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Any Suggestions For a Meaningful Geeky Wedding Band?
mbutala writes "I am getting close to popping the question, and I've been racking my brain for an idea for a cool and unique wedding band. I've been thinking of contacting a company that can (possibly) fabricate a ring from pure Iridium (Ir) or a nearly pure alloy. It is the most corrosion-resistant metal known — it cannot be dissolved in aqua regia like gold or platinum. Iridium is extremely rare on Earth, and the high concentration of it at the K-T boundary in the Earth's crust is what suggests a meteor took out the dinosaurs. I am positive that the symbolism of the permanence of Iridium, the reminder that we are star-stuff, and the fact that the ring would be one-of-a-kind would really strike a chord with my girlfriend. It's a really geeky idea, so I thought I would run it past you all — what do you think? Any other ideas?"
Just don't make the mistake of thining that any part of the wedding process (past the proposal) is about you :)
The short answer is "whatever she wants".
G.
Bucky Balls. Nothing says I love you like a ring made out of carcinogenic carbon nano tubes!
Now in less carcinogenic flavours!
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
If it's made out of Platinum-Iridium, you can make a wedding band which weighs exactly one kilogram.
Sounds like you already know what you want, and are just seeking confirmation..
"It's okay, you're doing fine, she'll say yes for sure! Go for it tiger!!"
burger ring
but fsck getting married
My advice: Don't get too fancy. Titanium makes a dandy wedding band for a bunch of reasons:
1. It's inexpensive. My ring ran something like $99, so I can afford to have a backup living in my filing cabinet in case I ever lose this one (people lose their rings all the time -- ask that one beach volleyball player from the Olympics this year). Also, if my fingers get fatter in my old age, I can replace the ring for cheap. Overspending? Not geeky.
2. It's hard enough that it'll shatter before it deforms. Most ring-related injuries are a result of the ring bending into the finger. That's bad. My ring won't deform easily and will probably shatter before deforming, so I have a better chance of keeping my finger than someone with a gold wedding band. Inability to hit the "S" key due to a missing finger? Not geeky.
3. It can be cut off. Hospitals can cut off a 6-4 titanium band, so if I ever injur my finger badly enough that it swells up I can, again, keep my finger and continue hitting the "S" key freely. See #2.
4. It's light. I hardly know I have it on. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on what sort of person you are. It's also completely hypoallergenic, which I understand is different than simply nonreactive. Not having your ring cause you weird skin issues? Geeky.
5. It's geeky. Go rent The Abyss if you have to. While I haven't stopped any hydraulic doors with mine, it is in perfect shape after four fantastic years. The finish gets a little scuffed, but it's still in perfect shape despite some significant abuse. You want geeky? I have "Don't Panic" inscribed in the inside of mine (and "Panic" inscribed in the backup ring I mentioned in #1). Sound advice, that.
I understand the drive to be unique, but take it from me (I moonlight as a wedding photographer): Weddings are already stupid-expensive. You should get immediately out of the habit of overspending when cheaper and perfectly satisfactory alternatives exist. As for your other point: *all* rings are starstuff -- gold, platinum, titanium, whatever -- so your last point there is complete hyperbole. Again, not excessively geeky.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I can't seem to find what it was made of.
Two Rules For Success:
1) Never tell people everything you know.
Geeky wedding band? Weird Al!
...Huh? Wrong kind of band?
It's all about the Pentiums, baby.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
You're definitely a geek if you're even CONSIDERING giving your beloved a wedding band made of anything but gold.
It's a chick thing.
So you want a ring that is one-of-a-kind, indestructible, and carries significance for geeks. How about this?
I came here for a good argument
Zircons are forever!
Plutonium.
Don't get your question posted on /. immediately after a story about a man killing his wife
In Soviet Amerika the ballot boxes YOU!
...raru.com. They make custom engagement rings and wedding bands in a number of different metals, infinite choice of designs (including your own personal sketches), and choice of any stones you might want. Did the trick for me :-)
I think they stand on their own .. hell just getting a band who is willing to cover their songs might do well enough ...
A charmonium ring would be pretty geeky and certainly impress the heck out of her. As the ground state of a charm and anticharm quark bound state, it is also amongst the most expensive materials on the planet, costing perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of person-years to produce mere zeptomoles of the stuff. It not only has a nice moniker with the word "charm" in it, it is also a humble reminder we were once all part of a seething mass of quark-gluon plasma. Never mind the copious radiation that will be emitted as a ring-sized clump of the stuff rapidly decays on her finger. Ok, I'll shut up now. Iridium is definitely a good call.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
Our wedding bands themselves are not too metallurgically unusual (though the construction involves a difficult inlay made from palladium-gold alloy). However, my wife's diamond is extra geeky! It's an artificial blue diamond - a natural white diamond subjected to massive gamma irradiation in an industrial nuclear reactor or particle accelerator. The irradiation disturbs the crystal lattice and produces color centers in the diamond, causing a blue-green hue. She loves it, and tells the story to every geek she meets.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
green karat check out the binary one http://www.greenkarat.com/detail.asp?product_id=GW001
what about depleted uranium?
it's super dense....and extremely long half-life (weakly radioactive...according to wiki)
My wife's engagement ring, plus our wedding bands are Titanium:
http://titaniumrings.com/
ICQ# : 30269588
"I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality."
Just pop the question with no ring and tell her it's because you want everything to be perfect and want to go pick it out together with her. Then let her have 100% say.
Get used to this algorithm, you'll be applying it to all sorts of problems in the future. It even handles otherwise NP-complete issues with ease.
Trust me on this.
You've mentioned an idea for a perfect geek wedding ring on a site entirely populated by geeks. More than a few are going to steal that idea, now :P. I'm more partial to an intricate and meaningful design, rather than the choice of metal. Maybe a pattern of the earliest known human DNA, to symbolize a new beginning?
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
And if they are marginally movie-geek, here's another reason why:
http://www.titaniumrings.com/AbyssDVD.html
ICQ# : 30269588
"I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality."
So this is very sweet sentiment - BUT is this what she wants? Most women want hmm Diamonds - Gold - hmm platinum - even silver is nice - make sure the sweetness of your geekness isn't lost on your girlfriend - if she is a geek ignore me...
That way, your wife can say, "It's very, very dense. Just like my husband."
But seriously - A fancy ring is totally worth it.
Mine is Palladium/Platinum split diagonally - looks mostly like silver but if you look closely you can see the brownish tint of palladium on one side. My wife thinks it's a symbol of how close we are (or something like that - I never listen to her anyway).
Tungsten, baby! Tough as hell to scratch or damage. And after the apocalypse, you can melt it down to make some replacement light bulb filaments! Now if only you can find some argon . . .
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
If she's a geek, she's reading this. You probably shouldn't be posting such a question on Slashdot. Not to mention that this sort of thing comes from the heart. Do yourself a favor and disregard everything here. Go with what your gut tells you, not ours.
What day is it? Could you please tell me?
Yes, nothing says eternal love like something that caused one of largest losses of life the Earth has ever seen.
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
Black Diamonds are apparently extraterrestrial in origin,
Either formed in space or by the impact of a asteroid or comet.
Only found in Brazil and Central Africa.
Id go for a Platinum / White gold combo with Black diamonds and a single earth gem (possibly diamond).
Covers all bases.... :)
Damian
Try to spell her birth initials by using gemstones. Probably cheaper, and also definitely a talking point. (BTW... The initial could be 'in' the name of the stone.) You'll probably get the same "how thoughtful" reaction from her friends and acquaintances, and *not* get the eye-roll as well.
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
I had a friend years ago who had been married 9 times when we lost track of him. Each time, he would disappear for months at a time to Alaska in order to kill a grizzly bear from whose bones he would hand carve a wedding ring for his wife-to-be. After the 4th bear, it became pretty clear that his marriages were an excuse to go kill go bears. They were all crazy hippy chicks, but none of the wives seemed to find it any less romantic that they were (nth) to have received a hand-carved wedding ring from the bones of a bear killed by the bare hands of their man.
Go north, to Alaska . . . you know what you need to do.
No matter how strong the material is, it changes with time.
You should have understood the redundancy-reliability tradeoff.
Get your redundant array of inexpensive wedding bands now!
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Why don't you nerds read an MSDS on the material of choice before making yourself a guinea pig.
How about Robbie Hart's band?
mrpull
Another approach would be to use some material or object of particular significance to you both, take a few hundred dollars of the typical cost of a ring to buy a precision drill press and some appropriate bits, make a ring yourself out of said material, and when you're done, you'll have a great ring and your own drill press. Maybe a piece of cast iron from a bench from your first date or something like that.
Unusual elements are nice but coming up with a design where you can literally say "I sweated for days to get this just right" would say even more and would certainly be a tale that she would be proud to share.
If, that is, this is what SHE wants. Like everybody else here, I can't help but ask, is this the kind of thing that *she* has in mind?
It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
Radiation Shielding -- Better than lead for shielding of electronic components from space radiation, though considerably more expensive. At a previous job where I built detectors for satellite remote sensing instruments, one design included some rather hefty Iridium vaults to protect back-illuminated CCDs from excessive particle radiation and total dose effects.
Antimatter -- Iridium targets are bombarded with insanely high-energy Protons to create antiprotons. Actually, a whole menagerie of exotic particles are created, but antiprotons are picked off using a high-T magnetic field and diverted into a collecting cyclotron beam. All in a hard vacuum, of course.
I can see the fnords!
you just go for gold? If you can't appreciate why gold is special, you can't really consider yourself to be a geek.
