Love Jewelry Blog

Titanium and tungsten are considered “model metals” in the jewelry industry because they were not available on the consumer market as commodities until ten years ago.They have gained tremendous popularity since the introduction and become part of the spectrum jewelry materials.

Due to the rather little exposure, many questions arise concerning titanium and tungsten when choosing jewelry. The following are some points to consider if you’re serious about buying a wedding ring titanium or tungsten.

(1). Hardness Titanium and tungsten are both known for the superior hardness over traditional metals such as gold, silver and platinum. One thing to note is that this is not the metals themselves in a pure form that possess the hardness, it is their alloys that do.Approximately speaking, the more difficult form of tungsten carbide is harder than titanium alloys, and only in extreme circumstances, such as abrasion from diamonds, can be damaged.

(2). Ductility Titanium is more ductile tungsten alloys in common use in jewelry. In other words, when a wedding ring is under high pressure, such as hit by a car door, a titanium ring would be eccentric elbow while a tungsten carbide ring would fracture into severalpieces. Therefore, in terms of safety, a tungsten carbide ring is “safer” to wear.

(3). Hypoallergenic it is the same concern as buying silver jewelry to some people: I will be allergic to the jewelry? In general, titanium jewelry is virtually safe to wear for everyone. Yet, some tungsten carbide jewelry contains the element cobalt that some people are allergic to. Interestingly, another form of tungsten alloy using nickel as a binder metal is hypoallergenic, even to people who are allergic to nickel.

(4). Weight Titanium is lighter than tungsten, or more precisely, has a lower density.Titanium alloys are about 43% lighter than stainless steel and tungsten carbide is about 90% heavier than stainless steel.

(5). Coloring titanium reacts with different chemicals and produces alloys of different colors. Jewelry makers use anodization to coat colored patterns on titanium rings.Titanium black is another form of titanium alloy that has a different color than the gray color commonly used. On the other hand, tungsten carbide is usually offered on in black only.

(6). Price titanium jewelry is generally cheaper than tungsten jewelry primarily due to the difference in equipment and environmental control needed to produce them.Temperature to form a tungsten carbide is about 6000 Fahrenheit, which should be in the vacuum environment or hydrogen.

(7). Engraving and resizing Titanium wedding rings can be engraved and resized.However, a tungsten carbide ring is too hard to be engraved or resized. Although the engraving is possible, letters will be very low and difficult to read. So if you buy ring to engrave, get titanium rings.