Do You Wear a Tourmaline Ring on a Regular Basis?

[kimpnoth]

All,

I have read a gazillion PS posts on stones, durability, etc. But tourmaline seems to be my stone. I would set it in a ring.

I would wear this ring (as I wear all my better rings) to work several days a week or out for social activities like a meal, movie or party. The ring would go on when I leave the house, maybe run a few errands or go grocery shopping and then come off when I enter the house. I fly a desk at work, and remove my rings if I have microwave/eating area cleaning duty or volunteer help for moving boxes or other items.

I have read and heard conflicting opinions on the level of tourmaline durability -- from "ye gads NOT in ring" to "are you kidding, as long you don't plan to play football or chop wood while wearing it, it should be fine".

If you wear a tourmaline ring on a fairly regular basis, I would appreciate hearing your experience with wear and tear on the stone: type of wear and tear and the period of time in which it appeared. Any other information regarding wear and tear also appreciated.

Thank you.

PS: the stone WILL be set in a protective setting

 

[JewelFreak]

I wear a tourmaline ring very much as you describe & it is still in good shape after some years. I don't wear it every day because I switch it with other rings, but it gets a good deal of wear & my rings always come off when I come in the door. Yours should be fine if you treat it as you've stated. As long as you're conscious of not banging it against things & not exposing it to chemicals, I think you'd be okay.

Do you have the stone? What color, shape, cut, size do you have or are you looking for? Love tourmalines and I'm also nosey when somebody's buying stones!

--- Laurie

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Tourmaline shouldn't have problems with household chemicals. I don't wear mine to do housework, of course, but it is avoid hitting it and chipping than because of chemicals.

Opals, turquoise, amber, pearls, coral should be kept well away from chemicals of any kind.

 

[kimpnoth]

Laurie,

It's a 3.25 ct 9x9 mm, simple cushion cut. I have purchased it, but not received it yet. Color is hard to say. On the website it varied from appearing sort of a peachy red on one computer monitor to cherry red on another. Seller described it as magenta, says there is no orange in the stone and it is clean. I'm a little excited. Don't want to get too excited, lest I be disappointed. I wasn't really looking for it, but in perusing a web site -- 'twas like, bingo! that's the stone. The size, shape, color, cut. If, indeed it performs as I hope, then I want another in purple and one in a peach/apricot sort of color. Do you have a peach colored one? Same seller.

If I really like it, I will want to wear it and not worry a great deal about damaging it -- but I am fairly careful with better rings. I've been wearing an agate hard on a daily basis for 35 years and an amber cab (not so hard or daily) for 5 or 6 and they look fine. They are cabs, and could use a little polish, but mostly they've held up well. Don't know if wear on an agate cab can be compared to wear on stones such as tourmaline.

Kim

 

[patricias]

My favorite ring has a huge green tourmaline cab. I wear it on a regular basis, but not when I'm working with tools or in the yard. I've had it for at least three years, and while the stone has a few scratches, it still looks fine.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

No. I have louped my gems under a 30x loupe and I can see minor facet abrasions on my spinels even though I am gentle with them. So my tourmalines only get worn occasionally.

 

[eastjavaman]

if you have a big stones, it will hamper your hand movement reaching into your purse(definitely a no no if you are a pickpocket ) and it might be scratched by other things inside your purse, I would say grocery shopping is not recommended. Perhaps channel setting would help to protect it. Any precious stones should be worn for light activity since they may not scratched, but they would, yes, even diamonds break if you bang it too hard onto something since they have the hardness, but not the toughness, unlike metal which is the other way around.

 

[T L]

I wouldn't advise wearing a tourmaline every day, or very frequently, because they do tend to chip (I know from experience) and even if you're careful, it's always a risk. One must be careful with a tourmaline and cognizant of it on their hand, as to avoid knocking it against things.

 

[chrono]

I have a garnet about the same mm size as what you plan to purchase/wear and its durability is comparable to a tourmaline. I wear it once a while to work and back only, often times leaving it on my desk as I work. I do not wear it to warm up my food or wash my coffee cup. Even so, there are facet abrasions in less than a year, of which I wore it less often than once a month.

