I paid $10-$20 each (shipped) via eBay for these rings. It was interesting that the identical rings I bought online were being sold on various US jewelry sites for $100-$200. Two were directly from Chinese sellers and the rest from sellers based in California. I’m pretty sure these are all made in China.
TC 1 TC 2 TC 3 TC 4
I like rings aesthetically, but I can’t stand to have them on my fingers when I’m doing any manual labor. This lets me play with a lot of styles and if they get lost or misplaced than so what. I somehow screwed up measuring my ring finger size and went from a 14 to a 13 and finally to a 12.5.
The titanium ring was OK, but it was as light as aluminum and scratched quite easily. It felt like costume jewelry. It was my least favorite.
The tungsten carbide rings were a revelation. They were almost exactly as heavy as gold and the ones without ionic coating were virtually scratchproof. The “gold” TC ring looked and felt exactly like a gold ring. Craftsmanship was flawless on all the rings regardless of vendor. Surfaces were perfect and glass smooth. I have to say I really liked the look of dark Carbide rings.
Designs are relatively simple as these rings have to be cast vs machined due to their hardness. TC rings must really be beating up the retail jewelry market as there are several amusing videos on youtube of various jewelershurling carbide rings down on concrete or steel plates to make them shatter and barking about how they re “not indestructible”. Ok for $10-$20 for a fantastic looking, scratchproof ring I can deal with that risk.
It was interesting in looking online on Amazon reviews how many people said they put their real gold rings away and were using the TC gold plated rings as their everyday wear jewelry and saving the gold for special occasions. For the gold plated rings obviously the gold ionic plating is relatively thin (30 microns or so) so it will eventually wear off with heavy use, but some people claimed they had the rings for years and they still looked great.
So anyway these tungsten carbide rings are (IMO) the bomb.
The ultra-light weight of my titanium wedding band is my favorite thing about it. I didn’t want a ring that was bulky or heavy, and the super sleek, super light titanium ring is absolutely perfect for me.
As far as scratching, there is some, but the scratches are fine and even enough to just give the whole thing a very slightly brushed appearance. It’s still shiny after a couple of years of daily wear, just not as mirror-like as it was when new. I don’t care to get it polished or anything, it’s fine for me.
I’ve had a tungsten carbide wedding band for something like 4 years now, without a single scratch. It cost me $50 more or less, so if I do lose it, I’m not out anything.
I’ve been wearing a TC ring for coming up on 5 years now. Love it. Looks like new, none of the scratching or deforming I saw in my gold band. I think it ran me $200 or so from a jeweler. I know that’s pretty steep, but it was the old “picking out the wedding rings” thing, it was there, I liked it, and to the extent it mattered it was a lot cheaper than gold. I justify the cost by allowing the jeweler to keep his shop open, lights on, staff paid, etc. Jeweler certainly paid less than $200 for it, but it cost them more than $20 to get it on my hand.
+1. I wear mine daily and even after 7 years of (ab)use it looks great. Mind you, I made the mistake of looking at it under a microscope while doing my high reliability soldering course and was icked out. The ring also went into a bath of cleaner right afterward…
I’m getting married next month and also ordered both tungsten carbide and titanium rings, gold-plated (both ~$20 from amazon). Aesthetically, the titanium is a little darker, according to my fiancee, but frankly I can’t tell the difference. The titanium is definitely much lighter but both fit and look (to me) the same. Personally I like the heavier feel of the tungsten; it feels substantial in and on my hand while the titanium is just too light. I figure either way I’ll have to get used to the feeling of a ring on my finger (which is a little strange at the moment), and the TC just feels better to me.
My husband’s ring is tungsten carbide with black carbon fiber (like this one). We’re coming up on our 5th anniversary and he wears it daily – still looks practically pristine.
(ME, on the other hand, I haven’t worn mine for awhile because the white gold used apparently has nickel in it. Wearing it made my nickel allergy even worse (I can’t even wear earrings that were fine before) and my finger developed a really attractive red, scaly band that itched and sometimes hurt. I really like my ring, but I don’t know what to do (clear nail polish doesn’t work) ).
Thin layer of epoxy on the inside? You would probably have to babysit it until it set; i.e., using a brush to distribute and smooth it. But with 1-minute epoxy it shouldn’t be too bad.
).