There are many misconceptions and falsehoods about tungsten rings. Learn the truth about these durable, beautiful bands.

The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of falsehoods about tungsten carbide rings. Since they're newer to the market, many people are unfamiliar with tungsten carbide.

Many jewelers would like to dissuade you from considering a tungsten carbide ring, because they are not educated on them (or just don't sell them!). Here are a few of the myths we hear regularly and the truths about tungsten carbide rings that make them an excellent option.

Myth

Tungsten carbide rings cannot be removed in the event of an accident, and may cause your finger to be amputated.

Fact

Actually, if you're in an accident, a tungsten carbide ring is one of the safest rings to have on your hand! Because tungsten carbide rings are so dense, it is nearly impossible for them to deform or injure your finger in an accident. Wearing a tungsten carbide ring may even protect you. Rings made of silver, gold or even platinum may deform, becoming harder to get off or embedding in flesh. Hospitals have a number of ways to remove a tungsten carbide ring (depending on the accident) – none of which require amputation.

The durability and near-indestructability of tungsten carbide bands is why we say that if Superman were getting married, he'd want a Tungsten Pride wedding band.

Myth

Tungsten carbide rings should not contain nickel.

Fact

In truth, tungsten carbide wedding rings are not made from pure tungsten. Pure tungsten in its natural form is an ore, and does not polish up to the shine that people love about tungsten carbide rings. Makers of tungsten carbide rings need to combine tungsten ore in a powder form with various binders and sinter it all together at very high temperatures in order to achieve the desired result – a beautiful, polished and nearly indestructible tungsten carbide ring.

A nickel binder is the preferred formulation for tungsten carbide rings, as many other binders can cause your ring to discolor with wear. Many inexpensive rings use one of these lesser binders, and aren't pleasant to wear or look at!

Myth

Tungsten rings are only for men.

Fact

This couldn't be further from the truth! The same qualities that make tungsten carbide rings so great for men make them great for women as well. The strength and beauty of tungsten carbide matches well to a woman's own strength and beauty.

Tungsten Carbide Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.tungsten-carbide.com.cn
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
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LIKE that unnecessary third pork pie and the seasonal 9am glass of sherry, darts has become firmly wedged into my ever-increasing list of guilty Yuletide pleasures.

Christmas is a good get-out clause for virtually any out-of-character behaviour that good sense and wise judgement otherwise prevents. Quality Street for breakfast? Well it is Christmas. Port and Irn Bru aperitif? Well it’s only once a year.

That’s why it seems the perfect time of year for a fortnight-long festival of debauchery, or the PDC World Darts Championships as it’s officially known.

The arrow chucking provides me with yet another perfect excuse to brandish the festive “get-out-of-jail” card.

The appalling walk-on music and tacky dancing girls, the wall-to-wall fancy dress and primeval chants of the boisterous, boozed-up hordes. It assaults the senses like nothing else in sport.

The Alexandra Palace may have been created as a place of grandeur where the BBC broadcast its first TV transmission. But the splendour of the Ally Pally in late December is no place for finesse or understatement; it is a shrine to the lairy.

The scene can appear quite unsettling, particularly when the punters who have paid good money to attend seem too caught up in chanting to actually watch the on-stage action.

But on New Year’s Day even the crowd, intermittently at least, paid attention. The final pitted 15-time world champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor against the remarkable young pretender Michael Van Gerwen.

The darts the Dutchman produced in the first six sets were extraordinary. Utterly machine-like in their repetitive, pinpoint precision.

Suddenly the sport’s greatest-ever looked frail. The only thing that could stop MVG was himself, or more precisely, his mind.

Under the weight of Van Gerwen’s constant heavy scoring, Taylor was on the ropes as he helplessly watched his rival take aim at a double for a decisive 5-2 lead.

But at that moment it happened. The Dutchman fatally allowed himself a momentary glimpse of the winning line and it finished him.

Suddenly the unerring eye grew wayward. Taylor, as great champions of all sports can, spotted his rival’s weakness and exploited it without mercy or pity.

The Power stormed to the finish, and when his tungsten arrowed unerringly into the winning double 16, I surprised myself by bellowing to acclaim a stunning 16th world title.

And then things all went a bit flat. The ultimate point of celebration had also sparked the end of the party and the start of the hangover.

Just as when the Christmas tree comes down, and the dreaded return to work and routine looms, we have to face facts. It couldn’t last for ever. Or could it?

