Ring Finish

[Chrisk327]

Hey Guys
I was on here a lot when searching for an engagement ring, and that worked out great. Now I''m looking at wedding rings.......

Which leads me to my question... This ring is for me (mens ring)
I''m looking at getting a platnuim ring with a single diamond in it. It seems that most of the ones that i see (the ones i like) http://www.benchmarkrings.com/diamonds2.htm (top right) have a satin finsh along with the polished finish.

How does the Satin finish hold up? I could be wrong, but I''ve thought i''ve seen people with some scratched up rings that were satin finish. Don''t know if they were platnium.

I''m not married to the satin finish, i''d be happy with an all polished finish, but i like the idea of some line breaking up the ring.

So what is everyone''s thoughts? (besides that I''m crazy and think about stuff waay too much)

thanks Chris

 

[denverappraiser]

Chris,

I find that satin finishes on gents rings don't last very long. I hate to sound sexist but most men don't seem to have much experience with wearing jewelry as their women friends and they ding it up quite a bit faster. This is true whatever the finish is but satin seems to show the wear more clearly than some of the other choices. I don't really like designs that feature patterns of different finishes for the same reasons.

Neil Beaty, GG ISA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

 

[quaeritur]

If you're not married to platinum (no pun intended) you may want to consider titanium. It seems to hold up much better than platinum or gold. Maybe someone on the forum who's had a ti ring for longer than two weeks can comment on durability too...

 

[msbennie]

My fiance and I just purchased his wedding band and we were told by our jeweler that satin finishes do not hold up, they eventually wear off. You may want to get your ring custom made, that's what we did. They will take a regular platinum band, whichever width you want, and place as many diamonds as you want in it. In our case, my fiance chose to have 8 .04 diamonds placed all around the ring...so they're spaced out somewhat. It looks great! If you only want one diamond, they can do that too for, I'm sure, a minimal amount. Good luck!

 

[researcher]

I second titanium! My better half is considering a titanium and platinum ring so he can have the best of both worlds (satin and shiny). Have you checked out the rings by Bruce Boone? Also, White Flash is going to start carrying titanium and platinum rings for men which should be really nice!

 

[quaeritur]

Bruce Boone is a dream to work with. He has beautiful titanium rings with platinum inlays... and his turnaround time is fantastic!

 

[Diamond Angel]

ooh...satin is not good. a friend was talked into it and she and her hubby's rings were scratched up in no time. they have platinum now.

 

[diamondlil]

Several months ago, I purchased a titanium wedding band (with 14k yg inlays) as an anniversary gift for my husband. So far it has held up very well. It does get tiny scratches in the finish which can be rubbed out with a Scotch-Brite pad. It looks very good considering it is his knock-around ring.




I know there are different grades of titanium. Does the grade of titanium have anything to do with the amount of scratching that will appear with everyday wear?




DiamondLil

 

[Chrisk327]

heyall
thanks for your responses. I guess my feels were correct. I was surprised initially when i asked a a jewelry store and the woman said that it isn't a problem.

I like titanium rings, i really do, just not for my wedding band. I don't feel I can hold my "girlish" figure LOL for the rest of my life. I'm afraid of sizing/resizing issues. My fingers are thin right now (about a 10) but that can easily change.

I am married to the plat, just not a particular finish. WG tends to yellow on my hands (as most everyones) And i like the white metal.

I think I may have to go with something custom. Not sure how much that costs. I was thinking around 1K for the band with a tiny diamond (under .1)

I don't wanna spend a fortune, but it is something I'm gonna be wearing for a long long time, i want it to stand up and look nice for years to come.

thanks

Chris

 

[boonerings]

In general, titanium rings can be stretched or material removed from the inside to increase the size 1/4 to 1/2 size at any time in the future. Lil, the things that scratch titanium are things like hardened steels or minerals like concrete. The different grades of titanium are fairly close on scratching properties, so those same things that will scratch one will likely scratch the others as well. I agree with Neil that satin will scratch relatively easier than other finishes because it is made up of microscopic hills and valleys, where those hills can get rounded off. A satin finish done by a scruffy wheel like Quaeritur's ring is more robust than a beadblast satin finish because the aggressive action of the scruffy wheel also rounds down those hilltops.

 

[boonerings]

Hi Dave, for stretching titanium, a couple exceptions apply; if the ring has an inlay, if there are designs that are machined in that would act as stress risers, or cast titanium rings shouldn't be stretched. I can't vouch for ones made overseas, but the aerospace grade ones can be stretched on an expanding mandrel ring stretcher. Going a quarter size is relatively easy. Going further requires more effort and flipping the ring over several times and taking it up slowly. In experiments, I've gone over a full size before anything cracks. It does take more effort to stretch than gold, but the metal expanding mandrel (the kind with the handle on the side) can take it with no damage. A half size changes in dimension depending on the ring size, but is usually around .36mm or so for the usual sizes. Some titanium rings are thicker than others, so might have more room for grinding. My domed rings are slightly thicker at 2.16mm than my flat rings at 1.78mm for example. Most of the ones I've seen at jewelers are quite a bit thicker than that.

 

[rfath]

If I may ask a stupid question.. is there any difference between a matte finish and a satin finish?