As the Lathe Turns: Handcrafted Titanium Wedding Ring Blog

What should we engrave in our rings?

Exotica Jewelry — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 04:30:36 +0000

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Sometimes people wonder what they should have engraved inside their rings. How about, “My first round draft pick”? There aren’t any rules about engraving—you can get whatever you want—or nothing. We have a limit of forty characters (counting spaces as one character each) or you can pay a little extra to get two lines, doubling the length available. We like to include our logo and the metal content but this isn’t absolutely necessary.

Some couples want to keep the engraving secret from each other so they will contact us separately to let us know what to engrave in the ring of their betrothed. With ring sets, some inscriptions are couplets that start on one and finish on the other.

The most common engraving text includes some or all of these elements: names or nicknames, wedding date, and various expressions of love and devotion. We have some symbols available too, including a heart and an infinity symbol. We have engraved inscriptions in many languages including Russian, German, Latin, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Vietnamese, and languages we can’t identify. Those that use an alphabet different from English cost a little extra.

Some version of the wedding date is a frequent request and besides commemorating your special day, it’s a big help to those who have trouble remembering important anniversaries!

We have three font styles for inside engraving:

Modified Block (All capitals—the easiest to read)

Script (Upper- and lower-case)

Double row (all capitals; use for two lines of text)

Frequently-used words include versions of always, forever, eternal, infinity, souls, soulmates, friends, lovers, and hearts. Many inscriptions include Bible citations. Sometimes the text to be engraved is so inscrutable that we have no idea what it means. But don’t worry if that describes what you want want—we’ll engrave whatever you give us.

Below are inscriptions that we found amusing or memorable; some are related to a ring style—or COULD have been—which we noted where applicable.

Put me back on!
Check forehead for thumb print
Ring 1: With our dreams… Ring 2 …entwined together
Coralled [on a barbed wire ring]
Could we have zebras?
Always, all ways
Still falling
Love is friendship set on fire
You can bale my hay any day [for a farmer couple]
Two trails become one road
No take-backs
Oh my God, this is so weird
I started breathing on the night we kissed
John… loves… Mary… loves…
For keeps
One ring to bind them
I do
And they lived happily ever after
Better together
xoxoxo
…and then we went hiking
Made for each other
Til my last breath
Cheese sandwiches
Just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl
Yippie!
When mountains crumble to the sea [on a mountain ring]
My walrus
The best fish story is one that’s true
I knew I’d find you
Best beast
Blue skies, soft snow, warm hearts [on a snowflake ring]
Luckee
I dreamed that our hearts soared entwined on a breeze
Namaste
Pulse of my heart [on a heart ring]
The adventure begins
Because you quenched my thirst
He’s my nutty oat bread
The hunt is over [on a Durango deer tracks ring]
Ring of fire
VROOM [for a motorcycle ring]
No fishing beyond this point [on a fish-themed ring]
Best catch of your life [ditto]
I’m stuck on you like a chain ring tattoo
Smooch
I love my monkey

AND… last but not least

If you were a statue I would polish your ass every day

And in case you want your sentiment on the OUTSIDE of your ring, here’s a link for more information.

For a complete catalog of handcrafted titanium wedding rings, including wedding rings inlaid with gold, platinum and niobium; set with diamonds, rubies and sapphires; and custom rings created from your own designs, visit www.TitaniumRingsForever.com. You can also receive by email our latest blog entries or our newest titanium ring styles.

Titanium rings with formulas and equations

Exotica Jewelry — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:01:20 +0000

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Yeah, we’re kinda geeky—the Van de Graaff generator and massive slide rule collection confirm it. Numerous times, at art and craft shows we’ve done, we have traded jewelry for electronic oddities. So, it was only a matter of time before some of that started morphing onto our titanium wedding rings.

Our first mathematical ring had Euler’s Equation (also called Euler’s Identity) carved into the titanium and anodized in rainbow colors:

http://www.titaniumringsforever.com/titanium-rings/math/equations-euler-1

Then we were asked to make a titanium ring using Maxwell’s formula. The inscription inside the ring included a tiny, silver hammer—get it? Maxwell’s silver hammer, from the Beatles’ song.