Alternatively, if you do know why gold is a particularly special element but still want something else, let me be so bold as to suggest that you're not a geek at all but a particularly pitiable sort of attention-seeker. After all, if you're discounting gold as an option it is presumably because it's the traditional metal for wedding bands. And if you're doing that it's because you (possibly pitiably) see yourself as an "individual" as opposed to being a "geek."
Regardless, I call bullshit on your claim to be a geek on quite different grounds. You claim your login is "mbutala" but a quick search shows no /. user by that name. You probably don't even have a fiancee.
My brother recently proposed to his girlfriend by doing the following: (caption from his photo follows, which I do not have permission to post)
"Optical microscopy image of the engagement device under white light. The bare Si/SiO2 substrate appears violet while the metal (chrome/gold) artwork appears yellow. The artwork was patterned using electron beam lithography and metalized using thermal evaporation. The artwork was created using QCad, a linux-compatible free software alternative to AutoCAD."
The image was the 2 of them sitting out in the wilderness watching the Perseid meteor shower and can just barely be seen with the unaided eye. He proposed while the 2 of them were out watching it, and it was also what they did for one of their very first dates. He took her out to the same spot as on their earlier date, then gave her the device, which I hear is going to be mounted in some kind of clear polymer and mounted on a ring or necklace.
I will most definitely have a high geekiness standard to live up to when I propose or am proposed to.
Good choice in elements. I highly recommend the book "Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements." by John Emsley. Iridium is a great and rare element. It is often combined with Osmium. It often comes from space. Osmium has a very long radio-active 1/2 life. We're talking like 4 quad-rillion years. Cadmium and cerium may have longer half-lifes (tens of quad-rillion years (10 to the plus 15 years/CERIUM-50 million billionths of years half life!!!)). On the other end of the spectrum we're talking about titanium doped sapphire lasers....which can produce information at 10 to the negative 15 seconds (4 million billioneths of a second!!!/4 fermtoseconds). Do you want a longlasting and/or quick producing metal alloy?
You should get her a Moebius (or Mobius) Ring wedding band. Look it up. Basically its this really cool topological anomaly (technically not an anomaly, but that describes it well). When you take a strip of something and give it a half twist and then connect the two ends to make a ring, it magically has only one side and one edge. Quite a geeky structure if you ask me...
You can have mine.
I reserve the write to mangle english.
Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, of course.
I was going to make a ring out of Rhenium. It's rarer than platinum, was the last naturally occurring element to be isolated, and is virtually indestructible. I found enough of it on ebay, and have access to a high-vacuum ebeam system to melt the metal, but couldn't get a nice crucible for it. I was lazy and ended up with a tungsten carbide ring which I love.
I was once told that you don't want having a heavy metal (ir, ti) against your skin all the time. Is this true?
Your finger will likely not remain the size it is. You will lose or gain weight, so the ring will need to be resized. This will likely be a gigantic pain in the rear with an exotic metal like Iridium. It certainly is for titanium.
Any halfway competent jeweler can braze in a new segment of ring, even one with a complex pattern, if it's made of a precious metal commonly found in jewelry. Most large jewelry stores or store chains will also offer free size adjustment of the band for life as part of the deal, or for a small fee at the time of purchase.
Titanium is theoretically re-sizeable, but only smaller, as doing two small welds so close together are impractical: it needs to be welded in an oxygen-free environment. In reality, they're going to have to give you a new ring if (when) you need to re-size, as it's a lot cheaper to replace than repair. Likewise tungsten-carbide steel, which is also popular these days. I want to keep =this= ring, not have it replaced if something goes wrong. Stupid and sentimental, I know, but still...
There's also the issue of medical emergency. If your finger swells up abruptly, due to injury or allergy, the hospital will need to cut your ring off. They have tools to do this painlessly and quickly with silver/gold/platinum bands, but things get tricky with tougher stuff, like tool-grade steel, titanium, and, I'd imagine, iridium. What was a minor medical procedure is now a medical emergency requiring tools that the hospital may not have.
It was a hard choice, as there are a ton of cool carbon fiber and titanium wedding bands out there, but I found a two-tone gold band with a nice herringbone pattern. It's unusual, comfortable, and can be cut and resized as needed. It's not as cheap as titanium, carbon fiber or tool-grade tungsten-carbide, but it will be easier to maintain.
If you want =really= unusual, I have a friend who had his tattooed on. Now that's commitment.
Or some other radioactive metal as a reminder that we're all falling apart.
Do what I did - get the exact replica of the ring used in the Lord of the Rings movies: http://www.jenshansen.com/thering.aspx Pricey, but so worth it for having the exact same ring as the movies. Can't get any geekier than that!
Geeky, to me, means original(eccentric) and thorough(obsessive). If you want original and thorough, no commercial jeweller is going to be that for you as well as you can be that for yourself.
A DIY ring is cheap without being Cheap, guaranteed unique, and as geeky as you make it.
As a hobbyist jeweller, I can attest that wedding bands are easy to make. I'm going to marry my fiancee in Spring 2009 (your autumn, northern hemisphericans) with a home-made mokume-gane band. (google it. Mokume is Nifty)
My dad has a platinum wedding band.
After he'd been wearing it a couple decades, one day he slipped and started to fall in a parking lot. His hand was resting on the top of a metal fence post, and as it slipped off, the metal rod clamped to the post (that held a run of chain-link fence to it) found its way between his finger and the ring.
The ring was well fitted, so when the steel was deflected inwards by the stronger platinum, gravity caused the steel to slice him to the bone. Then he was hanging by one damaged finger with his full weight held by the steel rod inside the ring.
If you calculate the strength of your wife's finger joint relative to her weight (and she's not barsoomian or emaciated or something) you'll see that the next thing that happens is the finger pops right off. Luckily for my dad, he is quite strong, so he grabbed the chain-link with his other hand and only got his finger stretched to un-natural length.
The doctors fixed it, so it wasn't as bad as getting your silk tie caught in a generator, but it was still a real wake-up call. Unbreakable ring on breakable finger has a very bad failure mode.
Get her a really nice soft metal ring with a beautiful design. High-carat gold is really much redder than the common stuff - it's noticeably prettier - and you can always inlay it with something that's not a continuous band.
I really dig the idea (and as such, will claim it as my own to my non-geeky friends) however, how feasible is it to get a ring made of *pure* Iridium? Its properties make it fairly difficult to work with so even if you manage to purchase a chunk of it I can't see you just showing up to a jeweler and asking them to make you a ring.. How did you plan on actually procuring/creating said ring?
Well, these guys might do.
(Score:-1, Bad Pun)
My preferred name is frazz, but someone keeps taking it. If you see him, tell him I said hi.
Do you really want to put something that signifies the almost complete destruction of life on our planet on your wifes finger?
The fear of sudden superpowers would put me off quite well, thank you.
You can do what I did. My wedding band is a tattoo. I think it stated my feelings, as well as my commitment, more then I could have with words. As much to myself as my wife.
And you don't have to take it off to make bread, work on the car, etc.
Most of your fiancee's friends are going to be non-geeks and they all like to see the same thing. The traditional geek band is a diamond band. Even if you think you can do better, you really can't...unless you're marrying a guy. //Welcome to the 21st century California).
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
You might want to read the article. Iridium may not dissolve when exposed to aqua regia, but it's too brittle to machine. Bodes ill.
Consider getting a ring made of damascus steel. Just make sure they've smoothed off the rough edges first. Rings made this way are quite beautiful.
I would favor plastics, the real geeky material. Perhaps even carbon fiber.
Titanium and iridium would scratch everything you touch, they are very hard. (18K gold doesn't)
'nuf said.
Sometimes, it's not the metal, but where the metal came from.
How about some steel from one of the Apollo capsules? Some moon rock in it? All horribly expensive, not to mention somewhat hard to get. As an easier alternative: get a damascus steel one. The patterning is fascinating, and can be made by any competent blacksmith.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
... and she gave me a Token Ring.
Honest.
Get a tattoo of a band.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
If your geeky bride-to-be is socially conscientious, frugal, or just into cool science, a cultured diamond from "Gemesis" is probably what you want for the stone itself (unless you can think of a better idea). http://www.gemesis.com/
FYI, Iridium is the most common hardening agent in Platinum for jewelry.
"Slapping lipstick on a pig does NOT make it Natalie Portman. Paris Hilton, maybe, but not Portman." - UncleTogie
Get the heaviest material possible. This will dissuade your wife from raising her hand and wagging her finger disapprovingly at you, however, be warned that if she is a stubborn one it will prove ineffective and she will end up with an arm like Hulk Hogan and give you five across the eyes instead.
What about having it shaped as a Mobius strip? It would be easy, as long as it twists near the stone setting (a twist on the main band would be uncomfortable), and the 2 sides being one is kind of symbolic.
Uh, dude, how about something immaterial like love?
Their wedding bands are going to be made of unobtanium.
C'mon. You know you wanna. It's the choice of a true geek.
I've always thought it would be cool to have diamonds made from carbon that was once part of your body, say your hair or nail clippings or something along those lines. I'm not sure how much hair that would take, but there are companies that do this with ashes of the recently deceased I believe. I guess diamonds might be more of an engagement ring style though. I wouldn't know, I'm too far away from the concept of marriage to know.
Neodymium Magnet Ring? Very geeky!
I managed to convince my wife that diamonds are not rare, and are extremely plentiful but due to the fact that they are controlled by one cartel, they are price controlled. Plus a diamond as a wedding/engagement ring was actually the product of a marketing strategy by DeBeers in the 1940's. So who really wants to wear an advertisement campaign on their finger as a symbol of love for all time?
