Strength of Bonds

What I'd actually like to talk about is rings. Wedding Rings/Bands, and how tough they really are.

Since I was young I loved rocks. Rocks I found on the ground, or in the grass, and even sometimes the polished ones found in stores. That love of rocks turned into a love of gems and other precious stones. Later, as I grew older, it turned into a fixation with the minerals and metals around them. I don't call myself an expert by any means, but I do love reading up on them.

I wasn't too picky when It came down to my ring. He knew I wanted anything other than yellow gold. That leaves the 3 greater known materials. White Gold, Platinum, and my new favorite but hard to come by Palladium (Silver and Titanium are less common metals). I'm not gentle by any means and knew I'd need something that could possibly outlast my clumsiness. When it comes to his however, I dove head first into research.

After scaring myself with multiple pictures and reading about bands for males who work with their hands, I learned the dangers of the softer metal. Metals such as Gold tend to bend under pressure. They can bend around the finger, clamping down on the skin. If caught in something and pulled, it can have as much of an effect as "degloving" the finger. Not to be too graphic, but it's where the skin tears from the finger leaving sometimes just the bone with slight muscle. It scared me. Another horrible property is its high thermal conductivity, with low resistivity. It will complete a circuit and conduct heat that will leave a burn to scar you for life. Platinum, like gold, will also burn and bend, but not to the same degree.

I then turned to Tungsten and Ceramic. Tungsten has the highest melting point of any other metal and is amazing when it comes to heat resistant. The best property about it is when significant pressure is applied, it shatters. Its brittle enough to crack into parts and not have to be cut off in case of emergency. Ceramic is the same. The main difference between the two is Tungsten can come in all shades of metal from a shiny silver to a polished black, while ceramic is usually found white or black. Ceramic is scratch resistant, but if possibly damaged maintains its color and the scratch is nearly invisible.

The down fall to Tungsten and/or Ceramic is size. While other metals can be melted over and over again to resize as needed, Tungsten and Ceramic cannot. A lot of places offer a small fee to completely replace the ring, which isn't too bad considering the price of this metal/material is better priced for what you're getting vs the softer ones. I explained to him my logic behind my choice and filled his head with way more information actually needed. We both agreed on Ceramic, and I found a ring that matched both our tastes.

On the geekier side of things, I also had it engraved to say "Soulbound." You maybe thinking "aww that's kind of cute, how is that geeky?" It comes from World of Warcraft. Items marked "Bind on Equip" in game, become Soulbound and change in the item description, once equipped as an item.

"Soulbound is the property of an item that prevents it from being traded or mailed to another character or sold in the Auction House." 

He ended up with Black Ceramic. He Loved it.