Recently tungsten and titanium have taken much of the market share due to the fact that they are similarly affordable and thus are popular with young people who just start working and have small budgets for wedding. As a result, many people say that the two are “alternative metals”, leading to the false impression that they are the same substance. Here we list a few subtitles under which we compare the two metals in order to guide the customers.
Composition:
For making titanium jewelry, titanium is often alloyed with a small amount of other metals or substances, which may include aluminum and vanadium. Tungsten carbide, the ceramic metal for tungsten jewelry, is a composite made from pure tungsten and an equal amount of carbon.
Hardness & Strength:
What contributes to the two’s popularities is their hardness. The two are much harder than traditional metals like platinum and gold. For example, in the Mohs scale test, tungsten carbide is graded 9 on the scale of 1 to 10.
Weight:
Weight can be the watershed between the two. Tungsten carbide is known for its heavy weight while a titanium ring is very light.
Color:
The natural colors of tungsten carbide and titanium are both grayish white. Both are available in black and silver white. With the development of jewelry plating techniques, nowadays there are tungsten carbide and titanium rings available in diverse colors such as yellow gold, rose gold and blue.
Scratch-resistance:
Though titanium is much more resistant to scratches than other metals such as gold, sterling silver and platinum, tungsten carbide easily outmatches titanium with its hardness which only diamond can be compared with.
Hypoallergenic:
Due to the fact that cobalt, an element that causes skin allergy, is often added in the process of producing tungsten carbide, most tungsten carbide rings are not skin friendly. By contrast, most titanium rings are hypoallergenic.
Ring removal:
There is misunderstanding or fear about wearing tungsten or titanium ring. That is, people fear that it will not be easy to remove the rings in case they are stuck on their fingers. The fact is that both types of rings can easily be removed with cutting tools or machines that most hospitals are equipped with for similar emergencies.
Engraving:
Texts or graphic images are often engraved on the inside of a ring. As titanium is relatively soft, craftsmen may adopt traditional engraving method, which is also applied to rings made of traditional metals. However, the information that tungsten carbide ring cannot be engraved with traditional method, leading to the false impression that it cannot be engraved at all. Tungsten carbide ring can be laser engraved. In fact, laser engravings are becoming popular with customers because they are smooth and comfort to wear.
View our mens fashion rings here: tungsten rings and titanium rings for men