Instead, we chose a stone in her favorite colour pink. We settled on a pink sapphire, of which there were only nine emerald cut pink sapphires in all of Toronto at the time - truely rarer than any diamond. Not only that, but it was far cheaper.
Oh and we made the decision to NOT get matching rings. This led us to choose designs that we were both extremely happy with. Mine is a wide, think white gold band with 4 tiny black diamonds set in both edges, like 4 compass points. You can only see them if you view the ring on it's sides.
If for some reason your future wife happens to need to get the ring cut off due to an accident, and the hospital cannot get the ring off with the tools on hand, they will cut off the finger. I found this out after speaking to two registered nurses.
I went for the ring that Ed Harris wore in The Abyss http://www.titaniumconcepts.com/abyss.htm, saved his life.
It is the most corrosion-resistant metal known â" it cannot be dissolved in aqua regia like gold or platinum.
I think that if your better half has an "encounter" with aqua regia, the fact that her wedding band corrodes or not would be the last thing on her mind.
N/T
or ELO.
Unless your bride to be is as geeky as you, I would go with platinum or gold... But, hey, it's your neck on the line, not mine.. What you should do, instead of worrying about the metal, is worry about the ring itself interms of design. If you are to get something custom made, aim for something that is unique and that has meaning for the two of you (or at least her) :)
Cheers!
Girls are girls first, and geeks second. I would say that even the geekiest girls have dreamed of traditional weddings, and would much rather have tradition over trends and geekiness.
Just my $0.02. Do come back and tell us how it went.
My parents wedding band was a mobius strip. I always thought that was cool.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
You can have a diamond grown using carbon from your hair (or her's).
There are quite a few companies that do this, google it.
Titanium is nice and all, but TUNGSTEN is where it's at.
my wife and i have regular ol' gold wedding bands, but we got mobius strips. the whole one-face/one-edge thing puts a nice geeky twist on the unity the rings are supposed to represent. just make sure you adjust the kink orientation so it doesn't annoy.
The possibilities are simply endless.
I bought her an expensive gold band inlaid with several small, though almost flawless (blood-free) diamonds that cost what was an incomprehensible amount at the time.
She bought me a several hundred US$ band. In retrospect, it was because she felt guilty about her band and wanted me to have something of similar value. She didn't understand that I thought she was worth much, much, much more than any ring ever could. (Sappy but true.)
I lost that ring within the year while playing a round of golf. I then found a simple, plain silver band of an unknown metal at Hot Topic in the closest mall for $10. I bought two and am now on the second. I lost the first/second looking for a new one since the first was lost off my finger and the second was deformed during a weight lifting incident.
THe guys' ring doesn't matter, while a good woman should care about hers up to the point where she can buy a better one for herself and keep the one you bought her for sentimental reasons.
You shouldn't case about your ring except to understand that you should have some sort of band on your left ring finger forever to indicate to other women that you won't be having sex with them.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
AFAICT Iridium isn't the stuff you'd want juwelery of. It's to brittle and not very pretty. I suggest Titanium or monocrystallic Titanium - the stuff they make jet fighter turbine shovels out of. It's titanium with the entire piece being on crystaline structure. It costs quite a bit extra to get it that way, but it's even tougher than a normal piece of titanium.
However, you should check if it can be cut with regular rescue tools in an emergency, as somebody here allready pointed out.
All those material things aside - it's the love. If you get yourself and her a stainless steel ring with a synthetic diamond for 200 bucks, but are there for her when times are rough - that's worth quite a bit more imho. And a stainless steel ring can be cool aswell.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Seriously. Who wants worthless metal, when you could give the gift of a Nerdcore/metal/Metroidvania performance?
I got one made of almost pure palladium. It's in the platinum family also, and more rare than Pt, but cheaper. I think it's unique enough that I get to explain to people what it is, but doesn't have any of iridium's undesirable properties like being hard and brittle, or unavailable in rings.
dom
> burger ring
> but fsck getting married
Ditto here.
Save your money. Don't do it. All marriage is good for is destroying friendships.
You may want to check what she likes first (traditionally you deploy her friends for that, and if you're close to *the* question you should by now have at least some idea), and see if you can afford that (important fact: rings cost money, and you want something left to buy her other things :-). Oh, and maybe don't mention that you have been checking with the rest of the planet if it's a good idea either - it should be yours.
It's your heart, and hers, start tuning in to that :-)
Insert
Okay I am a self confessed Geek chick and I did receive a uniquely geeky wedding band. It was a 1000 year old bronze roman ring from an archaeological site in the middle east. Let me stress that it was Legally exported and purchased aboveboard online @ http://medievalwares.com/zt/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65. I am certain if you google you could find other similar sites as well.
Or, if you and your fiancee are truly computer geeks, you could use the electromagnet out of a mini hard-drive. It should be just the right size. ;)
-Magdalene --"there are 10 types of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who don't"
And it's even worse than that. Every now and then, between the let's-do-what-I-like and the you-should-already-know-what-I-want, you'll get the "why can't you take charge, like a real man" gambit.
Can't win for losing.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Wedding band? Jonathan Coulton.
Oh, you were talking about a ring. Yeah, your idea sounds good.
(But seriously, Jonathan Coulton does some lovely songs that are both geeky and romantic, and I'm sure he'd be worth every penny. Write him a nice e-mail about it.)
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
http://xkcd.com/260/
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
...was go shopping for antique rings. But if I were doing it all over again, I would probably go for something funky in the way of mokume-game, where you get interesting effects from different coloured metals diffusion-welded together.
I couldn't have done it when I got married (18 years ago), but I have acquired a lot more skill in metalwork and jewellery since then, so I would be tempted to make something myself. Or at least offer to.
For example, if her name was BeTh, then clearly a Beryllium-Thorium alloy is the choice. Other choices could be LaUReN, KrIStIn, or CArOLiNe. Of course, if you can't spell your fiance's name with chemical elements, then clearly the force is not with you, and you should be geeky enough to choose a new wife!!!
"And in the darkness bind them..."
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
1. Find non-geek.
2. Do what they say.
3. No matter how much you doubt it, do what they say.
4. Step. Away. From. The. Tools.
Unless of course, she's a geek too. Then, show her the plans and don't be hurt when she wants to change them. You can even let her use the tools.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
If you need to ask why, you've not read any Stephen Donaldson. Wild magic, that's the thing.
The ever so geeky caffeine molecule underneath the stone to give a nice reminder of one of the fuels that drives geeks.
Even better why not just have the rock be an caffeine crystal... sure it won't last long and you two may be bouncing... well wait, it's a wedding night....
Or just an Hot Pocket logo
But the true geeky/cheap thing to do is get an old circuit board, clean it off and remove any jagged edges and lightly sand it, heat it up a little to make it flexible and mold a cylinder to her finger. (have her stick her finger in silly putty or play dough to cast a mold of it, add a wax lining and pour some sealing foam or firewall in it and let it cure. That is, if you want to do it secretly without possibly burning her. Make the cylinder a little bigger than her finger mold and place a thin layer of epoxy. Wait to partially cure and add another layer. (you can use fiberglass if you want but may look foggy afterwards.
Then you have your nice PCB/Memory Ring.... you can do a kinda pun on that it is memory or something.
...Uh, yeah.
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
to be used on two fingers. To symbolise that this is forever :)
A couple of ferrite core rings of the right size is geeky enough and easily replaced.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/accessories/756e/zoom/
Oh, and Drill City is worth a look. But I'm too lazy to do another link.
It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
Niobium is a superconductor at the right temperatures, according to jewelers sites I'm looking at, you can change its color by applying an electric current, and it is used to create particle accelerators I cannot imagine geekier metal.
It's also extraordinarily hypoallergenic, and relatively common in jewelery, so you aren't likely to find complications, and she's less likely to freak out at you for not getting a precious metal.
*It is probably a bad idea to apply an electric current to a ring while it is on your finger.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
Back in 2003 I asked a similar question - the thought of wearing a piece of jewelry which served no practical purpose was alien to me so I tried to come up with some Ideas on how to make something ornamental like a wedding ring semi-useful.
In the end we got plain wedding bands and then got some awesome designs carved into them.
5 years later I'm proud and happily married (with 2 kids too!) - so don't think too hard, because what really matters is that you want to share this with someone special.
My adviser/mentor (an electromagnetics guru) has a gold wedding band that is a mobius strip. It is pretty awesome.
Marry me!
Geeky Wedding Band ?
My top tip would be the Trons.
Yeah I know there are other techincally better robot bands but I love the low down garage feel of the 'bots.
Oh sorry... you're talking about a ring are you ?
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
You can also have something (like diamond) chemical vapor deposited onto a solid silver ring. Sounds exotic, but just like companies make titanium nitride, tungsten carbide, or even diamond coated tools for cutting metal, you can have the same thing done to a ring.
Also, in an emergency the hard coat should shatter under the shear force of whatever ER tool is being used and later easily repaired and recoated. (Nothing says love like helping to avoid amputation)
Carve the wax for the ring design, or create it in cad and have it cnc'd.
Send it out for casting and finishing.
Even better if there are local college that has jewelry cast classes take the classes together and make your rings there.
Created yourself doesnt have to be fancy or perfect If you are both truly geeky making your own will be cool and unique.
My vote goes for titanium, when me and my wife got married the gold bands for men looked bland and un-inspiring. Titanium on the other hand can have much more exotic designs and you never have to worry about it getting damaged.
Like damascus steel, Mokume is forged from several precious metals, producing a very unique surface pattern. Maybe not technologically geeky, but geeky enough for this one. If you are looking for sentimental reasons behind the liking of the metal, you can find meaning in the blending of two/multiple metals into one new structure without losing either. If you are looking for functionality, they can be made form and backed in standard precious metals cuttable at an emergency room, and can be resized within a limited range. We had a set, engagement ring and two bands, done by Krikawa, and we love them.