At art shows we’ve done in areas close to universities or research parks, it may not be that surprising to find interest in this sort of titanium ring but in other places we are sometimes startled to find a similar interest—you people are everywhere!

What is YOUR favorite equation? Or, the one you don’t want to forget? Some of you can’t leave your work behind and want that little reminder on your titanium ring. Or, maybe you found that a particular scientific formula is so significant in your life that you want to commemorate it by having it on your titanium wedding ring. Your wish is our command!

So what about other favorite equations? Anyone for the Pythogrean Theorum? How about Fourier Transformation or Einstein’s field equations for General Relativity? Newton’s Second Law?

What do butterflies, golf clubs, deer tracks, wrenches, mountains, and tractors have in common? Answer: titanium wedding rings!

Exotica Jewelry — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:26:21 +0000

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We can emboss or carve these and many other themes into titanium wedding rings. If those themes don’t thrill you or your fiance, how about skiers, fish, barbed wire, waves, mathematical formulas, airplanes, flames, or oak leaves?

We have incorporated all these themes into titanium rings and many have been very popular. Sometimes we carve directly into the titanium ring and sometimes we make dies and strike the images into the rings. What’s the difference?

We like dies because they can produce a more complex image with sharper details in a small area, like the oak leaves

http://www.titaniumringsforever.com/titanium-rings/oak-leaves/oakhaven

or flames

http://www.titaniumringsforever.com/titanium-rings/flames/escondido

Some images are too big or need flowing continuity around the ring that is harder to achieve with dies, like many of our mountain rings

http://www.titaniumringsforever.com/titanium-rings/mountains/mountain-view

and one of the barbed wire designs

And some of our designs use both dies and hand carving, like the Eastbourne which has three different sized waves using dies and many of the other lines directly carved into the titanium ring.

http://www.titaniumringsforever.com/titanium-rings/waves/eastbourne

Many jewelry designers these days use CAD-CAM equipment to put designs on their titanium rings and there’s nothing wrong with that—they are especially suited to jewelry that will be cast rather than forged, or for intricate designs that must be symmetrical and continuous around the ring. But they don’t allow for the sharp detail and varying depth that is achievable with dies nor the flexibility of swapping different elements.

So what theme would YOU like to see in a titanium ring?

We’ve got bear paws, ivy, infinity symbols, crosses, snowflakes, hebrew, motorcycles, runes, and Monument Valley.

What else should we include?

Hidden gems in titanium

Exotica Jewelry — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:37:02 +0000

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How about some gemstones inside your titanium wedding ring? Wha-a-at? Where no one can see them? Why would anyone do that?

Well, one way of looking at it is it’s the couple’s secret that no one else knows about unless the wearer chooses to tell them. Others may like the symbolism of gemstones but don’t want visible bling on the ring they wear every day.

Here’s an example:

We can put small diamonds, rubies, or sapphires inside many of our titanium wedding rings but it is considerably more work than putting gems on the outside, so we charge more. And stones set inside can’t be big, either. So, if you want this unusual embellishment in your titanium ring, we can set two-point diamonds or their equivalents in rubies or sapphires inside your ring for $100 each (including the stone.)

It will be your little secret!

What is a custom titanium ring?

Exotica Jewelry — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:38:21 +0000

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A custom ring is obviously not what you see if you walk into a store and buy something already made.

We make all our rings from scratch to the customer’s specifications, so in one sense, all of our rings are custom-made. Besides changing the overall width of the ring or just the width of an inlay, we can often mix-and-match other elements.

Don’t like the shoulder cuts of this one?

Baylor

Maybe you’d like plain edges:

Ballard

Or plain edges and a lot narrower:

Balboa

Or you just want those shoulder cuts in color!

