Men's wedding bands: what are the "pros" and "cons" of different types of gold?

[Humberto]

What are the "pros" and "cons" of:

• yellow / white / rose gold;
• 9 K / 18 K gold;
• shiny / brush finish;

in terms of wear, appearance, etc., for a man's wedding band?

Secondly, can a wedding band made of a combination of white gold and non-white gold, be rhodium plated? Obviously one does not want to rhodium plate the non-white gold, so is there a way to rhodium plate only the white gold portion of the ring?

I've read up quite a lot about this, and spoken to several jewellers, so I have some idea already, but it would be interesting to hear the opinions of men who have seen their rings take a beating over many years.

 

[ponder]

Things are impractical for men and can be downright dangerous. Would never wear one.

 

[Zenbaas]

Things are impractical for men and can be downright dangerous. Would never wear one.

?

 

[scudsucker]

The ones whose rings have taken a beating over many years tend not to be married.

 

[Vegeta]

Lost 2, bend one scratched up another completely and I work in an office.
In my opinion gold is too soft for a guy and too expensive. Silver and stainless steel are both harder and cheaper.

 

[Zenbaas]

Lost 2, bend one scratched up another completely and I work in an office.
In my opinion gold is too soft for a guy and too expensive. Silver and stainless steel are both harder and cheaper.

My ring is tungsten carbide with gold inlay. Tungsten still looks great...the gold has taken a definite beating.

 

[Joeboy69]

Tungsten is very hard,so get into a freak accident where your finger swells and they can't cut the ring, blood flow loss to your finger etc ...

Get one that is hard enough to you can open beer bottles with them, slide your palm over the bottle and open, at least it is then something useful

 

[Zenbaas]

Tungsten is very hard,so get into a freak accident where your finger swells and they can't cut the ring, blood flow loss to your finger etc ...

Get one that is hard enough to you can open beer bottles with them, slide your palm over the bottle and open, at least it is then something useful

But it is also brittle. They remove the rings quite easily.

Can a Tungsten ring be cut off?
Yes! In any situation where there might be a medical necessity to cut off or remove a tungsten ring--for instance excessive weight gain, hand injury, etc.--removing a tungsten ring doesn’t pose much more of a challenge than cutting through a gold or platinum wedding band. In our own jewelry shop, as in many other jewelry shops, we have a cutting tool designed for cutting titanium and tungsten wedding bands. In addition, tungsten bands can be fractured into pieces using vise-grip pliers. When we contacted our local hospital emergency room and asked if they were equipped to remove tungsten wedding bands in an emergency, they told us that most hospital emergency rooms are prepared to handle almost anything, and assured us that it would be no problem for them.

During our 35+ years of jewelry repair experience, we've only seen a dozen or so rings that have been cut off in hospital emergency rooms, and in most of those cases the rings had been bent out-of-round and were putting painful pressure on the finger. Tungsten rings will not crush or bend out-of-round, so if you shut your hand in a car door or drop a heavy object on it, a tungsten wedding band is likely to fracture into several pieces and fall off your finger freely. Nonetheless, check with your local jeweler or medical facility if you have concerns.

 

[Grubscrew]

I used to work with my hands on a daily basis and choose a tungsten ring. It has been four years now and it still looks like new.

 

[Progenix Oj101]

Rings can be dangerous, don't open this link if you're squeamish as it has a picture of a finger ripped off including the entire tendon... http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2013/jun/22/accident-arcata-plaza/

 

[Fulcrum29]

I have a plain and simple 925, no problem with the quality.

 

[Spliffcat]

An electrical short through a ring is quite spectacular when it glows red hot and the wearer is howling and leaping up and down trying to remove the ring.

 

[genetic]

Things are impractical for men and can be downright dangerous.

I'd never wear a ring for this exact reason.

 

[Pixelatedzee]

Here I thought ring choice for men was the simpler choice.

 

[Humberto]

When you say that wedding rings can be dangerous, do you mean in terms of physical injury, or increased likelihood to be mugged, or what?

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

I've lost one ring and my wife bought another stainless steel replacement.

I don't know when last I wore it. Make sure you like rings, mine just downright annoys me.

 

[TehStranger]

When you say that wedding rings can be dangerous, do you mean in terms of physical injury, or increased likelihood to be mugged, or what?

I managed to bruise my brow with one of my rings earlier this year. Said ring is good old Sterling Silver and very large (it weighs about 12 times as much as a standard silver wedding band). I threw my face into my hands in frustration at some bad news, and the back of the ring managed to connect just below my left brow ridge. Swelled up quicker than a 15 year old who just found his dad's Hustler collection.

Rings are dangerous Humberto, people like you should stay away from them.

 

[nightjar]

I never wore a wedding ring while I was married but have recently considered getting one for show.
Not sure whether this is a myth but I've heard that a lot of women hit on men wearing wedding rings so I might improve my scoring rate.

 

[genetic]

When you say that wedding rings can be dangerous, do you mean in terms of physical injury, or increased likelihood to be mugged, or what?

Physical injury should something happen.

 

[isie]

My ring is tungsten carbide with gold inlay. Tungsten still looks great...the gold has taken a definite beating.

I went with a Titanium Ring with a silver inlay -still looks great
I see they add colours like black, blue and purple to Titanium rings now