Gold Rings

You cannot blame De Beers for trying, especially when they see impressive success with the campaign ‘A Diamond is Forever’. But frankly, a diamond signifying an eternal relationship is nonsense. I say gold is a better metaphor.

The fact is, gold is a more celebrated material since as a metal it is a reusable material. And unlike diamond, gold sells on the secondary market fast. Diamonds have the tendency to become a difficult asset, and rarely anything can be as difficult to sell on the secondary market as diamonds.

But wait, we are discussing about gold rings yes? So we go to our main topic, about choosing your engagement ring.

Even with diamonds, gold is still a staple material as far as elegance and value in a ring is pursued. Diamond solitaire rings, the ones that where heavily marketed by De Beers, where in fact diamonds on a gold ring. Almost every traditional engagement ring goes with the customary yellow gold.

So would you choose gold for your engagement ring? You should know too, that there exist other ring materials as well, that have characteristics quite different from gold. Aside from the more common silver, there is platinum and titanium. The latter two metals are quite renowned for their tensile strength and lightweight that makes essential on any ring application. And since as a precious metal they are rarer than gold, they (platinum at least) are more expensive than gold rings.

One of the things that you ought to consider when choosing gold rings is the carat. Higher quality gold rings are along the 18K line, lower than that like 14K and the gold metal has a high chance to tarnish over time. Higher than that, like 24K or 22K (especially popular carat line in India) and the gold metal lose much structural integrity, thereby lessening is long lasting factor as a jewelry ring. There are other high quality 24K gold rings that exist though these rings are intended to worn only occasionally and should be removed when the occasion is not appropriate. These gold rings are sometimes called party rings, or cocktail rings, and usually has a large gem adorning it.

Gold, along with silver, is by far the weakest metal to be used on rings. That’s why on gold gem stone rings, the mountings are usually made of stronger material such as steel on older models and platinum or titanium on newer models. This is to afford more security than the gold metal can naturally afford. And on a more common scale, gold rings also make use of bezel setting since the designs allows more securing even on a soft metal like gold.

Here’s an option, why not skip altogether those gems and have a plain gold band instead? You might even be interested. What I am talking about is Mokume Gane.

Mokume Gane is a Japanese metal design, if translated would read as “wood grain”. This metal crafting technique involves several metals (with a higher proportion for gold) that are fused together thus creating a “patterned” metal that looks like grain in wood. This metallurgy technique had first surfaced during the Feudal era of Japan, in the Akita Prefecture, used to design the hilt and the guard of a samurai sword. Today, the Mokume Gane only has limitless possibilities. With the Mokume Gane design, 18 kt gold wedding rings look more exotic even without gemstones, because the gold ring themselves become objects of interest. In fact, mounting a gem on a Mokume Gane gold ring will only destroy its charm.

The only thing is that Mokume Gane gold rings are very rare, as the skill in making these kind of metal is exceedingly rare.