What is the most durable metal for a wedding ring?

Which wedding ring metal is the most durable?

It depends on which kind of wear worries you. If it is scratches, the zirconium rings win: the surface of black zirconium is about Mohs 8 and anodised zirconium about 8.5, against 4 to 4.5 for ordinary steel and 5.5 for glass. Keys, door handles and desks are softer than the ring, so they cannot scratch it.

If it is a ring that lasts for fifty years and can be passed on, platinum is the answer among the precious metals. It is softer, at about Mohs 4.5. It does mark. But a scratch on platinum pushes the metal aside rather than taking it away, so the ring softens to a patina instead of growing thinner. A polish brings it back.

Black zirconium: The heat grown black surface and how it wears.

What is platinum 950?: The 950 hallmark and why platinum stays white.

How the metals rank for scratches

From hardest to softest on the Mohs scale, using the figures on our material pages: anodised zirconium about 8.5, black zirconium about 8, titanium 6, palladium 4.75, platinum 4.5, 9ct gold 3.5, 18ct gold 3 and sterling silver 2.75.

The Mohs scale is an order, not a measure: each step is a material that scratches the one below it. The gaps between steps are not equal. So read it as a ranking. A ring at 8 shrugs off what marks a ring at 3 within a week. A ring at 6 sits in between.

Metal chooser: Answer five questions and see which metal suits how you live.

Is the hardest ring the one that lasts longest?

Not always. Hardness is resistance to scratching. A ring also has to survive knocks and years of rubbing. That is a different strength.

Black zirconium is a hard black surface over a softer metal core. A hard knock against stone or steel can mark it and show the lighter metal underneath. Our maker refinishes it depending on the damage. Anodised colour is a surface finish too, so it wears first where a ring rubs hardest, which is why many of our designs keep the colour in grooves where it is protected. Titanium picks up fine marks but is strong right through. It is also light, at 2.2g for a 6mm band.

Gold and platinum are the opposite: soft on the surface and solid metal all the way through. They mark more, but there is no coating to wear off and any jeweller can polish them back.

Is black zirconium good for a wedding ring?: How the black wears, skin and resizing.

Is titanium good for a wedding ring?: Weight, scratches and skin.

Which gold is the most durable?

9ct. It is 37.5% gold and the metals alloyed with it make it harder than 18ct, at about Mohs 3.5 against 3. On a ring worn every day that matters more than the carat number does.

Both will pick up fine marks in the first year. That is normal for gold and it polishes out. If you want gold and a harder surface together, a precious inlay ring sets a line of solid 9ct gold into titanium or black zirconium. The hard metal around it takes the knocks.

18ct or 9ct gold: Colour, hardness, weight and price side by side.

Inlay wedding rings explained: Solid gold set into a harder metal.

What about black rings and tungsten?

Avoid a black ring that is plated. Black plating is a coating on a lighter metal. It wears through on the edges first. Black zirconium is black because the surface of the metal itself has been turned black by heat, so there is no coating to lose.

Tungsten carbide is harder than titanium and keeps a polish for longer. It is also three and a half times as heavy, it cannot be resized and it can crack under a hard knock, so for most people it is not the more durable ring in practice.

Why black plating wears off: Plated black against grown black.

Tungsten or titanium: Weight, scratches and removal.

Which to choose for how you live

Hands on work, sport or the gym: titanium or black zirconium, in a satin or hammered finish, which hides fine marks better than a mirror polish. An office job and a ring you want to pass on: platinum or 9ct gold with a polish every few years.

To see the width and colour on your own hand before you choose, the ring try-on draws any of our rings onto a photo of your hand, free.

Lightest metal for a wedding ring: Every metal by weight, in grams.

Wedding rings for hands on jobs: Which rings stand up to physical work.

Satin, polished or hammered: Which finish hides wear best.

Ring try-on: See a ring on a photo of your own hand.