Just six days after the punters went home and the Ally Pally was busily restored to its stately glory, the gaudy, big-shirted circus rolled up in the unlikely surroundings of Surrey for the rival BDO World Darts Championships.

My pompous side would like to think my tastes are too refined for the festive goings-on at Frimley Green and the Alexandra Palace. That I find it all a bit too garish, obvious and outdated.

This is, of course, blatantly untrue. If I was being truly honest with myself, I’d love it.

Suspend reality, sink umpteen beers and join in the queasy larks. After all, it is Christmas.

Tungsten Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
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By now, most people have become aware of tungsten rings. They know tungsten rings and tungsten wedding bands for their extreme scratch resistance, durability and unique designer-style, and that they have become the best option for men and women looking for a ring or wedding band tough enough for every day wear.

But while tungsten rings are now commonplace in wedding ceremonies all over the world, people are still asking, “what is the difference between tungsten and tungsten carbide?”

    The Story Behind Tungsten:

    Tungsten- Chemical Symbol is W and Atomic Number is 74
    also known as: Wolfram
    First identified in 1781 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele
    Tungsten literally means "heavy stone"

Here at Tungsten World, a difference between tungsten carbide vs. tungsten rings does exist.

Essentially, the main differentiation between tungsten vs. tungsten carbide is the fact that one is an element and the other an alloy. Tungsten is element 74 on the periodic table and is known for its dark-grey color, high density and hardness. However, tungsten is difficult to work with in its elemental state.

Enter tungsten carbide.

Tungsten carbide is analloy of elements including tungsten, nickel, tantalum, niobium, titanium and chromium. High quality tungsten carbide, like that used in our Tungsten Forever™ tungsten rings, is composed with a large percentage of tungsten, giving the alloy the inherent hardness and dark-grey color tungsten implies. By adding the other trace metals, the benefits of tungsten are maximized, and the resulting metal is able to be better worked into the many unique styles.

whether you want to call them tungsten rings vs. tungsten carbide rings, if you’re shopping with Tungsten World you’ll be getting the very best tungsten carbide products on the planet!

Tungsten Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
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The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act contains provisions for publicly listed companies in the US using minerals sourced from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries – an area familiar to our industry and long-plagued by violent conflict. A conflict that has claimed 5.5 million lives to date.

The minerals identified by law-makers as contributing to the violence are tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold. Provisions 1502-1504 of the Act require companies to exercise due diligence, identifying then declaring (publicly) whether they use raw materials implicated in perpetuating the conflict.

The mining sector in the Great Lakes Region of Africa is artisanal and hundreds of thousands depend on it for their livelihoods. The Dodd-Frank Act does not seek to discourage companies from doing business there, it simply sets a precedent that holds companies to account and encourages them to improve raw material traceability, backed up by regional initiatives like provision of labs equipped to carry out mineral “finger-printing”.

The provisions aim to cultivate an awareness in companies of where raw materials come from and give consumers the opportunity to decide whether to buy products from unregulated sources in DRC (the findings are filed and publicly available on company websites).

There are other benefits too. For the miner, an end to conflict and harassment and better prices for goods – especially if they participate in traceability schemes such as the NGO Pact to trace coltan, or the Washington-based Electronic Industry’s Citizenship Coalition’s chain of custody scheme for conflict-free smelters. It also means an end to a conflict that spills across borders traumatising millions and for for the governments involved tax revenues.

Closer to home in the EU there is activity too. The focus: resource sustainability (ensuring adequate future supply of natural resources) in a globalised world with an ascendant and acquisitive China leading the charge for natural resources globally.

Viewed through this lens these provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act are part ideology, part realpolitik: they’re about levelling the playing field to pressure all companies to consider the implications of sourcing from conflict-affected areas. And should they decide to continue doing business in such places, they get involved with the process of supporting artisanal miners and isolated communities while preventing militias from taxing resource flows. A true win-win.

Initiatives are being developed at industry level by various NGOs. In our industry, no stranger to conflict minerals, the RJC is taking the lead with companies signing up in droves.

The point here is that while it’s currently the concern of the automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics and diversified industrials, the more we do as an industry to address these issues before regulation comes the better we look, the lower the risk of controversy and the better prepared we will be to respond if eventually the jewellery industry is held up to the kind of scrutiny and regulation advanced in Dodd-Frank Articles 1502-1504. The jury may be out on how many of our customers care about such issues, but it would seem the time is rapidly approaching where we – designer, jeweller, gemmologist alike – may be forced to consider these issues in more detail.

Tungsten Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
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