Baylor-2

Maybe you’d like a simple ring with millgrain inside the borders:

Beckwith

Or a little Hebrew and millgrain right at the edges:

Evans

We can often add or swap motifs, metals, or stones from one ring style to another style. Here are some different effects using the same oak leaf motif:

Oakhaven

Oak Park

That kind of mix-and-match is easy for us to do and we don’t really think of those kinds of changes as custom. More customized is when you like the look of one of our designs but want to use your own imagery—well, we do that kind of thing all the time. There is an artwork charge to convert your imagery into a die or stencil (usually $50–$100 per element.)

If you like the look of an existing ring and your image is just replacing an element, the price will be the same as the existing ring with the addition of the artwork charge. Examples are the DeSoto rings where customers have requested different kinds of fish:

DeSoto

DeSoto-4

DeSoto-4, alternate view

DeSoto-3

Some customers want a completely new design—we’ve done many over the years. Here’s one of the more challenging ones:

Enfield

The price depends on the difficulty of the design and whether or not there are precious metals or gemstones involved. We’ll give you a quote within 24 hours. If you have “champagne tastes and a beer budget” we can work out a payment plan with you.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions—we want you to get the ring or rings of your dreams. Contact us!

Diamonds and titanium

Exotica Jewelry — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:20:48 +0000

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Since launching our titanium ring resizing service, we’ve had the opportunity to see the diamonds that other manufacturers use in their titanium rings. From smaller to larger, many times these diamonds are inferior stones, especially when viewed next to diamonds of higher quality. The sad thing is that for smaller diamonds, the price difference is not that big.

How does one determine the quality of diamonds? If you look at stones of varying quality side by side, it is often painfully easy to tell the difference. The superior stone will be whiter and give off more sparkle than a lesser-quality one. When the difference is so obvious, it’s a shame that ring makers will choose a small difference in price over quality.

What are the technical measures of diamond quality? The most common system is called the four C’s, developed and defined by the Gemological Institute of America, Inc.

The Four “C’s”

Carat weight. One carat is 100 points. As we normally flush-set our stones directly into titanium, our diamonds are usually under 15 points. However, we have also flush-set larger diamonds up to one carat in bands which we make thicker at the top in order to accommodate these larger sized stones.

Color. This is where the difference in quality shows up the most in smaller diamonds. White diamonds should look white. With the smaller diamonds that we use, the best quality available is G-H.

Clarity. Our diamonds are typically VVSI. Here are the GIA classifications:

Flawless (FL) No inclusions or blemishes are visible to a skilled grader using 10x magnification
Internally Flawless (IF) No inclusions and only minor blemishes are visible to a skilled grader using 10x magnification
Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1 and VVS2) Inclusions are difficult for a skilled grader to see under 10x magnification
Very Slightly Included (VS1 and VS2) Inclusions are clearly visible under 10x magnification but can be characterized as minor
Slightly Included (SI1 and SI2) Inclusions are noticeable to a skilled grader using 10x magnification
Imperfect (I1, I2, and I3) Inclusions are obvious under 10x magnification and may affect transparency and brilliance

Cut. A good cut makes the diamond sparkle brightly. Technically the cut is analyzed using brightness, fire, and scintillation. As with color, a diamond that is cut well will readily show its superiority next to an inferior one.

We choose diamonds with the same rigorous evaluation that we apply to every other aspect of the rings we make. If your ring design incorporates diamonds, make sure they sparkle as much as much as your love for each other.

Titanium urban legends resized and cut to pieces

Exotica Jewelry — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:02:54 +0000

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There are a couple of myths circulating about titanium wedding rings. These false tales are believable because of, quite accurately, titanium’s incredible strength.

Titanium rings can be resized

The first legend concerns whether or not titanium rings can be resized. Even competent goldsmiths will shy away from attempting to change the size of rings made from titanium. Rather than tell the customer they have no experience working with titanium, they’ll comment that it just cannot be resized. Even some of the titanium ring manufacturers will not resize their own rings—so much for customer service.

I’ve made titanium wedding rings since 1991. Because I’m committed to being a full-service jeweler, I was motivated to figure out how to resize titanium rings. Finger sizes can change over the years; yet the original ring is still cherished or was blessed at the wedding ceremony so starting anew is not always an option.

