Uglyhead

A few weeks ago I was out working in the yard and did what I normally do when working in the yard. I took off my wedding band and put it in my pocket. Then again, I could have taken it off and set it somewhere when I went to find some work gloves. Perhaps it even made it through the events of the day and I fiddled with it while reading, only to lose it in the couch? I am known to take my ring off at random times, including even in my sleep! At any rate, a few days later I realized that I did not have my ring. So over this past weekend we all once again searched outside, in the garage and even tore apart the bed. The only missing item we found was one of our four cordless phones (something we have been searching for longer than a year!). This excited the kids, despite that fact that the finders reward we offered was for the ring.

After having an odd exchange with a cashier at Home Depot, who not only commented that I was a frequent patron but also somehow brought up the fact that she was a single mom, I decided to take Pam’s advice and invest in a cheap “temporary” replacement. The funny thing is that a friend at church said her husband did the same thing 25 years ago and is still wearing it!

Left: Missing band by James Avery Craftsman. Right: Temporary Wal-Mart special.

What I ended up with was a $38 titanium wedding band from Wal-Mart. It is not the highest grade titanium — nor is it as elegant as gold or platinum — but it is light, strong and hypo-allergenic (though it will show scratches). Besides, the bicycle geek in me appreciates the metallurgy aspects of owning a titanium ring. And while you may have heard folks say that titanium rings are dangerous, according to Snopes.com you can cut a titanium ring off of an injured finger with the same saw that is used for gold rings; you just have to make two cuts instead of one because titanium does not bend as easily as softer metals.

So it came as no surprise to me at the jewelry store (where I went to get my ring finger resized) that I was told to stay away from anything other than gold or platinum…for safety reasons. This happened after I brought up another alternative metal — tungsten carbide — which is remarkably hard and scratch resistant (right below diamonds on the hardness scale), hypo-allergenic (when made w/o cobalt), has a similar weight/substance feeling as their softer counterparts, are available in traditional or exotic styles, come with inlays of precious metals (e.g., platinum, gold or silver) and can be laser engraved with some really neat patterns (see below). Sounds to me like the kind of ring I would not have to take off every time I did yard work! And while it cannot be cut with a jeweler’s saw, all it takes to remove a stuck ring is a few squeezes from vice grips and it cracks apart (though extremely strong and hard, tungsten carbide is weak torsionally). About the only major downside I can think of with tungsten carbide (and titanium), besides not coming in a solid yellow gold color, is that you cannot have them resized.

Examples of carved tungsten carbide rings (clockwise l-r) by ARTCARVED, Triton, DIANA and Triton.

I honestly do hope that my good ol’ wedding ring shows up. It holds a lot of sentimental value after nearly 14 years of marriage. Should it not, then perhaps one of the “new-metals” will find a place of permanence on my left ring finger (hopefully before 25 years pass)? And with gold prices at an all time high, alternatives are becoming attractive options based on price alone.