Tungsten carbide wedding band

**FrugalFish** · 02-01-2016, 07:17 AM

That's a nice looking ring. It looks comfortable too and you certainly can't beat the price- wow.

My DH has been a mechanic/technician most of our 20+ years of marriage, and while he hasn't always worn a ring for safety sake, gold does not wear well under that type of condition. Years ago we replaced his gold band with a titanium band, which has been awesome and, of course, amazingly durable. My concern with these types of rings is him injuring his hand while wearing it, and the emergency room not being able to cut it off very easily- so I still bug him to make sure he takes it off even while doing certain things around the house.

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 02-01-2016, 07:52 AM

My DH and I have never worn our rings. And we chose to not buy tungsten because what we do if something were to happen to us (Very likely our hands) if they had to cut it off or it reacted poorly with something we were doing then we'd lose the hand or finger. Most of our coworkers and friend in the field do not either. It's more often rare than common. I think depends on what you do for work.

**autoxer** · 02-01-2016, 09:52 AM

I've been wearing a silicon wedding band for the past couple years. It's flexible, so it is a lot more comfortable when working with your hands. It certainly isn't winning any beauty contest, but from a few feet away it looks like it is metal.

**JoeP** · 02-01-2016, 04:43 PM

I've heard the "you'll lose your finger" line a few times, but I have also read that tungsten carbide is actually brittle, and will shatter before it can deform.

Snopes even has an article on this subject of titanium rings.

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 02-01-2016, 07:43 PM

Depends on what you are touching and working with. It could also melt on your hand and burn the skin. Or freeze. Both cases why we didn't by tungsten or titanium or any ring when we used to work.

**FrugalFish** · 02-02-2016, 07:02 AM

Originally posted by JoeP View Post

I've heard the "you'll lose your finger" line a few times, but I have also read that tungsten carbide is actually brittle, and will shatter before it can deform.

Snopes even has an article on this subject of titanium rings.

That's interesting, thanks for the information. When I was a kid, one of our neighbor friends caught a rock with his finger while weed-whacking. The emergency room had a terrible time getting his gold band cut from his swollen hand- I guess that's one of the reasons I've always been cautious about rings while working- titanium, gold, or otherwise, but it doesn't sound like there's a significant risk of digit loss in routine life settings w/titanium.

Many of DH's work environments have forbid rings and other jewelry, because of safety. DH has watched enough work injury videos where someone has gotten a ring caught in equipment and lost a finger- I don't think ring material matters much in those cases though.

**JoeP** · 02-02-2016, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by LivingAlmostLarge View Post

Depends on what you are touching and working with. It could also melt on your hand and burn the skin. Or freeze. Both cases why we didn't by tungsten or titanium or any ring when we used to work.

Do you mean melt like becoming molten, or by some chemical reaction?

**Nutria** · 02-02-2016, 07:57 PM

Originally posted by LivingAlmostLarge View Post

It could also melt on your hand and burn the skin.

Nothing with a melting point of 5,126 �F (tungsten carbide) or 6,192 �F (plain old tungsten) is going to melt on your hand any time near the point where your body auto-combusts.

The SR-71 at top speed only got to 950 �F.

Or freeze.

Well, tungsten is a good thermal conductor, but that's a property of all metals.

Tungsten carbide wedding band