Ring – a little bit history
Rings has been with humans more than thousand years. Rings has been used every part of body; in fingers, toes, neck, ears and arms. But usually when talking about a ring, most of us imagine a ring, what is used around the finger.
In early history, rings were used as signet rings, to seal the letters with a wax. Rings were (and maybe still is) a sign of wealth, symbol of membership of some organization and achievement. Maybe the symbol of marriage is the most common use for the rings, even nowadays.
Engagement and wedding rings – what is good to know?
An engagement ring is acquired when a couple of people had an agreement to marry each other. Now, as a sign of engagement, engagement rings are used, but it is not a rule – as it is not rule in wearing wedding rings, rings usually are a symbol of marriage. But what a lovely symbol it is anyway! That is why it’s good to invest in good pair of rings. Nowadays engagement rings are a little bit inexpensive than wedding rings, especially in materials – engagement rings are usually titanium or silver, but of course, engagement rings can be gold, platinum, or palladium.
The wedding rings, on the other hand, are usually more be invested in with more money and style – the rings have to keep up with the time and use, hopefully decades. Well-made high-quality usually does both – still it is good to give rings every year to the goldsmith to check. In the check goldsmith looks up any wear in the rings, stone settings and general condition.
The rings stay in good shape when the wearer is aware, how to take care of the rings. To keep ring in good condition is to remove them from your fingers when cleaning, cooking, exercising, and renovating. That is how to prevent hitting the ring, because the hit could harm the ring or stone settings. There’s no way to prevent scratches (except not using the ring), but you can avoid the bigger scratches this way. Goldsmith can hide or repair the bigger scratches, anyway.
Where to pay attention to, when buying rings?
1. Price
For two wedding rings, the price is usually first in the mind. There is no rule, how expensive or inexpensive rings has to be. Traditionally the wedding ring should cost a man’s (or other party in the relationship) 3 months’ salary, but it is not a rule written in stone. There is not a rule for engagement rings, but sometimes engagements are cheaper than wedding ring.
Then how the price of rings form?
Material – Silver and titanium are more inexpensive than gold, palladium, and platinum.
Stones – Man-made, i.e., a synthetic stone are cheaper than those shaped by nature, even though they are the same chemically. Not everything has to be always diamonds – moissanite, for example, is very much the choice for the diamond. You can play with colors of gemstones in the ring!
Stone settings – Traditional claw setting looks good in rings, no matter what
Jewelry manufacturing – Is the product made by hand or casted.
2. Size
The size of the ring should be planned carefully – of course the diameter is the most important thing. The ring should be tight so that it shouldn’t fall off itself, but loose, so the ring is easy to take off the finger.
There’s also another things to consider – how thick the shank of the ring should be and how wide. Thin (less than 1 mm) ring usually tends to bend over the use, than thicker shanks, such as 1.2 mm thickness. Even a small amount of thickness adds durability that can take a lot!
3. Material
There’s a lot of different kind of materials to use in the jewelry making. The engagement rings are usually silver, titanium, steel, or gold. Wedding rings are often gold, even though there is a lot of different kind of gold alloys – white gold, yellow gold, rose gold… The purity of the gold means how durable it is. There may not be pure 999 gold jewelry, because the gold is so soft, it wouldn’t last in regular use. The best alloy for the regular use is 750 or 585 gold. In white gold, there is alloys, that can contain nickel, to make the yellow fade from the yellow gold. Nowadays several goldsmiths use the gold-palladium alloy, what does not contain any nickel.
4. Style
Matching rings give even more feeling of togetherness. If you already have an engagement ring, you can ask goldsmith to do wedding ring that fits the same style with engagement ring. If you think together with your goldsmith, you will get what you want.
There are several styles of rings; You can choose the type of ring shank, do you want the traditional round ring, whit hammered surface, or by-pass shank with halo-stone setting? You can mix and match with different styles until you find a ring style that speaks to you.
5. Stone settings
Stones and stone settings give more unique look to the ring. All stone settings are not suitable to all kind of ring shanks, but with a little changes everything is possible.
You can find more information about stone settings here.
6. Jewelry manufacturing
Casted jewelry is more inexpensive than hand-made jewelry. Casted rings are a little bit brittle inside because the metal isn’t getting made from the scratch as the hand-made ones are – still the casted rings aren’t bad choice, especially if the person who makes the casts is professional. When doing jewelry by hand, there’s a lot of hammering and when hammering, metal tends to harden. That is why hand-made jewelry is more durable in everyday use. Sometimes the casting is only option, depending what kind of ring is in making.
Types of ring shank
There’s a lot of different styles of ring shanks, and some of them can be mixed. The shank style means a lot, how for example the stone is showing off in the ring – round stone seems differend in the split shank than in traditional round-profiled ring.
Split shank
In splitted shank the shank splits into two. Usually there’s a stone setted into the splitted part. This kives a ring a unique style, and can make an illusion of the bigger ring.
Tapered shank
In this shank type the top part is wider thant the bottom part – or the bottom part is wider than the top part. In this style you have to be aware of the thinner part, that it doesn’t worn out and broke.
Bypass
Bypass shank style is mostly used with stone settings. This shank can be shaped in any direction, using the stone’s shape as a guide.
Pinched
The ends of the ring has been pinched in this shank style. Pinched ends can be thin, so check that the shank is thick enough for this style. If there’s a setted stone between the ends, there’s a possibility that the stone setting will fall out if the pinched ends are too thin.
© Kilahus 2020