What does a black wedding ring mean?

What does a black wedding ring mean?

There is no traditional meaning. Wedding rings in Britain have been gold for centuries. Black rings only became common once metals that could be made black and stay black came along. People choose them because they like how they look.

Couples often give their own meaning to a black ring: something strong, plain and permanent, or simply a ring that does not look like everyone else's. Those meanings are real because you chose them, not because tradition handed them down. On the fourth finger of the left hand, anyone who sees it reads it as a wedding ring.

What does a black ring on the right middle finger mean?

This is the one black ring with a recognised meaning. Some people in the asexual community wear a black ring on the middle finger of the right hand, often called an ace ring, as a quiet way of identifying themselves.

It is about which finger as much as the colour. A black band on the left ring finger is a wedding ring. If you wear yours on the right hand, as many people in Europe do, use the fourth finger and it will read the same way.

Which hand and finger?: Where wedding rings are worn in the UK and around the world.

Were black rings once mourning rings?

In Victorian Britain black jewellery was mourning jewellery, often made from Whitby jet or black enamel and worn in memory of someone who had died. That association has long faded. Nobody now reads a black wedding band as a sign of mourning.

What are black wedding rings made of?

It matters more than the meaning, because it decides whether the black lasts. Black zirconium is zirconium heated until its own surface turns to a hard black oxide, around Mohs 8. The black is grown from the metal rather than laid on top, so it is black on the face, the edges and the inside.

Black titanium, black tungsten and black steel are usually a grey metal with a black coating. Like any coating, it wears where the ring rubs hardest, so the edges and the face turn grey over time. Ask what makes a black ring black before you buy one.

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

Why black plating wears off: Grown black and plated black are not the same.

Black rings with gold, bright metal or a stone

Black takes another colour well. A line of gold set into a black band, edges cut back to the bright metal underneath or a single black diamond set into titanium all keep the ring dark while giving it a detail that catches the light.

Black also pairs easily with a partner's ring in another metal. A black band beside a gold one looks deliberate rather than mismatched, because the contrast is the point.

Plain black zirconium: Black from edge to edge, satin or polished.

Gold line, black dome: A line of 9ct gold set into a dome of black zirconium.

Relieved black: Black zirconium with its edges cut back to bright metal.

Black diamond, titanium: One black diamond set into a domed titanium band.

Can you mix metals?: Pairing black, gold and titanium.

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

The claddagh ring: What the hands, heart and crown mean and how to wear it.

Is a black ring right for you?

Black suits someone who wants a ring that reads as a wedding ring without the shine of gold. It hides fine marks well in a satin finish and it looks good on every skin tone, though it reads differently on each. The try-on shows a black ring on a photo of your own hand, which settles the question faster than any description.

Black wedding rings: Every black ring we make.

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