Removing wedding ring without cutting it

Jewelry Discussion
21

Hi Ron,

the only thing that is going to get a tungsten ring off is a
diamond saw !

perhaps they shatter if struck? How about a small vise that can be
screwed onto it until is breaks?

Not applicable for the tungsten ring problem, but I read once about
an old method for breaking a stuck gold ring. You broke a thermometer
to get a drop of mercury (ok, there are not more of such thermometers
around as far as I can see-the stuff is too toxic), placed the drop
of mercury on the gold ring on the side opposite the stones where it
amalgamates, then hold it over alcohol, in the fumes. this is
supposed to cause an instant stress crack in the shank, breaking it,
which can then be twisted off.

best
charles

22

Cut the Ti ring on both sides, the same thing to do with any gold
ring that you do not want to bend it into scrap metal. Carbide rings,
haven’t had to remove one, but replace one for a customer, who saved
his hand when a very heavy object came down on his hand. The ring
broke, but by then the crane had reversed, no damage to the hand.
Any other ring would have been one more problem for the emergency
room to remove while treating the hand. Carbide has NO flex any
bending & it will break. One should be able to remove a carbide ring
with a good size vise, compress it just slightly, remove the pressure
& the pieces.

P.S. You can get diamond blades for your ring removal saw & attach
it to your flex shaft.

Mark Chapman

23

Ron, Thank you so much for sharing your opinion on those darn
tungsten/titanium rings!!!

When I worked retail, we’d have so many guys asking for these.
Probably half the male wedding ring shopping clientele. I felt like
such a smarty-pants-know-it-all because I had a little lecture about
the difficulties in getting that kind of metal off your finger if,
God forbid, something happened. We didn’t carry them, and I told
them

that was the reason why. I doubt they believed my warning, they
probably thought I was just trying to get them to buy something we
had.

Then, there came a day when a man started arguing about how he had
the proper tools to cut the ring off his finger if it was stuck. My
counter was: how are you going to do that if you only have the use of
one hand?

And who says only women follow trends?

Yikes, the thought of trying to get one of those things off a finger
makes me cringe!

Amery Carriere Designs
Romantic Jewelry with an Edge
www.amerycarriere.com

24

Regarding how to remove titanium & tungsten bands:

I was speaking to a manufacturer of tungsten rings and asked him
this same question–what happens if I sell a ring and later a
customer can’t get it off? If it can’t be cut off, could I end up
being liable for any resulting problems?

He replied that although it is true that it’s very hard to cut
tungsten, it’s not hard to break it. He advice was to put the ring
(and the person’s finger I suppose) in a vice, tighten the vice
against the ring, and then slowly tighten the vice until the ring
cracks. I haven’t experimented with this solution yet, but it makes
sense in an emergency situation.

Regarding the comment / suggestion that titanium &/or tungsten not
be used for jewelry:

When I was in Tucson this past February I was on a shuttle bus &
some people were discussing the increasing popularity of steel,
titanium, and tungsten jewelry. One store owner made the comment “I
own a jewelry store, not a hardware store, and it’ll be a cold day in
hell before you find any of those metals in my store!”

My feeling is “to each his own” and if a person doesn’t like, or
doesn’t want to sell, alternative metal jewelry than that’s their
perogative. IMHO, however, some of the stainless and titanium designs
coming out now are really nice. Check out Spectore Corporation’s
designs if you want to see what I mean. (And BTW–I don’t buy from
them, so no conflict of interest here). Then again, I’m just a lowly
sterling silver retailer, so what do I know? As far as tungsten goes,
men love the fact that it absolutely does not scratch!

Is anyone suggesting that there are some materials that are
acceptable for use in manufacturing jewelry but other materials that
are not? By what standards or whose criteria? Where can I buy this
list?

What is jewelry, anyway? Different cultures use all different types
of crazy materials to adorn themselves with and to create wearable
art, i.e., jewelry.

Doug

25 
perhaps they shatter if struck? How about a small vise that can be
screwed onto it until is breaks?

In the event of a medical emergency in which the finger is already a
problem both of these ideas are not going to work. I’m with Ron on
this one. Perhaps the people who are making the tungsten rings might
want to reconsider what they are doing.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

26

Hi Charles,

It seems that no one has thus far come up with a solution for the
titanium or carbide ring removal problem. I rest my case…if
these problems are not addressed there are going to be some really
messy emergency room situations. I think that I will run this by my
doctor. It is very likely that this scenario has not yet been put to
the test except in emergency situations.The arthritic nuckle swelling
and the progressive obesity situations take years to develop.The
titanium ring problem could easily be addressed by using a power
device which uses an abrasive cutoff wheel, but, even so, it would
necessitate cutting the ring in two halves because titanium has no
practical flexibility. Using this line of thinking, it might also be
feasible to rig a power cutoff saw using diamond blades to cut off
carbide rings. In this scenario it is probable that you would have to
use at least a water coolant to avoid excessive heat buildup. It
seems to me that we have a small business opportunity here ! I can
easily see either of these devices being standard equipment in
emergency everywhere…especially if they were adaptable to using
the sawing mode for the traditional jewelry metals.

Best wishes,
Ron Mills, Mills Gem Co.Los Osos, Ca.

27

For those of us who are general service providers, ring removal is
always attended by anxiety and dread by the person with the "stuck"
ring. I always have to calm the person down and explain that it is
not a painful procedure…but, even so, the “victim” is seldom
convinced. Now, if I were to suggest to some little old lady that she
should put her hand in a vise while I tightened it, I think there
might be a good chance of her having a heart attack at the thought of
it ! On the other hand, if some macho dude wants to wear a tungsten
carbide ring as an attention getter, let him go for it…he might
even “get it off” on being macho enough to put his hand in a vise ! (
Especially if he had an audience ) Otherwise, it is certainly
irrelevant what people wear as adornment…to each his own.

Ron MIlls, Mills Gem Co. Los Osos, Ca.

28

Being a fireman I’ve had several calls just for this reason. One
method that works really well is this (I hope this makes sense) Take
a piece of string, bigger then sewing string smaller then a shoelace,
and pace one end in between the finger and the ring. you’ll now have
two ends sticking out each side of the ring. starting at the end
closest your finger tip, start to wrap the string clockwise,starting
as close to the ring as you can. when you get the finger wrapped
passed the knuckle you can now start to unwrap the other end counter
clockwise. some times a little liquid soap helps.

J Mac

29

Ti rings have and can be cut by the standard ring cutting devices
just slower than gold but probably no worse than platinum. Tungsten
carbide is a different story it cannot be cut with anything short of
a diamond saw but can be cracked with vise grips but that can cause
more trauma.

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550