What metal would you guys recommend to melt into an engagement ring?

[thethule]

Hi all,

 

I was wondering what exotic metal you guys would recommend to turn into an engagement ring? When i pop the question, i was thinking of doing something different and getting a jeweler to melt a lump of my chosen metal into a ring and inset some stones. Originaly, i was thinking of something like palladium or rhodium or something similar, but ideally it would be a rare earth metal. Can these be polished to be nice and shiny? Would be great to have a nice shiny ring made from Ytterbium.. Will they tarnish easily or react to the moisture in the skin?

 

My girlfriend knows im into chemistry and physics and is forever calling me a geek, but i think she would appreciate the originality..

 

Any ideas would be very welcome.

 

Thanks!

[Dak]

mayhaps you could do something romantic along the lines of what the element's names mean (NOTE: it is totally your responsability to make sure these aren't contact-poisons )

 

from wiki:

 

Cerium -- roman god of fertility (if you want babbies)

 

dyspropium -- from the Greek "dysprositos" meaning hard to get. (have to work hard to get her?)

 

Lutetium -- just sounds nice imo

 

good luck btw

[Phi for All]

Tungsten makes an almost scratch-proof ring, and I love the dark color, high-gloss and weight (and did I mention it's nigh scratch-proof?), but women don't always agree. You could do an inlay of a brighter metal like platinum or palladium as a good contrast.

 

Btw, tungsten means "heavy stone", so you may have to put a pretty big rock on top. Good luck, whatever you do, I'm sure she'll love it.

[frosch45]

how bout francium, france is very romantic :D :D :D

 

there's always platinum, but personally i think that an alloy is cooler than any one single element

[thethule]

Tungsten isnt very sexy though is it?..i think even SHE knows that light bulb filaments are made from it. LOL.

 

The pictures i have seen of Ytterbium seem to convey a nice shiny metal, do you think it would polish nicely? And is it safe to have against the skin all day long?

 

Platinum is cool, but i wanted something very different...

 

DAK:

 

I like your suggestion! Ill look into meanings.

 

if the Lanthanides wont work (and im hoping they do) then i guess ill go for rhodium or iridium or something, but im worried that they may be too heavy. The ring obviously has to be comfortable to wear all day

 

Any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

And can i say what a great forum this is! I love it, it has rekindled my passion for science.

[blazarwolf]

Just research heavily that its completly inert and not toxic.... The heavist element you could find with gold or platnum plated would be pretty neat. It would have that frodo/ring of power feeling to it.

[SkepticLance]

No way!!!

 

When doing something for your girlfriend, to be your fiance and then your wife, never, never, never do what appeals to you.

 

The answer is to think about what appeals to her. Forget your own ideas. Think about her special interests, and especially anything that relates to something the two of you did.

 

When I got married, I did something my wife still loves 20 years after the wedding day. We met due to a mutual interest in the sea (I won't go into details). She thinks of the mutual marine interest as very romantic. For our wedding rings, I got a jeweller to design the rings with black coral inserts and a wave pattern on the ring to commemorate our meeting.

 

Get romantic. Forget your own quirks and do something for her.

[Moontanman]

I've often wanted to try my hand at designing jewelry and the idea of a ring made of one of the super strong magnet alloys. I also like the idea of a tungsten ring with maybe a coil of platinum around it. But the previous poster is correct get her what she wants not what you want, you'll be glad you did!

[jdurg]

All of the lanthanoid elements will tarnish over time. When in constant contact with the skin, that's even more produced. All of my lanthanoids, even though they're well protected, have tarnished over the few years I've had them so they wouldn't make a good choice.

 

Rhodium will cost you a fortune as it's the most expensive non-radioactive element out there. (Currently around $4,500 an ounce, or even more. Haven't checked in a few days).

 

I would possibly suggest a Scandium ring with a band of Palladium in there. The Scandium will slowly tarnish a yellow color while the Palladium will remain bright and shiny silver. Would look great as time goes on.

[Gilded]

This was discussed some time ago in General Discussion as well, perhaps there are some useful ideas here:

http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34999

 

I personally think that iridium is a great choice, but as SkepticLance mentioned you should probably add some sort of personal touch based on common interests or something.

