Men rings - How to choose? What do you wear?

[Trenchfriend]

It was too cute, to leave it in department store.
Nice stainless steel, 20 bucks.

 

[Trenchfriend]

But I found out, that the ring on middle finger is too disturbing, so I switched to forefinger and that's fine.

 

[Edward]

But I found out, that the ring on middle finger is too disturbing, so I switched to forefinger and that's fine.

I have a few rings like that which I sometimes wear on a forefinger or a middle finger, depending. Not uncommon on my right hand to wear no ring on the middle finger and one on each of the other three.

 

[Hats Matter]

I was just wandering around the FL and came across this thread which seems interesting to me. Rings are a very personal thing and for me they make me think of different life experiences. I am a bachelor so I do not wear a wedding ring. I do not wear a ring often but will do so on social occasions. I have done a bit of traveling in my life and have purchased stones for setting in a ring to remind me of the experience. For example, I purchased a blue sapphire in Sri Lanka and had it set in a ring. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and there are jewelers in San Francisco that can work with me to design a ring to set the stone. I like the rinfgs I have and may post a photo when I get a chance.

 

[Hats Matter]

Here is a photo of a blue sapphire ring that I had designed at a jeweler in San Francisco. The blue sapphire has purchased in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka. Hikkaduwa is south of Columbo on the coast with aa beautiful beach. I was in Sri Lanka to rest after a much longer trip in China with a group of people. Rural Sri Lanka is beautiful but Columbo is not a place I would want to visit again. Interestingly, I was visiting Kandy, which is a former tea plantation in the hill country, about 5 days after Hikkaduwa and visited a Hindu temple (known as the Temple of the Tooth). Less than a week after I was there the Tamil Tigers detonated a bomb at the temple and killed a few people.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Stainless steel party...

 

[alanfgag]

I recently began wearing my Dad's 1960s star sapphire ring. He had small hands, but found that it fits well on the ring finger of my left hand.

 

[GreyBard]

I wear an Irish braid ring, a spinner ring that looks like dragon scales and what I would deem as a medieval style ring, I’ll post pics when I can.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I still can't complain about my three stainless steel rings. They are just super comfortable.

 

[Edward]

It's getting to be time to purchase a ring for my FH, and I realized-- I have no idea where to start looking?

He would like one of those thick black ones, and I'm hoping to ask him if he'd be willing to have a strip of rose gold to tie our rings together. But I really have no idea where to start looking to send him examples of rings that he might like. Which I guess brings up a few more questions.

1. What is groom ring etiquette? did you surprise your FH/ now-hubby with a style (like an engagement ring? I have no real clue.) or did he pick it with you?

2. What is the average cost of a groom's ring?

3. Where did you purchase it?

In terms of etiquette, I don't think it matters much these days. I proposed to my wife on the sofa in our flat one Christmas Day, via a "Now you're forewarned....." handwritten message on the last page of the Ladybird book "The Husband: how it works". Among my group of friends, it's very mixed between those who did the traditional thing and those who did it differently, whether because she asked him, or they're a same sex couple making their own traditions, or whatever. I think it's nice for whomever is the asker to do it with a ring, though I like jewellery, so.... I know a couple of friends who proposed or were proposed to with a placeholder ring (which they kept and now wear on another finger) so they could choose their 'official' engagement ring as something they liked, given they'd be wearing it all the time...

As to sourcing rings, I bought my wife's from a Canadian custom jeweller on Etsy. I knew she wouldn't wear gold, so I had it made in silver, and as we're neither of us fans of the diamond trade, I had ruby and sapphire (our birth stones) set in it instead. It's a two ring set that forms a Claddagh, with the crown carry the stones as the engagement ring, and the hands / heart bit as the wedding ring. We ended up getting married during the pandemic - we realised that this was likely to impact all sorts of things, including travel (for guests too; I'm Irish living abroad in England, lot of family and friends still in the old country), didn't want to wait to be 'legal', and went ahead with just about four weeks' notice. Upshot of that is my ring is still a plain place-holder, but when we're able to do our blessing / party, I'll have the 'proper' ring (a very specific design with a TCB motif). Again, Etsy. There's a lot of great stuff on there.

For me, the wedding ring is symbolic, and (as with all of my purely decorative jewellery) I don't really care whether it's 'precious' metal or what it cost. My current placeholder is a plain stainless steel band that we paid about £2 for on Amazon. If you're not getting a stone in it, you can get something very nice from a few dollars right up to thousands,. depending what you want. Under a hundred there's a very wide range of nice stuff available. Just watch, if buying online, to be certain you know what metal you're getting and that you get it sized right - anything plated can't be resized without flaking the plate; certain metals can't be resized - stainless steel and titanium among them.

Here is a photo of a blue sapphire ring that I had designed at a jeweler in San Francisco. The blue sapphire has purchased in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka. Hikkaduwa is south of Columbo on the coast with aa beautiful beach. I was in Sri Lanka to rest after a much longer trip in China with a group of people. Rural Sri Lanka is beautiful but Columbo is not a place I would want to visit again. Interestingly, I was visiting Kandy, which is a former tea plantation in the hill country, about 5 days after Hikkaduwa and visited a Hindu temple (known as the Temple of the Tooth). Less than a week after I was there the Tamil Tigers detonated a bomb at the temple and killed a few people.


