Cutting- edge Wedding Jewelry Styles for Your Modern Wedding

By Ellen Williams


Tungsten may be very hard and scratch proof, but it is actually very brittle. Well, not brittle as in you can throw it against the floor and it will shatter, but it could chip. So, a ring made out of tungsten carbide can be easily removed by cracking it into pieces with standard vice or vice-grip pliers. Standard ring cutters will not work.

This is not true, in fact because tungsten carbide is so hard, it is also quite brittle. In an event where it has to be removed, squeezing the ring with a pair of vice grips or pliers will actually shatter the ring into two or three pieces. In some ways this is a much easier way to remove a ring than say titanium or gold which have to be cut to remove from the finger.

Tungsten rings are particularly durable, especially compared to other popular metals like titanium. While this is typically a positive aspect---they are harder to scratch and damage than other rings---it can also pose a safety hazard. In certain emergencies, wearing a ring may be hazardous for the wearer and require emergency removal.

While hospitals and emergency workers are usually equipped for such a scenario, tungsten is too hard to be cut off by standard ring cutters. It is possible, but it requires vice grip pliers and considerable effort. Complications can arise if the wearer is in a situation that prevents the ring from being easily accessed by pliers.

One can remove tungsten rings in emergencies with no further injury or discomfort to the wearer, while gold rings often bend out of round during trauma & cut or compress fingers in painful ways, & getting a cutting tool between the bent gold ring & injured finger in order to remove it can be excruciating. Tungsten rings, on the other hand, cannot bend out of round, & have often actually protected the ring finger from the brunt of the trauma.




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