Well, if all else fails, you could get a band inscribed with "I love you" encoded in EBCDIC.
There have been several posts about the difficulty in resizing rings made out of Titanium or Iridium, but just make the ring a bit bigger and get a clear cushioned ring insert. Not only will the ring be more comfortable, but if your finger grows you can remove the insert and still wear the ring.
The tradition is for a diamond engagement ring when you pop the question and a gold wedding ring for the wedding ceremony. Which are you talking about?
Personally, I popped the question ringless and (when she said yes) we went shopping for the diamond ring. Maybe not so romantic but safe.
Perhaps (if she has a friend that is tactful) see if her friend knows if she'd like it. Having a second person close to her say it is a great idea probably would be good to make sure. She may have discussed more about marriages with her friend (especially if you can find one that she was involved in, as chances are they talked for months about whether they liked the shoes, or the dress etc etc). Anyways extra points for creativity I think it is a great idea, hopefully she's open to it. Good luck :-)
http://www.jenshansen.com/thering.aspx
It's far bigger then all the others....
Weddings and wedding magazines are porn for the average girl (and her mother).
No sig today...
I know rings are traditional, but if you want something different... how about necklaces with lockets, or with different pendants, modeled after something especially meaningful to each of you?
Circumcision is child abuse.
If you want to be a geek about it, go with a mobius strip rather than a ring.
Plus then you get a lifetime of wry jokes about marriage being an endless treadmill with no possibility of escape. *grins*
And, yes, I get to make that joke. Eight years of marriage in... I love it. I wouldn't change it. But, trust me, there'll be days where you wonder what the hell you did. Those couples that last seem to accept those days as part of the journey and roll with them. Those with romantic notions about the perfection of love always seem to fall apart when they're confronted by those days that, yes, everyone gets.
Make a joke of it. Acknowledge they're coming. Let them be what they're going to be, knowing you knew they were coming and those days are OK too. You'll be stronger for it.
best wedding band ever .....
Just go with a traditionally beautiful ring and do the inscription inside the band in binary :)
Seriously, think it through. There is more to life than material objects and obedience to tradition.
(and so forth)
oh, I mean will she really stand up to something geeky? the geekiest thing ever? ...
the "invisible ring" .... made of black matter
requires "the force" to be seen ... and only the one who beholds truth can feel it ..it's PRICELESS!!!!!
My wife and I have Mokume Gane wedding bands. Japanese technique of trying to imitate wood with metals.
"During the samurai era, mokume gane was used to make parts of the handle for the samurai's sword but today it is used to create traditional and contemporary jewelry."
Geeky, enough?
Well, Someone posted the Titanium Rings link before, and i found that they actually make something similar to the One Ring... + You can have something engraved inside also! Looks nice, but not that similiar to the real thing... http://titaniumrings.com/GOLDaccents/oneB.html
Titanium is very cool (and is what my band is made out of), and don't believe the FUD about it, it is safe, emergency rooms have equipment to cut through it if needed (they don't have to cut off your finger as one jeweler claimed....)
No. Believe the FUD. I cut off a titanium band once before. It broke my ring cutter and two others and took about a half hour total time (not including getting the fire department to cough up theirs) to get it off.
It doesn't mean you shouldn't get one, but know what you are getting into. Also, if you wear a titanium band carry a small packet of antibiotic ointment in your wallet. If you clobber your finger or hand, get the ring off immediately and don't wait for the swelling to set in. If it won't come off, use the ointment to help. (The antibiotic part doesn't help. Its the vaseline that does the greasing, but they make small packets of the antibiotic ointment you can stuff in your wallet.)
I was going to suggest They Might be Giants.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Her kisses are metallic and her touch is firm but cold.
And I don't thinks she sleeps at night, but plugs into the wall.
And we have a great relationship,
based on things that can't be said.
And she has a great relationship with our television set.
And, yeah, I'm in love with an android, but so what?
Stranger things have happened,
stranger things have been loved.
The neighbors are an odd bunch and they're too inquisitive.
They don't like heavy metal,
or the type she shacks up with.
But I swore I'm done with humans
and I like to keep my word.
And she beeps for me every time it's time to go water the fern.
And, yeah, I'm in love with an android, but so what?
Stranger things have happened,
stranger things have been loved.
And, yeah, I'm in love with an android, but so what?
Stranger things have happened,
stranger things have been loved.
Say Hi To Your Mom - Yeah, I'm In Love With An Android
I am not implying that you should plan for divorce. A few years ago a a couple of bicycle racers that I know decided to marry. There rings were made from titanium bicycle tubing. Later, when the first baby was on the way, the woman's finger swelled to the point where the ring would not come off and was in danger of cutting circulation to her finger. Titanium is a bitch to cut. The whole problem could have been avoided by adding a silver spacer on the ring. So tiny you would never notice it, but it gives a spot that can be cut if you need to.
I always like the idea of getting a ring that has a message written in a different alloy on it. At room temperature it is invisible, but when you heat it, the writing will glow appropriately.
I don't know if any company makes such a thing but it would be the ultimate in geeky rings.
You can see the romantic recreation as you throw the ring into the fire to heat it to glowing temperature.
"Hold out your hand, it's quite cool"
May I suggest Palladium instead of Iridium? It's cheaper, it's lighter, it's a really white metal, it can be cut off as easily as Gold... and it's commonly used by jewelers, they won't look at you like you have three heads when you ask for it.
You can then do a very geeky party trick with your wedding band -- the cool thing is, you can take your wedding band, soak it in liquid Hydrogen, and then when it warms up, it'll burst into flames... Pd is both a catalyst for the burning of Hydrogen, as well as having the unique ability to absorb Hydrogen while in the solid state.
Very cool.
How silly. No, every woman does not dream of that. I got married in Vegas to avoid such a (to me) preposterous display, and I've never regretted it for a moment.
I call denial, either that or you're a post-op transexual.
ash nag durbatuluk
ash nag gimbatul
ash nag thrakatuluk
og burzum-ishi krimpatul
Bakelite band with a 555 timer FTW
It sounds like you're buying a wedding band as an engagement ring (which I've not come across before, yet noone seems to have mentioned it).If your wife-to-be is going to wear any other ring alongside this one then you need to consider the relative hardness. With gold the higher carat value the softer.
Also, if you've got a bad memory (like me) you might consider having the date of your wedding inscribed inside the band ... if your memory is really bad then get your wife's name put in there too. http://dot-jewellery.co.uk/commissions.php?c=emboss sounds like a nice way to do this, or something similar.
I'd probably have gone for a Mobius strip if I was rich enough to commission a ring.
Lastly, this is your gift to her .. I don't think you need to choose exactly what she would choose for herself. But, do remember the idea is for her to wear it for the rest of her life.
if she will indeed appreciate all the geeky subtleties, i can't help but wonder - does she read /.? dude, such a great idea and u just had to spoil it... i can imagine it already - "what?! u stole the ideas off slashdot!" - or at least i know my gf'll say it, once i... =)
tag should be - sports beer and far*ing
get square rings. look at your fingers - they arent round!
remember when it was {of|for|by} the people?
Geeky wedding band? Hire Devo or They Might Be Giants. Oingo Boingo and Adam Sandler are no longer working.
Fixed the link. Moissanite is more brilliant than diamond due to a higher refractive index. There are more brilliant gemstone materials out there, but they are more brittle. Moissanite is _the_ geek choice for "best gemstone in existence".
A caution on white gold: Many white gold items are rhodium-plated with a thin electroplated layer that will wear off, exposing the yellowish-grey alloy beneath.
Iridium is very heavy; slightly heavier than platinum, much heavier than 18 carat gold. Something light like titanium may feel flimsy and cheap. An iridium ring will be give you that "whoa" feeling when you feel its weight.
Personally?
My wife and I love our tungsten carbide wedding rings. Beyond being corrosion resistant, they also don't scratch easily and haven't needed polishing yet.
We chose White Gold. But my wife hasn't read the Thomas Covenant series.
Friends of mine, a mathematician and a chemical engineer have Mobius bands for rings
Without doubt, A Theremin quartet.
He can always choke her painlessly to death when he's bored with her.
Too soon?
I am by my new wife's opinion Very Geeky and we got married in April this year. Before the day we watched the movie 'Blood Diamond' and she being a committed environmentalist said to me: 'I don't want anything in our rings that has been ripped from the Earth'.
My response is 'How about something that fell from the sky?'.
So out rings were made mostly from Meteorite, Iron meteorite to be precise (80%Fe 20%Ni) with only what hypo-allergenic metal liners that are needed (white gold for her and yellow 22K for mine, sourced from a Canadian Enviro-mine). We had them made by an Artist in Michigan through Furthers ( http://www.furthers.com/ringsbychris1.htm ).
As to the Band (musical not Metal) we had two at the reception, A Brazilian Samba drumming band to drum everyone into the ceremony and a Klesma-Reggie band at dinner. I would not have thought of either of these, but then my wife being one of the chosen race made the second sort of manditory.
Shoot, gotta go, Need to pack for the cottage. Hope you two have a great time - post the photos when you get back, we would all love to see how it went.
The actual incidence of true titanium allergies is probably much less than one percent. There have only been one ore two cases reported in the orthopaedic literature of actual titanium allergies.
It is generally regaurded as one of the most bio compatible metals around. Most hip replacements are made of titanium for this reason.
There was one article that I know of, where a POSSIBLE allergy was seen after a titanium implant -Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American) early 1990's
..........FULL STOP.
