If you are shortly to announce your engagement and currently considering what engagement ring to choose, you may be wondering what the deal is with titanium engagement rings.
Titanium is a naturally occurring element that was discovered as long ago as 1791. However, it was only in the 20th century that a process was invented that enabled the production of it in a metallic form. Since then it has found a number of uses, including for jewelry. Specifically, titanium has become very popular for rings since the 1990s, and for quite a few different reasons.
Firstly titanium is not very expensive, which makes it ideal for relatively cheap engagement rings. It is quite an attractive metal, and very strong, yet at the same time light in weight, so it is an ideal choice for anyone who wants a good, solid ring, but not to feel encumbered by a lump of heavy metal on their finger.
The second very important factor is that titanium is hypoallergenic. Basically this means that, unlike various other metals, prolonged wearing of a ring made from titanium cannot produce an allergic reaction leading to any kind of rash or skin discoloration. Such problems can make life misery for some people, whose skin reacts unfavorably to silver or gold, and for them titanium engagement rings represent the perfect workaround.
Another excellent quality that titanium has is that it does not rust or tarnish, even after lengthy immersion in water. This makes it an ideal choice for anyone who likes to swim a lot. Conversely rings made from certain other metals, for example silver, would be inconvenient and need to be temporarily removed before swimming in the sea or at a swimming pool.
If you are interested in unusual engagement rings how about a colored titanium ring? Titanium is normally silver colored, but there is a process by which a range of colors can be induced into the surface of the metal. This is not done by dying but by immersing the ring in liquid and passing an electrical current through it. This results in a colorization of the outer layer of the metal, and these colored titanium engagement rings have quite a nice look depending on your taste.
It is necessary to point out a couple of drawbacks to titanium. The most important one is that, unlike gold or silver rings, which can be to an extent retooled into a different size, titanium’s strength is also its downfall. Therefore it is important to be completely satisfied with the fit of a titanium ring when buying it. There is no possibility of later retooling it if the fit is subsequently found to be less than ideal.
The second thing with titanium, which is not so much a drawback as something to be wary of when shopping for rings, is that titanium jewelry varies in its titanium content. Sometimes titanium is alloyed with other cheaper metals but still sold as titanium. Pure titanium engagement rings will naturally be somewhat more expensive than alloyed ones.
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