Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MillCreek on December 04, 2008, 03:13:07 PM
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Huh. And for all these years, I just thought of tungsten carbide as lining the inside of my Lee dies. I saw an article today on the Net, and it turns out that tungsten carbide wedding rings are very popular now. They are apparently impervious to just about anything short of a nuclear blast or electric arc furnace. I also did not know there were such things as titanium wedding rings. Owning a number of titanium firearms and a lovely titanium road bike, that sounds very interesting. If Ms. MillCreek ever trades me in on a younger model or something, I will have to edumacate myself as to the current options!
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I just got married in February and considered tungsten carbide. We ended up going with a brushed titanium with black carbon fiber inlay because I liked the black weave pattern. To stave off any "they'll have to cut off your finger!!" comments, most ERs (including the pediatric ER my wife is a nurse at) are equipped with equipment to cut off titanium, etc., rings.
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I traded my gold band in for ti after enlisting; didn't want to scratch it up during training. I should note they can (or could at the time anyway) be found dirt cheap on ebay and similar places. I think my band cost ~$30 with shipping.
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I couldn't wear a wedding ring during my flying career.
My wife got me one after I retired.
It's titanium, with a hammered finish, so I can beat the snot out of it without hurting the appearance.
Pretty neat, actually. =D
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I traded my gold band in for ti after enlisting; didn't want to scratch it up during training. I should note they can (or could at the time anyway) be found dirt cheap on ebay and similar places. I think my band cost ~$30 with shipping.
You can scratch a Ti wedding band pretty easy. I've got a ton on mine from lifting weights with it on, and I've only been married 2 months. I'm sure they'd buff right out though.
I found out this weekend that I wear the exact same (Ti) wedding band as one of my brother-in-laws. He married one of my wife's older sisters about 6 years ago. Kinda funny, I thought.
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I considered Titanium and Tungsten Carbide, since I'm allergic to all flavors of gold. But BrokenMa and I wanted our bands to match, and her engagement ring was white gold. So mine's platinum.
The Ti rings are nice, but they lack a decent "heft", which is aesthetically displeasing to me (they feel like plastic toys out of a quarter-machine at the grocery store). The TC ones are nice and heavy and look a lot like hematite, which I think is really cool.
One thing to keep in mind with either of these newfangled ring materials is this: They can't be resized, ever. So if you gain or lose a significant amount of weight, the ring would have to be replaced instead of adjusted.
Ti can't because there's no way to resize it without leaving a visible seam, and TC because it's not really a metal as much as it is a sintered ceramic, so it can't bend at all without fracturing. At least that's my understanding.
-BP
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I have a tungsten carbide ring. I like that it will simply fracture instead of deforming.
I wonder it if came out of the same Chinese factories that all my carbide tooling came from? :lol:
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I have a tungsten carbide ring. I like that it will simply fracture instead of deforming.
Bet you a dollar that any force that would cause a Tungsten Carbide ring to fracture would then keep on coming and cause a certain amount of deformation in your finger... :O
-BP
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The general obsession with hard metal rings is based on an incorrect thought process. People wanted Titanium because it was harder and would scratch less. Thing is, Titanium does scratch. So out came Tungsten carbide. However, it also scratches. The sad fact is the following:
Every metal scratches: Softer metals scratch easier but show the scratches less. Hard metals scratch less but show the scratches more.
I have a Titanium band because I have a severe allergy to nickel. Titanium contains the strongest nickel bonds of typical jewelry alloys. Thus, making it the ideal choice for my condition.
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You can scratch a Ti wedding band pretty easy.
Yeah, I found that out. However, better to scratch the ~$30 ring than the gold one. :)
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Bet you a dollar that any force that would cause a Tungsten Carbide ring to fracture would then keep on coming and cause a certain amount of deformation in your finger... :O
-BP
Truism. But, at least the ring wouldn't pinch down and cut off circulation.
It's a fairly moot point for me though, as I have a strict "no jewelry" rule when working in the machine shop.
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Yeah, I found that out. However, better to scratch the ~$30 ring than the gold one. :)
Exactly, although mine cost $88, not $30. Where are you guys finding $30 Ti bands?
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Last I knew where it was, my wedding ring was at the bottom of the Potomac River.
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Exactly, although mine cost $88, not $30. Where are you guys finding $30 Ti bands?
Technically i bought mine from my brother. But afaik he originally purchased it from ebay. It has been a few years tho, an increase in price is hardly out of the question.