Cabochons hold up extremely well, compared to faceted stones because there are no edges to chip or wear down.

 

[kimpnoth]

Re: Wear a Tourmaline/Amethyst/Garnet Ring on a Regular Basi

Next questions:

1. Anybody else willing to share on their experience with wear and tear on faceted Tourmaline, Amethyst, Garnet Topaz rings? Extent of wear and tear, length of time before noticing scratches, chips, etc?
2. For those those of you have already kindly responded (and any future respondees), is the wear clearly noticeable, or is it necessary to look very closely or through a loupe to see it?
3. Can someone please tell me why spell checker on a colored stone forum doesn't recognize "spinel" and "loupe" and "cabochan" as valid words?
4. Eastjavaman -- so, you're saying I should wear cabochan stones when I go out to pick pockets? So noted.

I am a little baffled as to why people would construct lovely rings with stones of 7-8 Mohs, and then hardly wear them.

Again, thank you.

 

[deskjockey]

I have a small demantoid garnet, bead set in a reproduction art deco/filigree type setting. It is well protected on all sides. I wear it 1-2 times per week (just to work, I take it off as soon as I get home and have to mess with all the householdy and child related stuff). I've had it for a few months now, and there is one very teeny tiny ding on the edge of the table. You can't tell by looking - I have yet to look through a loupe (don't have one. ha! I'm such a newb) to see how serious it is. I also dropped the ring the other day and nearly had a heart attack, but all seems OK. My other garnet, a rhodolite in a plain solitaire-ish setting, I wear at about the same rate, and have had since January. It's been knocked a couple times but I can't see any damage to it anywhere. I've worn both grocery shopping or out and about, and for those uses haven't run into any issues.

My new topaz is still in ring vendor limbo so can't speak to how well it will hold up, but I have an old topaz that I've had for almost 20 years. I didn't wear it often but wear-wise it looks brand new (however - cheap stone/badly cut)

 

[chrono]

My red spinel avatar has a little crown facet chip, not from normal wear and tear but caused by one of the temporarily stone holders. I can feel it with my nail and if I look hard, I can see it without a loupe. As much as I love it, I find more enjoyment looking at it whilst it is sitting on my laptop as I work.

I have not scrutinized my garnet rings lately so I do not know the extent of their wear and tear. I have yet to wear my tourmaline ring more than 5 times so far. The rest are spinels and a chrysoberyl which have held up very well when viewed from 6 inches away at a quick glance but they are all occasional wear rings (worn a few times a month to work and back only). I do not have any beryl rings.

 

[marymm]

I rotate my CS rings so I end up wearing my faceted Tourmaline, Zircon, Amethyst, Andalusite, Beryl, and Garnet rings maybe once a week or every other week, and rarely I may wear the same CS ring 2-3 days in a row. During the week, I will wear them to work (office job) so then they're on all day until I get home and remove them, but weekend wear is limited to a couple hours while I'm out doing whatever.

As a general rule, I don't loupe my CS stones or my jewelry settings - that said, if I drop a stone or smash a ring, I will loupe it to see if/whether there is any damage.

To date I haven't had a need to loupe any of my <8 Mohs CS rings - and to my knowledge, none of them have any scratches or divots or abraded facets visible to my naked eye.

For myself, I seem to gravitate to more simple solitaire-style settings so I am not putting huge $$$ into expensive, diamond-accented platinum mounts customized for my CS stones.

Bottom line, my CS jewelry is for my enjoyment, and I am completely okay with whatever wear-and-tear may develop - though as others have stated, I do not wear them during chores or work-outs, and I remove all my jewelry when at home.

 

[JewelFreak]

The tourmaline ring I mentioned was one I bought years ago before I knew much about gems except that i loved them. It was a rectangular step cut with a diamond halo. I did wear it every day, except at home took it off. I had it for about 3 or 4 years, then lost it, boo hoo, still mourn. Didn't have a loupe in those days -- it probably had some facet abrasion, though I never noticed anything & it always had its clear beautiful green tourmaline glow.

 

[kimpnoth]

Thank you all for your feedback. It was helpful.

Kim