To increase the size, I mill out the inside. Of course if the ring is too thin to begin with, then I can only increase the ring by about a size and a half. The increase of one full size will reduce the thickness of the ring by 16/1000’s of an inch. So, generally speaking, most rings can be enlarged to a fair degree.

Reducing the size is somewhat more involved. I mill a titanium sleeve and then pressure-fit the sleeve into the ring with a hydraulic press; then I finish the edges so that it is often hard to tell anything was added. This will increase the thickness of the ring, so one full size will add 16/1000’s of an inch. I’ve used this method to reduce a ring by three sizes.

Set stones further complicate these two processes, but I do them routinely to resize titanium rings I’ve made as well as to resize rings made by others. I have resized rings for people who have bought titanium rings on eBay and taken them into jewelry stores, only to be told it can’t be done. I’ve been able to help turn distraught couples into delighted honeymooners.

So, if you need titanium rings sized up or down, please contact me.

Titanium rings can be cut off in an emergency

The second myth involves titanium rings not being able to be cut off in an emergency. It doesn’t take too much blunt force trauma to cause a finger to swell. A customer told me it was just a basketball hitting the tip of his finger that was enough to have the ring become a tourniquet.

I think this urban legend must, in part, come from the novel and movie The Abyss. As I recall, the hero uses his titanium ring to stop hydraulic doors from closing. Or perhaps the legend is a result of often-repeated chestnut that titanium is the strongest metal of all.

OK, here is the truth: titanium rings can be cut off with standard devices that all emergency rooms have on hand.

I was a goldsmith first and when I started making titanium rings, I used the very same saws, files, punches and lathe cutting tools on the titanium that I used on gold. Some alloys of titanium are harder than the pure titanium we use, but all can be cut off as a last resort, if needed.

These are tall tales indeed—yarns spun of pure ignorance. Time to table these fables.

Chris Boothe

Video: Color in our titanium wedding rings through anodizing

Exotica Jewelry — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:50:49 +0000

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TitaniumRingsForever.com and Chris Boothe are pleased to present this video, demonstrating the coloring of titanium and niobium through electrical anodizing — no paints or pigments involved! A process combining science and art, it is used in the creation of our titanium wedding rings and other titanium jewelry.

Watch this video on YouTube

When electricity is used to create colors on niobium and titanium, the process is called anodizing. During anodizing, the metal is immersed into an electrolytic bath through which an electric current is passed, causing an oxide layer to form on the surface of the metal.

Light striking the surface of the oxide layer and the metal below will result in two refracted light rays which reinforce each other and produce different colors depending on the thickness of the oxide layer. This phenomenon, called optical interference, is responsible for holographic images and the iridescent colors in butterfly wings and soap bubbles. The colors are called interference colors, and were first described by Issac Newton in the 1670s.

For more information about the colors in our titanium wedding rings, visit our section on color.

Turning your design into a custom titanium ring

Exotica Jewelry — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:28:00 +0000

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YOUR design carved into YOUR titanium ring

One of the more satisfying kinds of jobs we do is custom work that requires us to take a customer-supplied image and turn it into a ring. Most images will convert nicely to a titanium wedding band or promise ring and we can say quickly whether something is possible or not. We can usually color the image however the customer wants, with a few exceptions.

Below are several titanium wedding ring projects we’ve done over the years for men’s and women’s titanium bands, each with the original image we used to turn the customer’s idea into their hand-crafted titanium ring.

Email us with your own ideas for a custom titanium ring or call us today! (800) 297-6707

Titanium Band With Tractor

We loved this one—a farmer couple who wanted the image of a favorite piece of farm equipment on their titanium wedding rings submitted this drawing:

and we put it on their wedding bands!

The finished ring: Emporia

We have made many nature-inspired titanium rings over the years; three such projects are below.