Most ring injuries are the type where someone catches their ring on an object, and the ring gets stuck(Basketball rim, hook of some sort, etc).
What happens is typically that the finger sustains a degloving type injury - thering grabs the skin and other soft tissue of the finger, and the skin is pulled off. Your finger is "skinned", just like a sock or glove coming off your foot or hand.
Usually very difficult/impossible to repair, and winds up with a digit amputation.
..........FULL STOP.
Tungsten Carbide.
Upside: practically unscratchable, definably unbendable, if you get a polished one it has this cool grey-blue color to it. Despite it's current sort of popularity, not a ton of people have them. Cheap!
Downside: can't resize it. Heavy compared to just about anything else it's size (though you may like that, depending.).
As for the whole "the ER has to cut your finger off thing", Caribide rings come off pretty easily. All they do is take a pair of vice-grips to it, and it'll shatter into about 10 chunks. It's 9.5 on the Mohs scale, but that hardness also makes it brittle. So no real worries about it getting stuck on your finger if your finger gets swollen. It also won't deform, so even if you slammed it in a car door, it won't go out of round.
As for the resizing thing, my take: without any meaning behind it, it's just a lump of round metal. Why I wear it an what that symbolizes is the important part, so if it's the "original" one or a replacement, it doesn't so much matter.
I got mine from Titanium Kay. Shipped fast, great return policy (I had to return the first one because I mis-sized myself), and it's what is says it is: Tungsten doped with Nickel for a binder (yes, I have an x-ray spec available to me. Yes, I lit my ring up in it to see if it really was what they said it was).
The kicker: because it's an industrial metal, it's cheap. A plain band starts at 50 bucks.
Chris Knight is my hero.
My wife and I have brushed platinum rings, and specifically asked for a less hard version of it so that it would develop a patina.(95% Pt , 5% Ir) Now it has a beautiful used, almost antique look to it. My wife re-brushes hers about once a year to give it the look again.
I like the way it looks now better than when it was new. It seems to fit a little better too.
..........FULL STOP.
http://www.mokume-gane.com/
The metal is treated to a folding type process, not unlike samurai swords. The metal develops a cool wood like grain if different color metals are used.
..........FULL STOP.
I'd go with TMBG. They are one of the geekiest any-kind-of-bands ever.
For a hardware geek I'd suggest germanium.
For an aviation geek I'd suggest duralium.
But for a nuclear geek I'd suggest plutonium. As long as it carries a disclaimer suggesting that aggregating these particular wedding rings is not a wise idea ... ;)
"I his bow, and spun and wove, likes you." Vere de Vere out of my mould's mouth dragged me of the voluntary apes.
Tungsten Carbide - high melting, 2870ÂC, extremely hard 8.5 - 9.0 Mohs scale. Much more affordable than gold too. Spending a lot of money on wedding bands is just less money you have to do other things with.
Don't buy her a ring that cannot be cut off in an emergency. Make sure that the ring cutter they use will be able to penetrate the ring's material.
We were both software engineers when we got married, and our company used Pascal. We were going to get ordinary white gold rings, one engraved "REPEAT" and the other engraved "UNTIL." You can't have one without the other.
In the end we didn't, which is probably just as well as hers slipped off her finger while snorkeling on Maui.
I piss off bigots.
If it has an inscription on it in an antique elvish tongue, and glows when heated by flame. Let's just say, you'll know what to expect!
You know, of course, that iridium is nearly twice the density of lead or gold? A platinum band is already unusually dense and surprisingly heavy to people who pick it up for the first time, iridium would be shockingly heavy.
If you do go for Ir - make sure you get the size right the first time, I imagine getting it fixed later would be nearly as much hassle as getting it made in the first place. You want a ring that won't fall off, and won't have to be cut off when her fingers swell up during pregnancy... sometimes the solution to this size problem is the null set.
Good luck with your new life. My platinum band marriage barely lasted a year. The white gold one is still going well after 8 years and two sons with Autism.
Depending on what kind of geeky you want, there are replicas of the Rings of Power (Lord of the Rings), and the Aes Sedai rings (Wheel of Time).
One never knows when one might need a rotten tomato... - King's Quest IV: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
How about Technetium? You don't see too much stuff made from that...
This company sells rings with ferric meteorite inlays. They are a bit pricey, but very pretty. You could tell your beloved that nothing on earth was good enough for her, so you got her something that fell from the sky. http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/Damascus_Rings_Meteorite_Rings/
Wow! Everybody here is full of suggestions, and that's great, but dude. . .
I LOVE your idea of an iridium ring. It's totally cool and I'd definitely go with it! --The only piece of advice I'd offer is to scope her out first. Girls are, on a fundamental level, creatures which are very aware of social values with respect to other girls, and their moms especially. If other girls will not be impressed by an iridium ring, then she'll feel bad about it on some level. I'd try to find out first if she'd be happy with a ring like that. --You might even run it past her mother first, and see if you can't sell the awesomeness of the idea to her; if you can get her mom to truly see it the same way you do, as a powerfully romantic gesture other women would wish their guys loved them enough to think of, then you're good for life and she'll treasure her ring as much as you hope she will. If it all seems good, then go for it! The idea behind it as you describe it is super romantic and the metal is just plain cool. But I'm a guy, which means I'm basically retarded when it comes to this sort of thing.
Good luck on pop-the-question day! She sounds like a lucky girl if you're thinking this much about getting it right.
-FL
Why are you worried about the ring corroding in Aqua Regia? Are you planning to put your wife in a vat of the stuff if everything goes pair shaped?
it isn't that meaningful to you if you're asking strangers to pick it out for you..
I know this post may get overlooked.... but I'll try anyway.
I am in a very similar situation. We've been together for 3 years, living together for a little over a year and a half.
We are both very geeky. I am a programmer/web developer/fiddler in electronics/robotics. Needless to say, she is interested in these area's too... Although I think it's because I am and she wanted to spend some more time with me.
When it all boils down to it, girls are still girls. They don't care where it came from, they don't care what it's made of. They just want a ring that is pretty and can show off to their friends.
That's it.
It can be $200 or $20,000... she'll love the ring all the same because it came from you.
As an aside: Just this past Thursday (Aug. 28th) was our 3 years together. I organized a night in a nice hotel in 'The City' (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) and purchased a Promise Ring. Not an Engagement Ring... just a Promise Ring. It cost me about 2/3 of a weeks salary (needless to say I make about $800/week). She had to go back to work today, and I can tell you she is probably all giddy showing off her ring to her friends at this very moment.
A ring maker is currently making my design for my soon to be wife. I had a lot of fun designing the engagement ring ... even though she'll only receive it a couple of weeks before we get married. I went with platinum with a diamond and twin blood red rubies ( I sourced the stones from some miners up north - a lot cheaper). I stress that it is very cool designing the smallest details. The wedders are also platinum but basically very plain.
The ring is the only thing we are spending the money on. The rest of it is family and very close friends at her parents house and garden. Also had to pay for a celebrant.
.
If you must go iridium, such a hard material that it can not easily be cut off, my wife has a suggestion. Have it made with a little clasp and hinge so it can be removed easily if needed.
Beyond that, enjoy married life, I know I do. My third marriage, second wife. Yes, I was an idiot and married the first one twice.
Get Moose and Squirrel!
On the contrary, the ring would signify that all things must end, and nothing lasts forever.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Just Pick a nice design and take it to the local tatoo parlor... No chance it is gonna come of or be nicked or destroyed unless you are. So, how's that for everlasting? Reminder of stardust? How about reminder of pain and suffering you put up with each other because deep down you really do love each other. How about symbolism of I'd do anything to show society that I belong to you... Even something as hard/tough to handle as a tatoo. I personally do NOT have one, but always thought it would be cool way to go... My ring cost me $30 *(8 years ago, on sale) at a local jewelry shop... it is just 14K, plain round with the "comfort" edge... Why did I go cheap? Because her's wasn't... it was a set that the engagement ring attached to and really fancy... But 99% of the time she just wears the plain band part. So that way I matched her plain band. Besides, it is all about materialism when you start putting too much thought into it. We know we love each other and unless I loose my finger, that ring will never come off. Good luck! It's a challange... Just wait till you decide to reproduce! ;)
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
And I thought this was something Slashdot merely has read about.
Iridium is very hard and very brittle; I think it'd be difficult to make it into a ring. Maybe it could be alloyed with gold?
At least it's not terribly expensive; about half the cost of gold.
When my spouse and I wanted geeky wedding bands, we ended up getting them from Isabel Jewelry, in Wyoming. Isabel Rucker makes beautiful hammered rings from several colors of 14K gold, as well as silver. The geek cred comes from her being the daughter of SF author Rudy Rucker, of whom we're fans.
Her rings are beautiful, functional, and not terribly expensive, and we're very happy with ours.
Custom ring designs and exotic materials are all well and good if you're the next Bill Gates, but most of us have more limited finances. Set yourself a budget and stick to it. If you don't have the cash to pay up front, pick something you can pay off in one or two years without straining your bank account. If you feel you really must spend lots, then at least involve her in picking the ring to be sure you get something she'll be happy with. Above all, do NOT listen to the jewelry industry's guidelines about how much to spend; they publish those to maximize their profits, not your happiness. If the girl feels slighted because you failed to spend x% of your annual salary on her ring, then she's a gold digger and not worth your time.
I'm sure your girlfriend is a wonderful person, but the truth is that over half of all American marriages these days fail within 15 years. Don't saddle yourself with a huge debt that may very well outlive your marriage.
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For my wife, a self-described "dirty hippy", I got a lovely white gold ring (reclaimed gold) with a single sapphire of certified ethical origin. It's untreated, so the color is a little dull, but that's how it came out of the ground. The presentation box was handmade sustainable wood.