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Bet you a dollar that any force that would cause a Tungsten Carbide ring to fracture would then keep on coming and cause a certain amount of deformation in your finger... :O
-BP
Actually, I happen to know about this since I read an article on how to do it in an emergency medical services journal. You can also use the same technique for rings made of a stone, such as jade.
You take an 8 or 10 inch pair of curved jaw vice grips, open them and apply the jaws lightly to the side of the ring. Slowly tighten the adjusting screw until you hear a crack. The ring should now be in two or more fragments. If you tighten the screw slowly enough, you crack the ring without injuring the underlying finger. For titanium rings, we can use the standard ring cutters.
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You take an 8 or 10 inch pair of curved jaw vice grips, open them and apply the jaws lightly to the side of the ring. Slowly tighten the adjusting screw until you hear a crack. The ring should now be in two or more fragments. If you tighten the screw slowly enough, you crack the ring without injuring the underlying finger.
Well, ok, yeah. But that's a controlled environment with a carefully-applied tool. I was sorta referring to a real-world sudden and unexpected application of force sufficient to crack such a ring.
-BP
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Last I knew where it was, my wedding ring was at the bottom of the Potomac River.
I remember one Saturday years ago with a metal detector in one hand and a beer in the other trying to locate a buddy's wedding ring who tossed it when he was royally fuming pissed at his wife and he moved out in the same stroke. Two weeks later they were back together with me looking for the ring and he is still married least last time I talked to him. We did find the ring by the way.
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I've got a Tungsten ring, and I like it much. good heft to it too..
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I like the way my platinum band is looking as it gets used and scuffed. Sure, it's pretty when it's shiny and new, but I like the cloudy worn look it develops, too. =)
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My wedding band is tungsten carbide. It's a nice ring. It has a mirror polish, but it's a darker, less bright and blingy color than most jewelry. I don't much like flashy and blingy jewelry. I've only been wearing the ring for a couple of months now, but it doesn't have a single teeny tiny scratch on it anywhere. Still looks perfectly shiny-new.
My watch is titanium. Again, I like it for the darker, less bright and shiny appearance. I also like the fact that it doesn't weigh anything. It has some scratches, but so far it's held up much better than any of my previous watches. Titanium isn't scratch proof, but it's a helluva lot more scratch resistant than gold, silver, or platinum.
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Well, ok, yeah. But that's a controlled environment with a carefully-applied tool. I was sorta referring to a real-world sudden and unexpected application of force sufficient to crack such a ring.
Tungsten carbide actually cracks quite easily. Something as minor as drop from table level to a hard floor can do it. Same thing for sapphire watch faces. Their hardness makes them very scratch resistant but also reduces shock resistance to the point where they're much more likely to crack under sharp impacts than quartz/acrylic.
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My wedding band is tungsten carbide. It's a nice ring. It has a mirror polish, but it's a darker, less bright and blingy color than most jewelry. I don't much like flashy and blingy jewelry. I've only been wearing the ring for a couple of months now, but it doesn't have a single teeny tiny scratch on it anywhere. Still looks perfectly shiny-new.
My watch is titanium. Again, I like it for the darker, less bright and shiny appearance. I also like the fact that it doesn't weigh anything. It has some scratches, but so far it's held up much better than any of my previous watches. Titanium isn't scratch proof, but it's a helluva lot more scratch resistant than gold, silver, or platinum.
What kind of watch is that? I'm terribly hard on my watches, and I want to find a very durable one before I waste any more money.
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My ring is the one ring. I don't wear it because it gives me a rash on my finger. I think it's because it's engraved on both sides, and dirt gets trapped between the backside engraving and my finger. I like to tell people I don't wear it because it's too powerful, such things are better not worn. I mean, who would pay the bills if I were a wraith? :lol:
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Tungsten carbide actually cracks quite easily. Something as minor as drop from table level to a hard floor can do it. Same thing for sapphire watch faces. Their hardness makes them very scratch resistant but also reduces shock resistance to the point where they're much more likely to crack under sharp impacts than quartz/acrylic.
when my wife and I were shopping for a replacement wedding band for me (long story. lets just say that we will NEVER be dealing with Zale's Jeweler's again!) we were really eying the tungsten carbide rings. I really loved the heft and feel and look of TC. But the above advice is exactly why we decided NOT to get TC. I'm hard on my ring. I have this bad habit of hitting my hand on things as I walk by (not on purpose, by the way). I'd have been lucky to have a TC ring last a week.
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Ok, so embarassing story time.....
In School of Infantry, during Land Nav class they had a huge overhead projector, with a Sgt drawing on the transparencies to illustrate his points. His wedding ring had (what I later learned were) several small diamonds inset. To my poor eyes it kinda looked like writing.