Titanium Ring with Feathers & Diamonds

A bird-keeper at the San Diego zoo wanted a titanium band representing her work but that would also hold up to the demanding physical tasks of her job. Here is a drawing a friend of hers did of bird feathers and another drawing showing the way she wanted the feathers combined with diamonds:

And here is the finished titanium ring, anodized a rich gold:

The finished ring: Eugene

In the end, she decided to have us remove the color, but we like that gold look!

Titanium Band with Raccoon Tracks and Silver Inlays

A couple was inspired by this titanium ring we made, with a kite and silver inlays:

The existing ring: Silverado

but the couple wanted raccoon tracks instead.

They sent us their mock-up:

and we made the ring:

The finished ring: Silvis

Titanium Ring With Waves and Whale Tail

A customer liked the wave-themed titanium band we had already made but wanted us to add a whale tail so we did!

The finished ring: Echo

Man’s Titanium Band with Motorcycle

Here’s a fun one. The bride wanted to surprise her Ninja motorcycle-loving fiancé and sent us a photo that wasn’t that great, but good enough for us to get the drawing we needed from it.

With her approval we added a wrench and some lug nuts, a little color, and voilà!

The finished ring: Excelsior

Medieval-Style Titanium Bands with Gaelic Phrase

We get requests fairly often for special characters to be engraved inside rings. Sometimes customers want them on the outside, which we can do also. These titanium wedding rings were to have an inscription in Gaelic in a specific font style but also needed to look Medieval/rustic or at least antique.

Here is the profile (shape) requested for one of the two rings:

Here is the font requested:

And here are the finished titanium rings—antiqued in green!

The finished rings: Centuria and Centuria 2

These are just some of the special projects we’ve completed over the years. We’re always looking for the next challenge so send us your ideas and watch how we turn them into your hand-crafted titanium dream rings!

See examples of more custom titanium rings in part two.

A Pilgrimage to the Discovery of Titanium

Exotica Jewelry — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:18:58 +0000

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In 1990, we were honored with a commission to make a plaque of titanium commemorating the discovery of titanium in Cornwall, England. We were given some materials by the Titanium Development Association (now the International Titanium Association) to help design the plaque, including a copy of a painting of the discoverer Rev. William Gregor. We included a glass vial of ilmenite (from which titanium can be refined), titanium sponge, an ingot of titanium, and some mill products.

Gregor found the titanium near the parish church of Manaccan and, as he was visiting the church’s rector, Richard Polwhele, the Titanium Development Association presented the commemorative plaque to that church.

Since 1990, we have asked several people to visit “our” plaque when they visited UK but we didn’t realize how far Manaccan is from the usual UK tourist destinations. Then, in 2007, our daughter began a year’s internship in London and we finally had the needed push to visit the plaque and the location where titanium was discovered.

Here is a map showing Manaccan’s location:

It takes over 5 hours by train to get to the depot in Falmouth from London; here are some photos of Paddington Station where we got the train:

In Falmouth, we met local historian and author Derek Carter, who, along with his wife Susanne, acted as invaluable guides in Manaccan and the area called “The Lizard” which includes the southwestern part of Cornwall. Their beautifully detailed tour included fascinating information about U.S. forces in Cornwall during World War II, when Cornwall was called the 49th state due to the overwhelming number of American serviceman. Derek co-wrote, with Viv Acton, two books about this period. The first is Operation Cornwall 1940-1944, The Fal, the Helford and D-Day and the second is Cornish War and Peace: The Road to Victory — and Beyond. Both are full of compelling details and first-person narratives.

We took a beautiful drive along the coast, up the Helford River to Gweek, on to pick up Susanne at their home in St. Martin, and then to the church at Manaccan.

For many years we thought the church in Manaccan was Rev. Gregor’s church but in fact, Rev. Gregor was vicar of Creed parish church. However he paid frequent visits to his friend Rev. Polwhele who was vicar at the Manaccan church. It was during one of these visits that Rev. Gregor discovered some unusual black sand in the water of Tregonwell Mill, near the church. Upon detailed analysis he realized it was a new mineral and named it Manaccanite. A few years later, M. H. Klaproth also discovered titanium in Germany, later realizing it was the same material Gregor had found and crediting Gregor with the original discovery. But Klaproth’s name for the material — titanium — is the name that stuck.

