Trying to decide between stainless steel jewelry and titanium jewelry? This information
website provides the pros and cons of each metal, so that you can make the right decision for
you.
Stainless Steel Jewelry
Stainless Steel Jewelry has increased in popularity over the last couple of decades, as it
provides a low cost alternative, that has some significant benefits over the traditional
competition.
Almost all steel jewelry is made from 316L Stainless Steel. This grade of steel is used
because it is the most hypoallergenic form of steel, which is important, as it is placed next
to the skin.
Stainless Steel is called stainless because of the use of chromium with the steel. This
prevents rusting. One of the greatest advantages of stainless steel jewelry over traditional
silver jewelry, is that it won’t tarnish. You can wear it in the pool, at the beach, or while
exercising, and it won’t tarnish or turn your skin green.
Stainless steel is also very strong. It will scratch like most other metals, but it won’t
bend and dent easily like gold or silver.
Titanium Jewelry
Titanium rings have become one of the most well know modern materials used in jewelry today.
It is beautiful to look at (similar to platinum) extremely strong and lightweight, but also
has its drawbacks.
One of the most persistant myths surrounding titanium jewelry is that it is scratchproof.
This one we can lay to rest right here – it’s not. In fact, compared to alternatives like
zirconia ceramic and tungsten carbide, it’s relatively soft. It is more scratch resistant
than gold or silver, but titanium’s real strengths lie elsewhere. Tungsten for example, is
four times harder than titanium.
Titanium does however, have the greatest strength to weight ratio of any metal on earth.
Simply put, this means that titanium is as strong as steel, but only half the weight. This
translates into a ring that won’t bend or dent like the soft metals will, but is so light on
your finger you will forget that you are wearing it. If you’re looking for a wedding ring,
but hate the feel of a ring on your finger, then titanium is definitely the metal for you.
Titanium’s other strength is that it is 100% hypoallergenic. This is why it has replaced
surgical steel as the metal of choice for use within the human body (for hip replacements,
metal pins and plates etc.). If you really want to wear a metal, then titanium is the
“healthiest” metal you can wear.
Another hidden talent of titanium is that it is one of, if not the most environmentally
friendly metals to produce. It is recycleable, and it is also abundant. Titanium’s expense
lies in the fact that it’s difficult to produce, and difficult to work with. Titanium
actually comes from certain types of sand, which are abundantly available, and more
importantly do not require open cut or damaging mining practices like platinum, gold and
silver. Additionally, the aforementioned metals also produce siginificant additional waste
during the refining process that titanium doesn’t. This may be reason enough for you to run
with titanium jewelry.
So which should you choose? Stainless Steel or Titanium?
Only you can decide! They are both strong, won’t bend or dent easily, won’t tarnish, and will
both still scratch. The real difference comes down to price, weight (comfort), and desirability.