Well, they had us fill out these evaluation cards at the end of the class, and they said we needed to fill up all the lines for comments. I ran out of useful things to say, and I still had a couple lines to go. So I put that it was kind of distracting that the instructor's ring looked like the One Ring from LotR.
Apparently, those reports go directly to the CO's office (either company or battalion, can't remember which) and they actually read em..... The Sgt was not pleased the next day, and when he asked who'd wrote that I rather foolishly admitted I had.....
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During my stint in Naval Aviation, I saw one too many people with missing/ deformed ring fingers. I never wore wedding bands, except on dress occasions.
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You weren't the only one who noticed, Thor.
Wearing rings was verboten in USAF aviation, and from my exchange duties with Navy P3 crews, apparently there, too.
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During my stint in Naval Aviation, I saw one too many people with missing/ deformed ring fingers. I never wore wedding bands, except on dress occasions.
I remember a sign posted in one of the main passageways on my carrier, back in my Navy days, which had photos showing the results of getting jewelry (including rings) caught in some of the rotating machinery found in the Engineering spaces. The technical term used was "degloving".
Eewwww.
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George Kelbly Jr made his wife an anodized aluminum ring... It's kewl.
(they make aluminum-sleeved benchrest actions)
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I don't wear a ring cause it's dangerous in the lab and I can never be bothered to remeber whether I'm wearing it or not, so I just don't wear it. My friend managed to complete a circuit with is fancy watch a couple weeks ago. A ring would have been much worse.
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I remember a sign posted in one of the main passageways on my carrier, back in my Navy days, which had photos showing the results of getting jewelry (including rings) caught in some of the rotating machinery found in the Engineering spaces. The technical term used was "degloving".
Eewwww.
I gotta ask. Is the hand ever salvageable after that kind of incident?
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What kind of watch is that? I'm terribly hard on my watches, and I want to find a very durable one before I waste any more money.
Skagen. They look sharp (in my opinion) and they aren't too expensive. Most department stores carry 'em, but amazon has 'em cheaper.
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I knew an electrical engineer who lost a finger because of his wedding ring. He reached his hand into some sort of high power junction box, and shorted a line out through the ring. He said he felt a sharp pain in his hand, then looked down on the floor to find his finger sitting next to a small puddle of gold. The current instantly melted the ring, and the molten gold cut through his finger.
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Last I knew where it was, my wedding ring was at the bottom of the Potomac River.
...along with all the guns you used to own, right? Same tragic boating accident?
I knew an electrical engineer who lost a finger because of his wedding ring. He reached his hand into some sort of high power junction box, and shorted a line out through the ring. He said he felt a sharp pain in his hand, then looked down on the floor to find his finger sitting next to a small puddle of gold. The current instantly melted the ring, and the molten gold cut through his finger.
You know, I'm sure it sucks and all, but... cool!
My ring is titanium, pretty plain, and cost $40. I liked the duller look of titanium compared to gold. It is quite worn(rounded) and scratched. I've had it just over four years now and it's survived changing truck tires, working on cars, operating forklifts, handling batteries, and more. At some point(when I stop handling heavy/caustic/generally dangerous stuff as a condition of employment) I'd like to get a nicer ring, one of those two-tone deals with a titanium body and a thin gold stripe around the middle.
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BridgeWalker, I've had to post those photos in my squadron, too.
It was part of my job managing the Flight Safety Program as Chief of Stan/Eval. I actually failed one of my flyers on a check ride for wearing a ring, we were that serious about it.
I have some of those pics saved as .jpg, but I won't post them here. Here's a link to a similar incident, and the treatment thereof:
http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijos/vol8n1/ring.xml
Suffice it to say, a degloving or avulsion of that magnitude can often results in clinical amputation of the remaining (exposed) bone afterwards. There has been some success with re-attachment and skin flap surgery, but one should not accept that as the norm.
It's best just not to wear a ring in occupations that pose such a hazard.
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knew an electrical engineer who lost a finger because of his wedding ring. He reached his hand into some sort of high power junction box, and shorted a line out through the ring. He said he felt a sharp pain in his hand, then looked down on the floor to find his finger sitting next to a small puddle of gold. The current instantly melted the ring, and the molten gold cut through his finger.
I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.
That may be a potential Mythbusters episode.
Maybe they can tie it into Kari Byron's electric pickle experiment? =D
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I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.
That may be a potential Mythbusters episode.
