them took me longer to pay off than the divorce did. The second marriage, I still was not convinced of the whole traditional wedding band thing, and the woman I was married to was into all the fads and other contemporary fashion things. So, that set of rings (and I am still not to sure what they were) did sell for a good price some years later after the divorce.

The third marriage I approached totally differently - and decided to go traditional with the wedding bands when I was asked. I and my wife have plain white gold bands, they were relatively inexpensive compared to the first two sets of bands I had bought, and after 8 years, I still wear mine with great joy. The bands are just a symbol of the commitment you two will make to one another - and sometimes a simple band for a lifelong commitment makes the best statement. I love my wife for who she is, not who I believe she can become, or for what she can do for me. The traditional band is an enduring symbol of a marriage commitment and has been around in certain cultures for over two thousand years... and it is the symbolism of that kind of commitment and meaning that really says a lot about what you and your fiance are about to do.

The choice of the ring really isn't what matters and I do agree with @Red Iron Crown, avoid the trendy things. Trends come and go and you symbolically do not want to send the message that your marriage is all about being trendy. Take it from an old sentimental softie, ask yourself when looking at wedding bands if the message it sends to you says "fad," "trendy", or "bright and flashy" or something that says "here to stay." Then make the decision...

[lajoswinkler]

On 1/3/2017 at 3:30 PM, p1t1o said:

Not really. Im not likely to be exposed to much danger of that, apart from the aforementioned over-energetic phone answering (and I get some pretty dang urgent emails...) but Im also quite sure even a pure gold ring will whip my finger out its socket just as readily as any other. If I was going rock climbing or skydiving, I'd probably keep it safely elsewhere. 

 

I think TC might be "brittle" in terms of "not ductile" but I am fairly certain that my body will smash several times over before a ring would.

Quick google says Osmium is an actual possibility (http://www.osmium-rings.com/), but quite on the pricey side ("Each year, worldwide, only 120 kg traded!"), potentially there could be realistic examples with a bit of searching. The sparkley, "crystalline" ones are a bit...girly?

Unless it's coated with an inert metal, osmium would be a terrible choice. That metal is not inert to atmosphere and body fluids. It's constantly coated with a very thin layer of its water-soluble tetroxide which is a pretty insane poison and will, in these minute concentrations, cause skin allergy.

 

Also, wearing such heavy rings is simply not good for the muscles and tendons in the hand.

[Elthy]

16 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Unless it's coated with an inert metal, osmium would be a terrible choice. That metal is not inert to atmosphere and body fluids. It's constantly coated with a very thin layer of its water-soluble tetroxide which is a pretty insane poison and will, in these minute concentrations, cause skin allergy.

 

Also, wearing such heavy rings is simply not good for the muscles and tendons in the hand.

From what ive read (Wikipedia xD) it only reacts with oxygen in great heat and is also inert to most acids. Where did you get your information?

[lajoswinkler]

1 hour ago, Elthy said:

From what ive read (Wikipedia xD) it only reacts with oxygen in great heat and is also inert to most acids. Where did you get your information?

Powdered osmium reacts with air, spontaneously, to form its oxides. That means a bulk ingot will, too, but at a much lower speed because its surface area is much smaller. However, given the extreme poisonous and extreme irritant properties of its tetroxide, it's to expect an allergic reaction even with very small amounts constantly touching your skin and being dissolved in sweat. Same thing happens to nickel.

What you read on Wikipedia is sometimes misinterpreted from various sources.

[p1t1o]

The osmium jewelery I saw did not look like plain metallic osmium (described as "crystalline"), in fact the page went a bit odd:

http://www.osmium-rings.com/c/mid,30105,Crystalline_osmium_as_an_investment/

Dont really know what that is about or even if it is a good idea to make jewellery out of it. Anyhoo, I dont like the look of it much and its probably way expensive.

Front runners are the pattern-welded steel example shown above, and a slim plain titanium band from this website:

http://www.mach3ti.com/Pages/default.aspx   -   Cool or cheesy?

 

I also really like the idea of a high-spec ceramic as a material but cant get over the idea that it would be more fragile and not be able to last the several decades that I need it to, even though these ceramics are supposed to be super-strong. Anyone have any relevant experience?

[TheSaint]

6 hours ago, p1t1o said:

The osmium jewelery I saw did not look like plain metallic osmium (described as "crystalline"), in fact the page went a bit odd:

http://www.osmium-rings.com/c/mid,30105,Crystalline_osmium_as_an_investment/

Dont really know what that is about or even if it is a good idea to make jewellery out of it. Anyhoo, I dont like the look of it much and its probably way expensive.