Match the ring to her!
Tattoo the wedding ring on.
Titanium ring with grooves in it colored blue a.k.a. in the fashion of TRON.
Is this going to be your big fat GEEK wedding?
What's your secret?
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Looking at that article and around the web I keep seeing it mentioned that Iridium is brittle. It could be that it will break under some conditions, though I can't find any additional information about this. Also it seems to be damaged by molten table salt so she should take it off while cooking just in case. Salt will melt at 808 degrees so that shouldn't really come up.
http://www.titaniumrings.com/
My wife bought my ring here here. They have some very nice designs.. I work in a factory and ruined my first wedding ring within a couple months. She got the 6-6-2 (stronger than aircraft) grade titanium. It included a chemical analysis of the titanium used in the ring including what impurities were present. She also got the engineered satin finish. Let me tell you.. this ring in 4 years hasn't show a scratch. And I have slammed it into steel enclosures, raked it across concrete, etc. It's also nice and light.
My intention has always been to have a jeweler create the wedding bands (not the engagement ring) from scratch. Create a single wider ring from molten gold, then split it in cross-section to create two rings. Resize to fit individually. Wedding bands are an important symbol of togetherness. I can't think of a better way to demonstrate that symbol than this. Now, if someone will please tell me how to get someone to marry me, I'll be set. Best of luck.
I dunno if you're really interested in finding a meaningful band or rather one that makes you seem clever and geeky but planning a wedding before even asking a girl to marry you is ABSOLUTELY something a geek would do.
PM
My wife an I wear Tungsten rings. And by the way, it's not the ring or the wedding that will keep you together it is time and patience. Good luck.
I know somebody that just got plain gold rings and then used the money saved on this an other superfluous arrangements (honestly, do you need to throw a party for all that people half of which you don't know?) to take a one month brake in Europe.
Most of my married mates's wives no longer wear their wedding ring, they prefer jewellery chosen by themselves anyway, so frankly, what is the point?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
My wife is a jewelry making hobbiest. She's going to make me a translucent green lantern ring that she says I can wear on my wedding finger. Embarrassingly Uber-Geeky and yet really cool...
Have a piece of meteorite inset into your band. The jewelery store that I purchased my fiance's engagement ring, as well as our wedding bands, offers this as a an option. It looks really cool with all of the striations going in every which direction. It's cut really nicely too.
Don't waste ridiculous amounts of money on a wedding. If you two like each other enough to be together, leave it at that. Or if you really feel the need to get those little tax breaks, go down to the court house and grab a marriage license. Throwing parties and spending thousands of dollars won't do anything... put that toward a house or something instead!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
You had me at Iridium.... *sob* You had me at Iridium!
I had my wedding ring made by www.titaniumrings.com They did an excellent job and I highly recommend them. Next year is our tenth anniversary and I'm going to get them to make some custom rings for my wife and my daughters. I thought his prices where quite reasonable
Makes me want to see Triumph vs. Star Wars again.
I regularly wear 2000 year old stuff I got off eBay. I've also got some real Viking.
No sig today...
I'd go with a Inconel ( Nickel-Iron ) alloy, since Nickel is the last element produced in a stars core before it dies. All heavier elements are produced in Novae.
Inconel is very chemically resistant, and durable.
The jewelry industry is now using rapid prototyping to design and build rings. You could sit with a 3D program or a friend that knows one, design the ring and send it off to be made.
Another easier way to get a geeky ring is to do what I did. Get a Mokume Gane ring that can only be created by a space age metalsmith.
Like this:
http://www.andrewnycedesigns.com/collections/embraced-mokume-gane-rings8.php
Try the Star Wars Cantina, I hear they're great with Weddings, Birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs.
What about Tungsten carbide?
http://www.google.com/search?q=Tungsten+carbide
It is very tough, but doesn't stand up to lateral stresses that well, so you can break them into tiny pieces using vice grips and a twisting action:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbide#Domestic
I'd just go to Costco. They usually have a good price on some really nice wedding rings.
We melted gold donated from my family with gold melted from her family to make our rings. I thought that was a nice touch. The blending of our two lives together.
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
iridium cannot be attacked by any acids or by aqua regia. It can, however, be attacked by molten salts, such as NaCl and NaCN.
I cold forged mine from a silver quarter. My wife asked me to leave it a little rough so you could tell it's hand made. I like to think of it as symbolizing putting myself and that same work into our relationship. The ring shows wear, but coin silver wears very well. It isn't perfect or indestructible, but it's strong and beautiful.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
How about "They Might Be Giants"?
http://www.yankodesign.com/2007/07/18/the-ring-of-security/
http://www.yankodesign.com/2007/11/13/digitus-ring/
http://www.alaskajewelry.com/remember-rings-never-forget-anniversary-p-2040.html
http://jefferyrainey.com/blog/?cat=11
http://www.yankodesign.com/2007/07/10/alarming-ring/
Too bad the ultra-geekiest metal isn't available, however whatever exotic metal you select I suggest a soft gold with your metal choice applied as an inlay. There are good reasons for making the bulk of the ring from one of the customary metals now in use.
An upscale jeweler such as Jared will make custom jewelery for you, and you could start with one of their artful designs as the base.
If your bride is also a geek, she will appreciate a tension mount instead of claws.
And the ultimate in geek is a steel band on the pinkie of her working hand. If you love her, and your unborn children, give her a ring, but don't spend so much on it you can't provide an education.
Avoid (natural) rubies as well. The vast majority (90+%) come from Burma and enrich a regime that is happy to shoot Buddhist monks to stay in power. Again, synthetics are just fine.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
My wife is somewhat geeky and spent all of college and grad school working in retail jewelry. I'll let her say what she's come up with:
I know you like the Ir as a symbol of permanence, but remember that a ring was first used (as opposed to say a necklace) because it never begins and never ends. That said if you'd still like to do Ir see if you can have an infinity symbol fashioned from it and then inlay it in another softer metal, this allows for minor resizing and emergency removal.
If you want to stick with a band, I distinctly recall one wedding band company that sent us materials that would cast your ring with the DNA bar things (what ever they're called) from your genes, it looked like a rather abstract pattern, but has meaning for the two of you.
If you want a man made diamond, LifeGem can make a diamond out of human hair, it actually has more carbon than ashes do, so you can usually make one from less material. But you'll probably want to save hair clippings for a bit, and it'll take 3-4 months to make, so this may not be in your time frame.
If you'd like to have a more traditional diamond; I'd suggest getting one of the specialty cuts. Many of them are specially engineered for light, brilliance, and even shape. They also have reports, certifications, and laser inscriptions on the diamond (personalized laser inscription is also something you might consider having done)
What ever you pick just keep in mind that if you get a set the wedding and engagement rings must be of the same metal or the softer metal will be worn away by the harder.
Diamonds are forever. And a big closet.
Some metal or metal alloys disturb the skin, making a ring unwearable.
I recall hearing a story from some earth scientists whom had a graduation ring composed of similar proportions of metals found in the Earth. They said they couldn't wear it since their skin reacted with it.
I don't know about iridium, but check into it first to see if it is skin compatible.
As someone who just married (we're celebrating our 1 week anniversary this afternoon) a wonderful girl (who has her incredible moments of geekiness, and manages to put up with mine) might I make a slightly different recommendation?
Don't buy the rings. Make them, together.
My wife and I made ours, a pair of tri-gold Mokume-gane rings. The "star" pattern created in our rings is unique, and our rings are mirror images of each other. Or you can do some other combinations of metals, or other styles. It was a great experience, and in the end, that's more valuable than the rings themselves. (Plus, I've gotten no end of compliments in how beautiful the rings are, and/or how romantic I am for doing such a thing - serious bonus points for me!)
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
my really un-geeky cousin did the geekiest, yet most romantic thing that i could think of: he signed up for a ring-making class, and made the (plain gold) rings himself, from scratch. I always thought this was the ideal solution to the problem of having a "special" ring, while at the same time not getting something that might seem "weird" to normal people. I'd love to do the same, but now i'd obviously just be a copy-cat :(
Why not try the Max Rebo Band (the one from Star Wars). I hear that they work cheap and give a two for one deal on geek weddings (Where did you find a girl geek anyway? They seem to be in very short supply...).
My wife and I wanted "white gold", which is normally plated with iridium for the reasons you described.
If you want a geeky wedding band, perhaps there's a design that incorporates a moebius strip?
If all else fails, I think some of the seven dwarven rings have shown up on eMy wife and I wanted "white gold", which is normally plated with iridium for the reasons you described.
If you want a geeky wedding band, perhaps there's a design that incorporates a moebius strip?
If all else fails, I think some of the seven dwarven rings have shown up on eBay, but some dude named "TarMairon9731" has been making some really high bids...
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
The most important part of a marriage is the vows and the witnesses. The "in love" feelings will come and go. When they go, you need a determination to see it through regardless. For people who honor their word, solemn vows before a crowd of witnesses accomplishes that. Maybe you've made a promise to yourself to stick it out. Why not make it public? Maybe you have some private conditions under which you would give yourself permission to bail out?
The expense of a wedding can be a symbol of the degree to which the bride is "cherished". Some Christian pro-family speaker (whose name I've forgotten) tells an insightful (though likely legendary) story of an African girl who was considered the ugly duckling and despised. While most girls fetched a bride price of 4 or 5 cows, her father set hers at 1 cow in the hopes of at least getting rid of her. A man came courting (with much gossip), and ultimately paid a bride price of 10 cows. The villagers were astonished. Even more astonishing, the girl looked radiant at the ceremony. They couldn't believe their eyes. Over the years, the girl gained confidence and the inner beauty that lasts - in large part because her husband continued to demonstrate how greatly he valued her.