[thethule]

No way!!!

 

When doing something for your girlfriend, to be your fiance and then your wife, never, never, never do what appeals to you.

 

The answer is to think about what appeals to her. Forget your own ideas. Think about her special interests, and especially anything that relates to something the two of you did.

 

When I got married, I did something my wife still loves 20 years after the wedding day. We met due to a mutual interest in the sea (I won't go into details). She thinks of the mutual marine interest as very romantic. For our wedding rings, I got a jeweller to design the rings with black coral inserts and a wave pattern on the ring to commemorate our meeting.

 

Get romantic. Forget your own quirks and do something for her.

 

 

I totally understand where yo are coming from, and i completely agree. im not planning on doing something overly geeky with the ring, im planning on getting a ring designed that i know she will love (nice and simple), and just wanted to use a different metal. Something that she would be happy with that is different from the usual silver/gold ones out there. I am a bit of a science geek, but im not the kind who do something silly. I know how to make her happy.

 

I just thought it would be nice to have a different metal in the band. I know my girlfriend, she will love it. Since it seems the rare earths WILL tarnish, looks like im going to go for Palladium. Do you guys think iridium or Osmium would be too heavy as a ring? Heck, maybe ill splash out on some rhodium too....

 

Thanks for the link Gilded ill have a look when i get to work.

 

Cheers guys!

[Gilded]

No problem.

 

While palladium is a suitable metal it isn't really that "different" if that's a major factor here. It is used in white gold which is a very common jewelry material. As for Ir/Os being too heavy... probably not. They're not that much denser than gold after all.

 

If you want a pure, custom iridium ring you should probably contact American Elements. They haven't been manufacturing them for too long so you'd be among the first.

[hermanntrude]

How about rose (red) gold? It's an impure alloy of gold... probably with copper or something in it. It has a beautiful reddish colour to it. It's my favourite decorative metal.

 

here's an example:

 

[Mr Skeptic]

Tungsten isnt very sexy though is it?..i think even SHE knows that light bulb filaments are made from it. LOL.

 

She's a bright one, eh?

 

As for alternative metals for jewelry, I think that they already use all the metals that are inert and pretty in jewelry.

 

No way!!!

 

When doing something for your girlfriend, to be your fiance and then your wife, never, never, never do what appeals to you.

 

The answer is to think about what appeals to her. Forget your own ideas. Think about her special interests, and especially anything that relates to something the two of you did.

 

When I got married, I did something my wife still loves 20 years after the wedding day. We met due to a mutual interest in the sea (I won't go into details). She thinks of the mutual marine interest as very romantic. For our wedding rings, I got a jeweller to design the rings with black coral inserts and a wave pattern on the ring to commemorate our meeting.

 

Get romantic. Forget your own quirks and do something for her.

 

Very sound advice here. Especially for an engagement ring which she will presumably be wearing the rest of her life, it should be something she wants.

[thethule]

She's a bright one, eh?

 

As for alternative metals for jewelry, I think that they already use all the metals that are inert and pretty in jewelry.

 

 

 

Very sound advice here. Especially for an engagement ring which she will presumably be wearing the rest of her life, it should be something she wants.

 

What i meant by "even SHE" , is she knows nothing of metals and chemistry. Shes not dumb and i hope you were not implying that. And if it was a pun on the word filament, then i salute you!

 

As for the advice on the engagement ring, i appreciate where you are coming from and i agree with you, suffice it to say that i know what she would like and im not going to do anything unromantic and stupid. I know what im doing.

 

Im not gonna make a ring and tell her , its made out of cerium and gadolinium, isnt that cooooooooooollll!!!!!!!!???? LOL

 

I just want something a bit different

 

Back on the subject, researching it some more, it does seem that all the useable metals are in fact used quite frequently in jewelery design. All the lanthanides are out as are scandium, osmium, iridium and others due to their (albeit low) toxocity. Still, dont really want her finger to fall off. So, im kind of back to square one..

[Phi for All]

jdurg has a good point about tarnishing. Tungsten carbide is the one they use for jewelry and it's not supposed to scratch or tarnish ever (diamonds will scratch it, of course). They also do inlays with the rose gold hermanntrude mentioned, and I agree that it's quite lovely.