Front runners are the pattern-welded steel example shown above, and a slim plain titanium band from this website:

http://www.mach3ti.com/Pages/default.aspx   -   Cool or cheesy?

 

I also really like the idea of a high-spec ceramic as a material but cant get over the idea that it would be more fragile and not be able to last the several decades that I need it to, even though these ceramics are supposed to be super-strong. Anyone have any relevant experience?

Wow. The titanium rings on that site are breathlessly expensive. I paid $90 for mine here, they're even cheaper now. I guess if you really want to be able to walk around and say, "My ring came from an SR-71!" I just wanted a ring to get married with.

[p1t1o]

2 hours ago, TheSaint said:

Wow. The titanium rings on that site are breathlessly expensive. I paid $90 for mine here, they're even cheaper now. I guess if you really want to be able to walk around and say, "My ring came from an SR-71!" I just wanted a ring to get married with.

I didnt really have an idea of what Ti rings cost, but yeah you arent really paying for the raw materials

Its not that I *specifically* want to say that about a ring, but I do like that it is special. In fact I doubt I'd bother telling many people about its origin. We aren't rolling in cash (like, at all) but it is one thing we want to make slightly something...something...well, just *something* y'know? Know what I mean?

Still undecided though. Heck I wont even need the thing for at least like a year.

[TheSaint]

34 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

I didnt really have an idea of what Ti rings cost, but yeah you arent really paying for the raw materials

Its not that I *specifically* want to say that about a ring, but I do like that it is special. In fact I doubt I'd bother telling many people about its origin. We aren't rolling in cash (like, at all) but it is one thing we want to make slightly something...something...well, just *something* y'know? Know what I mean?

Still undecided though. Heck I wont even need the thing for at least like a year.

Well, it's your money. When my wife and I were planning our wedding (and our marriage, for that matter) we went into it with a mind to spend money on things that mattered, and not spend money on things that didn't. We wanted our wedding to be a celebration, so rather than make everything look good we worked on making everything fun and enjoyable for everyone. So we shopped for inexpensive venues (local arboretum was inexpensive and really cool), flowers went to the lowest bidder, my wife shopped at half a dozen bridal boutiques and gave them all fits because she refused to spend more than $300 on her dress (her exact words were, "It's a white dress I'm going to wear once."), the photographer was a semi-pro friend-of-a-friend. But, on the other hand, we shopped a lot of places for the reception and didn't choose the cheapest or the fanciest, we chose the one with the best food. We sprang for an open cocktail hour before the reception and lots of good wine on every table. When we looked at cakes the first thing we wanted to know was, "Is this a cake that I would want to eat?" We wound up with a huge cake that looked like an average wedding cake, but was delicious. People were going back for two or three pieces. We grilled DJs mercilessly and wound up with one that really did a great job of making it a party. To this day our friends still talk about how much fun our wedding was.

It was the same way with the rings. Neither of us could figure out what spending a ton of money on the rings was supposed to mean, other than, "We have a ton of money to spend on rings." It's not an investment, despite what the jewelers will try to tell you. It won't make your marriage last any longer, in many cases it may shorten it. I doubt that anyone looks at my wife's rings and thinks that I love her less because they aren't big and flashy, but even if they did, why do I care what they think? So we bought inexpensive rings, and spent the money on things that mattered instead.

[p1t1o]

11 hours ago, TheSaint said:

Well, it's your money. When my wife and I were planning our wedding (and our marriage, for that matter) we went into it with a mind to spend money on things that mattered, and not spend money on things that didn't. We wanted our wedding to be a celebration, so rather than make everything look good we worked on making everything fun and enjoyable for everyone. So we shopped for inexpensive venues (local arboretum was inexpensive and really cool), flowers went to the lowest bidder, my wife shopped at half a dozen bridal boutiques and gave them all fits because she refused to spend more than $300 on her dress (her exact words were, "It's a white dress I'm going to wear once."), the photographer was a semi-pro friend-of-a-friend. But, on the other hand, we shopped a lot of places for the reception and didn't choose the cheapest or the fanciest, we chose the one with the best food. We sprang for an open cocktail hour before the reception and lots of good wine on every table. When we looked at cakes the first thing we wanted to know was, "Is this a cake that I would want to eat?" We wound up with a huge cake that looked like an average wedding cake, but was delicious. People were going back for two or three pieces. We grilled DJs mercilessly and wound up with one that really did a great job of making it a party. To this day our friends still talk about how much fun our wedding was.