My wife and I did titanium. I am an Engineer and she is a Sculptor. I like the fact that the ring is very light and she likes the fact that the ring is pretty much indestructible. They have a ton of shapes, colors and styles.
I wouldn't get Iridium or Tungsten because they don't have facilities to cut that off you at any hospital.
http://gizmodo.com/383451/cat5-wedding-bands-pronounce-you-geek-and-geek Seriously though, I think the Iridium idea is neat and very unique. If you can find someone to do it, it would probably have to be cast in place, and most likely you would be out of luck if she ever needed it sized or worked on. Just some things to keep in mind.
as suggested before, there are some really cool Ti bands available. Being a former bike-geek, it is funny to point out that now my frame, seat rails, handlebar and wedding ring are all Ti! But also interesting-I had the same idea as you concerning a wedding band-Iridium. I looked into it, and aside from being horribly expensive just to get the raw material, Iridium by itself is very brittle. Not good stuff for a ring. It is added to metals like platinum when they make platinum rings to make them harder (not quite as ductile). It would be cool to see what an iridium band looks like...
"I would kill the children of a thousand planets just to see you smile."
I am positive that the symbolism of the permanence of Iridium, the reminder that we are star-stuff, and the fact that the ring would be one-of-a-kind would really strike a chord with my girlfriend.
Just because we have the same elements in us as a star does doesn't mean we came from stars. If I have steak inside of me would you say I came from a cow? No, because you know the logic is incorrect but that would be the first conclusion for people who didn't know better and were not smart enough to think of other possibilities. There is no direct evidence we came from stars (no one was around when it happened, if it did, so we shouldn't act like we know what did happen) so don't spread the lies. That isn't a good way to build a marriage, on lies.
I got my wife a man made diamond from Apollo. http://www.apollodiamond.com/.
It's a real diamond, not cubic zirconium or anything. And it's geekly cool because it was made in a lab, and not just taken from the De Beers' diamond monopoly.
The sales guys I talked to were really nice, and they'll send you high res images of the stones they have in stock at the moment. I highly recommend them.
Pure metals as cast are very soft. I just proposed and I wanted the same thing as you, but in pure platinum. But jewelers only use an alloy of Pt/Ir. The problem is that rings are cast metal and are not work hardened, so they are very soft. This is because the crystals are relatively free from defects. By either alloying the ring with another element or by repeatedly hammering or bending the metal can it become sufficiently hard. This means that a pure metal as cast ring will scratch much easier, that any engraving will wear off very quickly, and that it will deform easier the first time. Metals like Ti and W are usually made by mechanical processes and won't suffer this problem. Further, if you want the really shiny look, you stilll have to electroplate it with rhodium. Pt at least is not as shiny when polished, and Ir may be the same. This rhodium coating, however wears off even quicker if the ring is softer. And since the Rh is electroplated (and I'm a electrochemist) that is super sexy.
As an EMT - I'd have to second the calls not to use a high strength metal. Ring injuries are very common and nasty. Instead, how about a geeky shape? A MÃbius strip? Stone in the shape of a roman surface?
Nothing says never ending love like a one sided surface without end....
While iridium cannot be attacked by acid, it can be attacked by sodium chloride (salt). Given that it's going to be next to skin 24/7, which sweats sodium chloride, that's not a great idea.
My suggestions:
(1)Platinum - It's what mithril silver was based on in Lord of the Rings
(2)Titanium - Incredibly hard, cheap, and has the Abyss connection
After you grow up in another 10 years you will be kicking yourself for being so damned stupid. ( if she sticks around that long after such a childish start )
Don't try to be cute, go traditional.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Figrin D'an and the Modal Notes. Imagining walking down the aisle to the dulcet tones of the Kloo horn brings tears to my eyes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figrin_D'an
Yes. Don't.
Iridium is a very hard metal. *If* I remember correctly, anything over 15% is hard to machine w/o problems. Brittleness and sharp edges may be an issue. (still a neat concept tho) Vapor dep can avoid those problems.
Another idea I haven't seen done recently (like I look now) is to use diff colored gold alloys to make patterns or shapes. When I was antique shopping, I once ran across a small gold rose pendant. Gold comes in red(ish), white, yellow and even green tinted alloys. The new stuff would prob have to be cu$tom.
Also, try antique stores, a very few do carry antique jewelry. Beware tho, if they want BIG $$ and it isn't sitting a bank vault, they're usually trying to rip you off. The few I used to trust (gone now) made their $ on the quick sale/fast profit plan. Small margins, but they wouldn't get stuck trying to sell that ring they paid $100 for $500.
AND above all, it is usually all about her. (and no, she won't grow out of those annoying habits)
Mammoth bone ring! I'm sure you can find someone to make one, though it would be brutally expensive. Some chess sets are made out of the stuff.
Dude, marriage is misery. It is the single most important FINANCIAL decision you will ever make. For your own sanity, be sure you have researched the pros and cons of the legal corporation that you are looking to sign onto.
SlashDot is up to almost a million for uid. Statistically, there's got to be at least 10 user's that are/were married at some point in their lives. Hell, I'll go out on a limb and say 15.
God, what I would give to turn back the clock. Do not get married guys. Talk to a good sampling of men in their 40s and 50s to get real wisdom on life and marriage. MARRIAGE ABSOLUTELY SUCKS. Without exaggeration, I can say that marriage is the single worst volitional act that a man can make in the U.S. today. I mean, you can enlist and decide it was a bad idea, but then you can just not re-enlist. With marriage and divorce law, there is NO WAY TO REALLY UNDO A MARRIAGE. It's like losing your legs in a car accident. You can adapt as best you can, but you cannot reclaim what you have lost.
This should be required reading for anyone showing up at a courthouse to sign a marriage contract: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/men-as-beasts-burden_id1228
If you haven't even popped the question, think of it as a geeky engagement ring -- certainly, you'll want her to be apart of the decision of what eventually becomes a wedding band, for two reasons:
First, "popping the question" implies that you don't know if she'll say yes. It's going to really suck if you go to all this trouble and she says "no", or "I'm not ready".
Second, and more importantly: Assume she does say yes. (You're probably assuming that anyway.) Shouldn't she be a part of a decision about something she'll wear every day for the rest of her life?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I've always (well, okay, for a few years) thought it would be pretty cool to have a diamond ring made -- synthetic diamond, grown/ground to the shape of a torus.
Of course, the girl I wanted to marry cheated on me and then dumped me after five years of dating, so you might not want to take my advice.
http://www.martynemko.com/articles/men-as-beasts-burden_id1228
Marriage is the most overrated part of the American way of life. Trust me, you don't want to become another married loser in the 'burbs.
We purchased our wedding bands from greenKarat as the gold (and perhaps other metals used) are recycled mostly from electronic components. This seemed the perfect way to salute our shared tree-hugging-hippie values. As a geek I loved the fact that we might be wearing some metal that came from a machine I could have managed at some point in my life (unlikely I know but possible).
Silicon would be geekier, or tungsten carbide (for which there are many jewelers available).
Were that I say, pancakes?
Perhaps you should try Thulium because of its atomic number.
...if my husband got me a ring like that, I would be stoked. That is the coolest idea. The only thing that would make it better would be to get a gem set in it that you found personally from one of those "sluice your own loot" joints, like a star garnet from Idaho.
But also keep in mind that not all women can appreciate something like that. It's up to you to judge. Good luck!!
Get her a titanium spork from ThinkGeek, and bend it into a circle. You can't get much geekier than that.
Iridium is extremely rare on Earth, and the high concentration of it at the K-T boundary in the Earth's crust is what suggests a meteor took out the dinosaurs. I am positive that the symbolism of the permanence of Iridium, the reminder that we are star-stuff, and the fact that the ring would be one-of-a-kind would really strike a chord with my girlfriend.
Not to mention the message of 'My love for you kills dinosaurs!'
Seriously, though...
The band is a nice idea, but iridium is expensive. Kudos to you for giving the diamond cartels the bird, but I would agree with some posters who have said that there's more to live than obedience to broken traditions and materialism. Think about what kind of message you want.
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
A truly geeky ring would be useful in some manner. For instance, I've long entertained the idea of a ring that could be used to start a fire (damned if I know how to do it).
The discussion in the comments about exotic materials are not materially different than the average non-geeky wedding ring conversion. i.e "should I get white gold? Maybe Platinum? Oh, I do so like that diamond... bla bla". It's just shifted a little bit in the periodic table.
My wife is the antithesis of a geek and she would hear nothing of my ideas. However, our rings are fairly unique in that they were hand sawed with our names on them.
platinum and moissanite. Platinum for her (it's classy) and moissanite for me (nothing says I love you like jewels from an asteroid).
If you're planning children, don't do matching titanium bands. Fine for you, but not her. Her fingers will swell during the pregnancy, and after they will still end up at least a size and a half larger than she started (and she lost all of the baby weight - more calcium makes the bones grow). Titanium isn't resizable.
White gold and platinum are good alternatives.
Get the Dan Band for your wedding. It will make for one hell of a marriage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIRiZsDObrU
Choosing the lesser of two evils is a choice for evil.
Given the many wise concerns from the medical staff about metals harder than gold and ring cutters, I'd stick with a nice gold design but encrust it with some old (classic?) z80, 8080 and 8086 chips (whatever is small enough to fit). If you like old-school, try a magnetic core type or paper tape/punch card motif. You can even micro-encode your eternal love message in it.