Maybe they can tie it into Kari Byron's electric pickle experiment? =D
"High power" was all I was told. The story was told int he context of arc blast levels of high power, FWIW.
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I lost a ring in a deep cold mountain lake.
Years later, I caught a 24 lb Mackinaw trout from that same lake.
You're not going to believe this, but when I gutted the fish, there were no rings whatsoever inside. :(
:laugh:
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I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.
...and given the thickness of the conductor. The average men's wedding band should be roughly equivalent to what, 8ga wire?
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I lost a ring in a deep cold mountain lake.
Years later, I caught a 24 lb Mackinaw trout from that same lake.
You're not going to believe this, but when I gutted the fish, there were no rings whatsoever inside. :(
:laugh:
Did you look on the outside? Check the fins? =D
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Did you look on the outside? Check the fins? =D
Actually, it was an 8" Rainbow :laugh:
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I've got a titanium band. The wife wanted ours to match so it's white titanium with a gold strip inlaid. Got it with the "satin" finish so it wouldn't show scratches as much. I like that it is light weight because of the titanium. I held a friends ring which was tungsten and it was really heavy. I have gotten some scratches on it but due to the finish you can't see it unless you look closely.
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This story is true...
A coworker lost his ring while doing a bunch of landscaping at his mother's house. He got a metal detector and everything, but no ring.
A few months later one of the shrubs he planted died, so he pulled it to plant another one. When he shook the dirt off the dead plant's rootball, his ring dropped out.
After that we always joked that his and his wife's love was toxic to living things.
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Slight thread drift on the subject of re-finding things under unlikely circumstances: When I was a kid (1980 or so), I was fishing from the beach at Cape May NJ with my dad. On one of his casts, his line broke, and he lost his lure (It was a Hopkins; it was his favorite for surf-casting, and it was the only one of that type he owned). He'd forgotten to bring another lure with him, so he walked back up to the house, got a different lure, and came back. On his very next cast, when he reeled his line in, his Hopkins was caught on the hook of the new lure.
True story. He still has that Hopkins lure to this day.
-BP
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Ouch! Those "degloving pictures look very painful.
Does anybody have an everyday ring and a dressy ring? Or am I the only one that likes that idea?
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google degloving injury on google images.
Some ouchness in there
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Does anybody have an everyday ring and a dressy ring? Or am I the only one that likes that idea?
To me, a wedding ring is kind of inherently an everyday thing, kind of like marriage. Mine has a row of tiny diamonds, slightly larger than chips. One fell out almost right away. Never replaced. Figured it was a good reminder to not expect perfection from anything, least of all marriage.
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I've had my Tungsten ring on for a few years now, and still have yet to scratch it. Besides the fact that we paid way too much for it, I'd get another.
I remember when a relative first saw it and asked "Is that one of those tungsten rings? Can I see it?" I handed to him, and then watched him lean down and grind it on the stone walkway. You should have seen the looks on my wife's face, I thought she was going to go after him. No scratch, though.
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Okay, I just wanted to say thanks for the whole degloving talk. Never heard of it before. Never thought about it. Fast forward one APS thread later...
Wife: "Why aren't you wearing your ring?"
Me: "Degloving."
Wife: "Huh?"
I think I'll start drawing a ring on with a pen everyday.
:laugh:
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I think I'll start drawing a ring on with a pen everyday.
Just get one tattooed on. Saves time.
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I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.
That may be a potential Mythbusters episode.
Maybe they can tie it into Kari Byron's electric pickle experiment? =D
Also from my carrier days, I'm told (but did not see for myself) that dropping an adequately-sized tool into a 4160V junction box can copper-plate the inside of the box when the tool shorts out the bus. The fireball was alleged to be... impressive.
Just as glad I never saw that in person, actually...
Although I *HAVE* seen video of arc-flash from shorted 480V and 4160 breakers, from my days at the power plant. Better be wearing your all-cotton clothes there, kiddies. Opening the disconnects on a 500KV distribution line after isolation via circuit breaker (seen this one in person) is impressive as hell - that draws a twelve-foot arc between the contacts. Yowzah!
Can't imagine having my ring melt it's way through my finger :O.
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I've seen a degloving accident from a ring.
Made me a little faint and woozy.
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Okay, I just wanted to say thanks for the whole degloving talk. Never heard of it before. Never thought about it. Fast forward one APS thread later...
Wife: "Why aren't you wearing your ring?"
Me: "Degloving."
Wife: "Huh?"
I think I'll start drawing a ring on with a pen everyday.
:laugh:
Get it tattooed instead :laugh:.