It was the same way with the rings. Neither of us could figure out what spending a ton of money on the rings was supposed to mean, other than, "We have a ton of money to spend on rings." It's not an investment, despite what the jewelers will try to tell you. It won't make your marriage last any longer, in many cases it may shorten it. I doubt that anyone looks at my wife's rings and thinks that I love her less because they aren't big and flashy, but even if they did, why do I care what they think? So we bought inexpensive rings, and spent the money on things that mattered instead.

Each to their own. Planning the wedding is way over the horizon at the moment but we also dont particularly like the idea of spending huge amounts on what is essentially a party either. Because we would also like to save for a house, it may even end up being a handful of people at the registry office. The rings are not "investments", we intend them to be heirlooms, simply because we like the idea of passing things along - her engagement ring was my Mother's, initially because I couldn't afford *any* ring, but it has forged a link that we find quite special and we want to build on it. Now I dont want to spend ridiculous amounts on jewellery (3 months salary!! Who the frack does that? Who CAN do that?) but I/we have plenty of time to save money and I cant bring myself to buy a ring for £50 off amazon and call it an "heirloom".

Edited January 11, 2017 by p1t1o

[TheSaint]

5 hours ago, p1t1o said:

Each to their own. Planning the wedding is way over the horizon at the moment but we also dont particularly like the idea of spending huge amounts on what is essentially a party either. Because we would also like to save for a house, it may even end up being a handful of people at the registry office. The rings are not "investments", we intend them to be heirlooms, simply because we like the idea of passing things along - her engagement ring was my Mother's, initially because I couldn't afford *any* ring, but it has forged a link that we find quite special and we want to build on it. Now I dont want to spend ridiculous amounts on jewellery (3 months salary!! Who the frack does that? Who CAN do that?) but I/we have plenty of time to save money and I cant bring myself to buy a ring for £50 off amazon and call it an "heirloom".

Well, there is that aspect as well. My mother's engagement ring went to my first wife. It's currently resting six feet under the South African veld, just west of Pretoria. But even then, my mother's engagement ring wasn't anything to speak of. When my mother and father bought it they were dirt poor. The diamond was a really low grade, it actually had a chip in the base of it you could see without a loop if you looked closely. It wasn't an heirloom because it was expensive, it was an heirloom because it was my mother's. 

But, yeah, the whole three-months salary thing is insane. It's almost guaranteed to start your marriage off on the wrong foot financially. I really don't know what people are thinking. On another board I frequent a guy started a thread: "My nephew is getting married, and his fiance made it perfectly clear that if he didn't spend at least $25,000 on the engagement ring the wedding was off." The insane part is that his next sentence is, "So, my nephew has scraped together $12,000, and I'm ponying up the remaining $13,000. Can anyone recommend a quality jeweler where we can maximize our investment?" Needless to say, 90% of the responses in the rest of the thread were one variation or another of, "Tell your nephew to ditch the gold digger."

[p1t1o]

6 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Well, there is that aspect as well. My mother's engagement ring went to my first wife. It's currently resting six feet under the South African veld, just west of Pretoria. But even then, my mother's engagement ring wasn't anything to speak of. When my mother and father bought it they were dirt poor. The diamond was a really low grade, it actually had a chip in the base of it you could see without a loop if you looked closely. It wasn't an heirloom because it was expensive, it was an heirloom because it was my mother's. 

But, yeah, the whole three-months salary thing is insane. It's almost guaranteed to start your marriage off on the wrong foot financially. I really don't know what people are thinking. On another board I frequent a guy started a thread: "My nephew is getting married, and his fiance made it perfectly clear that if he didn't spend at least $25,000 on the engagement ring the wedding was off." The insane part is that his next sentence is, "So, my nephew has scraped together $12,000, and I'm ponying up the remaining $13,000. Can anyone recommend a quality jeweler where we can maximize our investment?" Needless to say, 90% of the responses in the rest of the thread were one variation or another of, "Tell your nephew to ditch the gold digger."

I have seen the veld, very beautiful, my sympathies.

25k.... How that relationship lasted a single day after that little titbit came up is beyond me...wh...how...there are just too many things wrong with that.

I dont know how exchange rates stack up and stuff, but I will probably end up spending somewhere in the region of a single week's wages - and if I was shopping for her engagement ring, it'd be the same. The Ti ring up there is at the very upper limit...and Im still not sure.