The Manaccan church was begun in the 13th century and has many lovely Norman details. Here are Chris and Derek outside the entrance, across from what used to be the vicarage:

And inside the church:

It was a thrill to see our plaque displayed in such a historic setting and, given the abundance of historic objects in this church, made us feel we had been “relicized.” At one point the plaque was on the wall; now it is on a window ledge.

…in the company of another relic, a copy of the coat of arms of Charles I (1600-1649), and a chair made from original roof beams.

Here we are, reunited at last with the plaque.

From Church Trails in Cornwall—The Lizard Area, produced by The North Cornwall Heritage Coast and Countryside Service

Following our visit to the church, Derek and Susanne took us to nearby Tregonwell Mill where their son Bruce lives. Here is a painting by John Whale showing Tregonwell Mill in the late 1700’s:

Chris and Derek look upon the house; what’s left of the old mill is to the right:

This is the actual location where Gregor found the sand which contained titanium. Chris relives the discovery:

On the front of the mill is another titanium plaque.

Chris and Derek discuss whether the correct date of discovery is 1790 or 1791:

A Few of the Many Lovely Scenes in Cornwall

A newly thatched house

Lizard Point

Pendennis Castle, Falmouth
Built 1540-1545 for Henry VIII

Homer's Odyssey and titanium wedding rings

Exotica Jewelry — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:00:00 +0000

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Chris writes…

Here’s a fascinating connection between a technique I use with titanium wedding rings and really, really ancient knowledge. I am using a twentieth-century metal employing a process that was first described by Homer in The Odyssey circa 800–600 BCE.

In a 2005 paper, “The Heart of Steel: A Metallurgical Interpretation of Iron in Homer,” Ruth Russo, Whitman College, points out that the tempering of iron was discussed in Homer’s Odyssey. This very useful metallurgical process is portrayed in the following quote where the hardening of iron is compared to the attack on Cyclops by Odysseus and his men, who were using a hot spike of olivewood:

…as when a man who works as a blacksmith plunges a screaming great ax blade or plane into cold water, treating it for temper, since this is the way steel is made strong, even so Cyclops’ eye sizzled about the beam of the olive.

By using some of the ancient metal-working techniques described by Homer, along with many newer developments, I’ve been able to facilitate many customers’ ideas into unique and personal wedding rings.

My specialty is custom titanium wedding rings. A customer calls and says, “I want a guy riding a mountain bike on my ring.”

Titanium Wedding Ring: Montrose

And, from a bird keeper at the San Diego zoo, “I need to have a particular bird feather embossed on my wedding ring.”

Titanium Wedding Ring: Eugene

And then there were the mathemeticians who wanted Euler’s identity…

Titanium Wedding Ring: Formula-Euler

One technique I use to transfer designs onto titanium rings is known as embossing. This requires me to first cut the design into tool steel in order to make a die. I use gravers, tiny burrs, and grinders. Then, using a torch, I temper (harden) the steel die by getting it red hot and oil-quenching it which produces lots of sputtering, smoke, and strange odors. At this stage, the steel is glass hard. If I tried using it, it would shatter so now I must anneal it by slowly reheating it until I reach a particular color: the brown right before purple is what I’m after. Too much heating and the die becomes soft; too little and it would break upon striking the titanium ring.

I then take this die and put it in an old kick press, one of the precursors to a hydraulic press. The titanium ring sits below the die. And with a swift kick, the die comes down and embosses the ring. As you can imagine, titanium is strong—three times stronger than steel—so the die has really got to be tough. I love the idea that, to make my custom titanium wedding rings, I’m using this ancient knowledge on a metal which wasn’t discovered until 1790 and wasn’t widely used at all until the aerospace industry got involved in the 1950’s.

Got a great idea for your wedding ring? E-mail us your ideas and, with the spirit of Odysseus, we will turn your vision into reality. Check out our complete catalog or learn more about our sizing guarantee we have for each of our handcrafted titanium wedding rings.