Titanium Wedding Rings! ?
Q.Imagine wearing a beautiful, handcrafted wedding ring that is lighter than silver or gold yet three times stronger than steel, and completely hypoallergenic! Now imagine those rings at reasonable prices, available with gold, platinum, or niobium inlays, with the option of setting stones such as diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, all milled by hand on a 70 year-old lathe!
A.We use chemically pure grades one and two titanium which are the purest forms of the metal. Unlike the 6/4 alloy or aircraft-grade titanium, we can resize the ring if ever needed and the ring can be more easily cut off in an emergency. Our metal meets ASTM specifications for CP grades one and two: B265. Titanium is the "other white metal." While gaining recognition and popularity in jewelry and consumer products such as eyeglass frames and watches, there aren't a lot of titanium rings out there. Why? Because it's so difficult to work with! Most jewelers and other metalsmiths avoid it because its strength makes it hard to cut and form, and you can't weld or solder it in an ordinary atmosphere. Titanium doesn't irritate the skin. Even 18 karat gold can irritate sensitive skin. Titanium is completely inert, not alloyed with anything such as copper or nickel which are found in karat golds (9, 14, 18, and 22 karat). It's used widely in the medical field to replace heart valves, hips, and other body parts. Niobium is equally inert. Titanium is more durable than precious metals. In fact, it is three times stronger than steel. We've made replacement rings for several people whose jobs made heavy-duty demands on their hands and caused them to wear out their gold rings. Titanium is lightweight. Some people like the heft of solid gold or platinum. If you're one of those, you probably won't choose titanium. But lots of people would prefer to feel as though they're wearing nothing on their finger. Titanium is about half the weight of steel. What advantage is there to hand-milling on antique equipment? I mean, there are some technologies where using old equipment is valuable because of its reputation, like "these shoes were hand-made on Italian lasts that have been shoeing feet comfortably for 60 years". And there are some situations where the antique technology has a romance to it, like "your wedding band will be hand-hammered by our staff goldsmith, who is a 10th generation goldsmith, who is apprenticing his son". But I don't see anything advantageous or romantic about using an old lathe to make titanium wedding rings. I'm trying hard to see the romantic side of it, but titanium just seems so...industrial.
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