View attachment 354121 View attachment 354122

Nice. Reminds me a touch of Bogarts diamond & ruby ring (which, if memory serves, had belonged to his father):

I do like a nice sapphire - that's my birthstone. Got my eye on a couple of coloured-stone pinky rings at some point, sapphire blue might be the first (red garnet and an emerald the others in contention).

I still can't complain about my three stainless steel rings. They are just super comfortable.

Stainless steel is great. I have a couple of them. The only drawback is that you can't have it resized, and they tend only to come in full sizes, so it's not an option for every finger for me, and I have a couple that need replaced since I lost weight as they're now too big for the original fingers, and don't quite fit the next finger up. That's the only disadvantage, though.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@Edward

Yeah, rings in Germany are usually offered in size 56-58-60-62-64 and so on. No between sizes.

 

[ader]

For me it depends on the outfit I’m wearing and where I am going.

If I’m really casual then often I’ll wear a couple of mexican biker rings (typically silver & brass).

If going somewhere a little more formal like out to lunch with friends or relatives I’ll be more likely to wear silver goetic demon sigil rings.

For best, I save my more formal Silver & 18k Gold rings such as my current favourite : a Japanese Thunderbird ring.

 

[Edward]

For me it depends on the outfit I’m wearing and where I am going.

If I’m really casual then often I’ll wear a couple of mexican biker rings (typically silver & brass).

If going somewhere a little more formal like out to lunch with friends or relatives I’ll be more likely to wear silver goetic demon sigil rings.

For best, I save my more formal Silver & 18k Gold rings such as my current favourite : a Japanese Thunderbird ring.

Yes, I think context is king. If I'm going full leather and denim rockabilly, I'll sometimes wear as many as six or seven rings. Mexican style souvenir rings in particular. For a more formal setting, I'll cut back to just my wedding ring and a signet ring on my right hand finger, with a ring on one or both pinkies. This will often be a large, 3d Medusa head pinky ring. I like the look of a statement ring with formal wear, though it definitely pays to limit it to one in that context. I have a Keith Richards style skull ring that fits my ring finger, but typically gets worn over a pinky if I'm wearing cotton gloves for formal evening attire.

 

[VintageEveryday]

Here's my latest flea market acquisition; an art nouveau ring from before 1910. High quality rose gold filled. The stone is a later replacement, definitely glass, (looks like it's been glued in), but I'm keeping it in rather than replacing it with a garnet or white sapphire I have from another broken ring of the same era. It reminds me of a faceted black opal! The stone itself is probably from the 1950s, as that style of glass gem was everywhere in costume jewelry. No markings save for a mystery Hallmark. I only paid $10!

 

[John_Z]

I’ve have a thing for American class rings. I currently have four of which I pick one to wear on my RH ring finger each time I leave home. This is my latest acquisition

 

[alanfgag]

Holiday shopping has a dangerous habit of bringing me into jewelry shops. We have a new store that opened a couple of years back at the end of our street. He has done a few repairs for us that turned out well and I decided to work with him on a custom project that will repurpose some material handed down from my parents. In discussing the project, which will be made in 24K gold, he showed me a ring from his estate case that intrigued me... a simple and somewhat rustic band of .95 platinum. I've always enjoyed the weight of platinum and have a band my wife bought for me many years ago. This one is quite a bit larger and heavier - 24 grams - but comfortable and warm on the hand. Platinum is not the easiest metal to work or to keep polished... this piece has considerable patina and should shrug off the slings and arrows that will accumulate from frequent wear.

Haven't had much luck searching the origin though from the hallmarks it appears to have been sold in the UK.

 

[John_Z]

This may help

 

[Bfd70]

 

[John_Z]

Holiday shopping has a dangerous habit of bringing me into jewelry shops. We have a new store that opened a couple of years back at the end of our street. He has done a few repairs for us that turned out well and I decided to work with him on a custom project that will repurpose some material handed down from my parents. In discussing the project, which will be made in 24K gold, he showed me a ring from his estate case that intrigued me... a simple and somewhat rustic band of .95 platinum. I've always enjoyed the weight of platinum and have a band my wife bought for me many years ago. This one is quite a bit larger and heavier - 24 grams - but comfortable and warm on the hand. Platinum is not the easiest metal to work or to keep polished... this piece has considerable patina and should shrug off the slings and arrows that will accumulate from frequent wear.

View attachment 677554

View attachment 677553

Haven't had much luck searching the origin though from the hallmarks it appears to have been sold in the UK.

View attachment 677552

So this hallmark became like an itch to me that I had to scratch. I just felt the need to decode it. Here are my findings:

JX - Makers mark. It appears to have been made by Jewelex New York Ltd. See screen grab below.

Orb with Cross - Designation for platinum.

950 - Fineness in weight per 1000.

Castle - Edinburgh Scotland assay office mark.

O - Date mark for 2013.

 

[alanfgag]

This may help

View attachment 677807

Thanks for posting this. The three hallmarks to the right have a match with the date mark indicating 2013 I think. The left most mark is for the maker and I've not been successful putting a name to that JX imprint in the shield.