So you’re trying to decide between titanium or platinum jewelry? Both have their positives and negatives, and what suits one person won’t necessarily suit another. So let’s discuss both metals in detail:
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.
Platinum Jewelry
Platinum is one of the rarest metals on earth, and is in fact 35 times rarer than gold. This alone makes this a precious metal, and it takes approximately ten tons of ore just to produce a single ounce of platinum. This is one of the reasons why it is so expensive. The price of platinum can vary wildly compared to the other metals, and can range from being slightly cheaper than gold, to twice as expensive.
Platinum is a darker color than silver, and both metals can become dull over time. Platinum is also stronger and more scratch resistant than silver, but it is not scratch proof in any way. Platinum has a unique ability in that it doesn’t tend to wear down or lose mass like silver and gold. A scratch on a platinum ring is usually a displacement of the material, whereas a when a gold or silver ring scratches, material is usually lost to whatever caused the scratch. This means that while you may want to polish your platinum ring on occassion, you won’t have to replace it like you might have to with a silver ring.
Platinum jewelry has a high corrosion resistance, and also won’t tarnish as much as a silver ring. Most platinum jewelry is 90-95% platinum.
So which should you choose?
Well that depends on your budget, as well as your lifestyle. It’s also important to try both on, as seeing these metals against your skin, and feeling their weight and comfort may help sway you. Environmental factors also might help you make your decision. Both are beautiful, modern metals, but only you can decide what’s best for you.