Are wooden wedding rings durable?

Are wooden wedding rings durable?

It depends on how much of the ring is wood. A band made only of wood is soft next to any metal, it swells and shrinks with water and warmth and a thin band can crack along the grain. People do wear them, but they are better as a ring for the honeymoon or the garden than as one worn every day for decades.

A wood inlay ring sets the wood into a channel in a metal band. Ours are titanium. The titanium is the structure of the ring, the part that holds its shape and its size. Its edges stand either side of the wood and take the knocks first. The wood is the colour and the grain. That is why an inlay ring can be worn every day where an all wood ring struggles.

Titanium and wood wedding rings: Every wood ring we make, centred, off centre or between chamfered edges.

What is stabilised wood?

Stabilised wood has been filled with resin under vacuum, so the resin takes the place of air in the wood's pores and sets hard inside it. The result is harder and much less inclined to take in water than the raw timber, while the grain and colour stay those of the wood.

The wood in our rings is stabilised hardwood. Each ring's grain comes from its own piece of timber, so no two carry exactly the same figure.

Can you get a wood ring wet?

Splashes are fine: washing your hands, rain, the washing up. What to avoid is a long soak. Our maker recommends keeping every wood inlay out of long soaks and away from harsh cleaners, so a long bath, a swim or a hot tub is a moment for the ring to come off.

That is the one real care point. It is worth being honest about before you choose, because someone who swims every morning may be happier with a ring that never needs taking off.

How to look after a wedding ring: Cleaning, storing and when to take it off.

Which woods can you choose?

Our centred wood inlay comes in eleven woods: Chakte Kok, which runs deep red; African ebony, nearly black; olive, pale and streaked; and oak, black walnut, bocote, cocobolo, iroko, snakewood, thuya and ziricote. The off centre and chamfered designs come in five woods each. Every wood is photographed on its ring's page.

Two rings in the same wood make a matched pair. Two different woods make a pair that still plainly belongs together.

Wood inlay: A channel of real wood round the centre, in eleven woods.

Wood inlay, offset: A wide band of wood set off centre.

Wood inlay, chamfered edges: Wood between chamfered titanium edges.

What width should a wood ring be?

A wider band shows more timber. At 8 to 10mm the wood leads and the grain is easy to read across a room. At 4 to 6mm it is a fine line of colour between two strips of metal. The try-on draws any of the wood rings on a photo of your own hand, at the width you choose, which is the quickest way to decide.

Ring try-on: See a wood ring on your own hand, free.

Can a wood inlay ring be resized?

Plan on no. Titanium can sometimes be machined a little larger but never smaller. An inlay limits even that, because the channel and the wood in it run all the way round. Settle the size before you order with the size finder, which allows for band width.

Can titanium rings be resized?: What can and cannot be done to each metal.

Ring size finder: Measure at home in about two minutes.

Inlay wedding rings explained: Solid gold, platinum or wood set into titanium or black zirconium.

Is a wood and titanium ring good for sensitive skin?

Titanium is hypoallergenic and is one of the safest metals for skin that reacts to nickel. It is also light, at about 4.5 grams per cubic centimetre, so even a wide wood ring sits almost unnoticed.

Metal allergies and hypoallergenic rings: Which metals suit sensitive skin.