Do you guys think iridium or Osmium would be too heavy as a ring?

If your fiance is prone to fits of temper, a heavy ring will hurt more when she hurls it at you. For drama queens, I suggest aluminum.

[HarleySpirit]

An engagement ring is traditionally made of 24 karat Au. With a tacky little chunk of carbon set in the edge, that your local jeweler will call a Solitaire. However, if she does not accept the Solitaire, you may wind up playing it.

[hermanntrude]

They also do inlays with the rose gold hermanntrude mentioned, and I agree that it's quite lovely.

 

it's not just inlays. you can make a whole ring out of it... it's quite strong thanks to the copper

[thethule]

An engagement ring is traditionally made of 24 karat Au. With a tacky little chunk of carbon set in the edge, that your local jeweler will call a Solitaire. However, if she does not accept the Solitaire, you may wind up playing it.

 

Sorry mate, but i HATE solitaires and so does she. I have no intention of buying one. And if i ever did buy a diamond ring, it would be a nice antique one.

 

...plus i know she will accept

 

it's not just inlays. you can make a whole ring out of it... it's quite strong thanks to the copper

 

Thats definately interesting..something different at least

[Mr Skeptic]

What i meant by "even SHE" , is she knows nothing of metals and chemistry. Shes not dumb and i hope you were not implying that. And if it was a pun on the word filament, then i salute you!

 

It's your choice how you interpret it. Are you spending your time replying to a clever and witty guy, or a moron with bad manners?

 

For what it's worth, my grandma has never even herd of tungsten, nor does she know what lightbulb filaments are made of. Well, now she does, but she didn't a while ago.

 

it's not just inlays. you can make a whole ring out of it... it's quite strong thanks to the copper

 

It's got lots of pluses. It's unusual, and should be both harder (and thus less likely to get scratched or wear) and cheaper due to the higher copper content.

[jdurg]

I would not go with Osmium myself. While the metal is a BEAUTIFUl blue color, the powder form does oxidize to form an incredibly toxic compound, and while the solid metal is less likely to do it, I don't think enough research has been done on the solid metal in constant contact with human flesh.

[thethule]

I would not go with Osmium myself. While the metal is a BEAUTIFUl blue color, the powder form does oxidize to form an incredibly toxic compound, and while the solid metal is less likely to do it, I don't think enough research has been done on the solid metal in constant contact with human flesh.

 

Oh yeah, id already discounted Osmium (sadly) after reading about its oxide. All the cool metals are out, Osmium, Iridium, Yttrium...

 

Just out of curiosity, how much metal roughly is there is a ring? 10-20 g? Obviously depends on the meatl. Maybe i could splash out for some rhodium..though i wonder if the jeweler would have trouble working with it, and if i would trust him...F**k it, maybe i should just go and find a nice antique ring..

 

I appreciate all the replies guys..

[Gilded]

Looking at a 5g piece of iridium at the moment I'd say 20g sounds about right. I wouldn't plate it with rhodium though, it has an amazing luster by itself (and I don't think it's any less corrosion resistant than rhodium).

[Mr Skeptic]

Oh yeah, id already discounted Osmium (sadly) after reading about its oxide. All the cool metals are out, Osmium, Iridium, Yttrium...

 

Just out of curiosity, how much metal roughly is there is a ring? 10-20 g? Obviously depends on the meatl. Maybe i could splash out for some rhodium..though i wonder if the jeweler would have trouble working with it, and if i would trust him...F**k it, maybe i should just go and find a nice antique ring..

 

I appreciate all the replies guys..

 

Find out how much a gold ring weighs, then divide by the density of gold. That will give you the volume of the ring. Then multiply that by the density of the metal you want to make a ring from.

[thethule]

Find out how much a gold ring weighs, then divide by the density of gold. That will give you the volume of the ring. Then multiply that by the density of the metal you want to make a ring from.

 

I know the maths mate, i was wondering if anyone knew what the average gold ring weight is. Thanks though, now you have insinuated that both me AND my girlfriend are dumb...

 

Also, GILDED, i wasnt going to rhodium plate the osmium, im not using osmium as it could be dangerous.

 

 

Marc