Just a tip, since both you and your gal will be wearing this ring (ideally) for the rest of your lives, you should involve her in picking hers, and pick one that you like too. I chose a Tungsten-Carbide ring because I liked the color. My wife picked hers out for herself. This arrangement is optimal since it lessens the chance for the requirement to upgrade or replace the ring later on when you decide that you don't care for the look of the ring your significant other selected. By the way, my wife selected a diamond band in platinum... ouchy on price, but it makes her happy.
Do you really want to hear the words 'My Preciooous' the rest of your life?
Although nobody's entirely certain about where all the gold or platinum in the universe was formed, we do know that at least part of it was formed in supernovas. Weird to think that a ring on your hand started out in a supernova.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
They play great 8-bit video game music.
If you are getting married soon don't spend money on extremely expensive symbols of your affection. Save your money for real things like children. In these uncertain times when we live on the edge of great change, you should put aside money for emergencies, financial reversals, and unforeseen circumstances.
Blowing a huge sum of money on what is basically a symbolic gesture will seem insane if five years from now you are married, lose your job for some reason that is not your fault, and have a child that develops a medical problem that is not covered by ever-shrinking medical insurance. Marriage is the time when people affirm to their spouses that they will stop doing insane things. If you have the money now for an rare-metal ring, then invest it in conservative Euro-denominated stocks. Give this to your new wife instead. Believe me, she will appreciate it more than an ring that costs five figures now but will only bring four figures in an emergency sale.
The ring being indestructible surely will hold your marriage together.
Ellidi
I went with tungsten because it was unique at the time. I have met more people that have it now, and have somehow convinced several people to replace theirs with tungsten. It is a bit heavy, but it has a nice dark color and will not scratch or dent easily either. It could be a problem if you injure your finger since tungsten melts at a cool ~3500*C. A plus for me was that welding spatter can just be ground off and buffed again.
Look into puzzle rings...
wikipedia looks a little light on coverage, but they're enormous geeky fun- they are 1 'piece' of linked rings that (when put together correctly) are a smooth comfortable wearable ring, but if unlocked, loosely resemble a gnarly keychain of a bunch of mashed rings...
there are I think 3 different 'types' of puzzles and all use an odd number of bands. The more bands, the more obnoxious the puzzle on a geometric curve. 3(easy), 5(fun), 7(tricky) are common, but I have an 11(yikes, don't take it off), and in a discussion with a ring maker, we thought up to a 21(shudder) should be possible with an extremely hard metal (we discussed platinum or nickel).
There is an added tie-in to old-world tradition in that the idea behind puzzle-rings seems to be that they were given to brides as insurance of fidelity - upon being removed, they would become difficult to solve and put back on.
googling found this place to give you an idea (probably custom make for a wedding ring though).
www.dont-marry.com
I'm clueless about the materials, but you should think about making the design with Borromean Rings. :-)
www.nomarriage.com is another good one as a primer. I can't speak to the web design of either site. But the information on both is pretty good, and very, very relevant for young men today. There's one other, just an article, that's also quite good with a different spin but similar conclusions: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/gold-diggers-are-alive-and-well-in-2006_id1222 Get thee educated on these realities, my friend.
See this for LOTS of information about working with iridium. Pricescope post
In fact, iridium is already used in rings. Most platinum rings are 5% Iridium. (There are two other metals that are commonly used.) The above link mentioned that using any pure metal (gold/silver/platinum/iron/etc) is not really feasible because of one or another property of that metal.
I went through the same brainstorming process, and our ultimate choice was Palladium, for similarly geeky reasons. It's a beautiful white metal, more similar to platinum than to "white" gold. Palladium bands are less common, but available commercially. Custom fabrication, which we researched, will be disgustingly expensive if you want any sort of purity assurance with most metals - custom fab can be a dirty process, resulting in discoloration. Special finishing and polishing may be needed. Worst of all is the brittleness involved, as Iridium (in this case) is quite hard to work with, meaning that the jeweler could destroy the piece during these steps. And then it's back to casting again.
Talk to a metals major in an art program of repute (University Instructor?) - they are the people who could possibly try this. Be forewarned that only an experienced metalworker who's done both machining and jewelry will likely have the skillset needed.
I'm sure Iridium would be beautiful, but unless you are wealthy try not to go crazy here. Have you considered a ring where the origin of the material is special? Space components, deep sea salvage, Meteoric Ore, or the like?
My ring is silver, I hate gold, ugly stuff. It's also on a chain around my neck. I've worn my wedding ring about a month total since I've been married. My fingers get beat up too much to wear it, they also swell up at night when I sleep.
But I'd rather if you didn't copy it. http://www.jakobhoman.com/2007/09/she-married-geek-my-binary-wedding-ring.html The studio where I had it made (linked in post) can certainly do something unique for you too.
Make the ring out of yttrium oxide.
Their they're doing there hair.
Tungsten or Titanium would be good choices. My husband and I didn't want gold or silver either. Platinum is too costly and requires far too much upkeep (yearly cleaning and re-plating). We settled on Titanium, but I think Tungsten would have been better choice. Have your finger sized by a professional. None of these metals can be re-sized once carved into shape. Whatever you finally choose, have them hand-made. There is no substitute for custom craftsmanship, esp for something so simple & symbolic.
Does your girlfriend subscribe to Slashdot?
....what else? LEAD! Yep, fine material for a wedding band, causes brain damage over time, so when your wife asks you why you behave like an idiot, you can tell her, with a straight face, "it's the power of love, hon'". Not to mention good source material for ammunition for those times when you need to shoot yourself in the foot.
What, ....what!?
White gold.
You got to have something help you deal with leprosy...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
of a suitable size and material, and slice it in half, leaving 2 mobius strip rings. Present one to beloved.
IANAM; but I believe you will have to work in higher dimensions.
consider that it might need to be cut if there is a small accident. I looked at something similar in the past, we were thinking of Titanium, but on the advice of a firefighter and an ER nurse, we went with gold instead. The reason, gold can be cut and repaired quite easily, where as a very hard material like titanium (in our case) would be quite difficult to cut and could result in irreparable injury to the finger.
Do something unique with the gold, make it have some interesting patterns or shapes, but keep the metal soft enough to deal with possible accidents (the other idea we were given was to have hairline cuts fused with gold or similar material, like that it could be cut if needed.)
Weird Al Yankavich might be available...oh wait, I see what you're asking. Never mind.
use a layer about 1mm thick of 24 caret gold (there is an alloy of gold and 1% titanium so remains 99% pure gold, so quals as 24 caret) this has a unique color and allows for material removal for final fitting, but get it as close as possible first off!. Then a tungsten channel, very dense and durable, used in aerospace (electrical and even rocket nozzles, then the Iridium in the channel. The tungsten will be machined. Then the Iridium would be cast into the channel, then separately cast the inner gold ring, layer it with a brazing material like used on glass to metal brazing in semiconductor fab processes (it has an oxidizer and when touched off reduces to a thin molten layer that with bond the gold to tungsten. Use can use a ring expander to force fit the gold layer before the brazing process (after it is coated with a brazing preform). So 24 caret gold that is as hard as 14 caret gold but has that pure gold look (also easier to engrave a message in!, tungsten on the wear surfaces and Iridium for a final one of a kind top look, flanked by the dual rings of the sides of the tungsten channel it is caste in. Have a favorite odd language in common? Do a laser engraving in the ring surface and fill with a laser welding setup (hey! use the 24K AuTi for that too! though no standard wire in that alloy but conventional inlay process would work!). Also geek factor of using man-made synthetic (not simulated, synthetic so optically and chemically identical) gemstones. 100% flawless is inexpensive. And sapphire and diamond (and hey ruby is just 'sapphire' that is red, sapphire gets the rest of the spectrum ... ) all have high tech uses. Last thought. Don't let this be too much of the focus. The pact it represents is more important than the trinket. And a standard ring cutter will cut almost any ring off, except maybe some titanium alloys and tungsten carbide rings (tungsten carbide? whack it with a hammer with increasing force till it shatters) and the electric ring cutters will remove any of them. It will likely cost you a blade for the cutter (but the reality is the blades sell for $5 to $10, though expect to be charges $50-$$$ more). But while durable and dense Tungsten will not be an issue.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
If you really want to impress her and show her something different, look up jewelers in your area that create custom jewelry and sit down with them to design one yourself. What you end up with is a one-of-a-kind ring that: a) shows something of your own spirit b) lets her know you really put thought into this c) care enough to go out of your way for her This is particularly important when your future spouse is in a profession where a ring with a stone that sticks up off the finger can be a liability. That was the case with my wife (she taught Chemistry and the raised diamond is a great place for chemicals to hide). In situations where that's the case, design a flat ring with an emerald cut diamond. You can then decorate the center stone with emerald, saphire, ruby, amethyst, etc.... Or to be even more unique, use one of these gems for the center stone and decorate with diamonds. Just make sure that whatever you design lends itself to an anniversary band. You may not know what that is, but she does and it's important to her.
Well, it has been perfect for me ... Tungsten Carbide is what they use to make cutting tools for lathes and mills. It is totally scratch resistant and will keep its mirror finish even if you scrape it back and forth on concrete. It was particularly appropriate (geeky) for me because I used lots of tungsten in my Ph.D. research on cyclotron ion sources.
You can buy tungsten carbide rings at Walmart for like $40. :)
Choose your own metals, stones, etc. and design your own rings. Then make them in a jewlers studio. My wife (then fiance) and I did just that with Sam from here: www.newyorkweddingring.com
he also has a partner studio in San Fran CA:
www.sanfranciscoweddingring.com/index.htm
This is mega-fun. She made both our wedding bands and I made her engagement ring in two days. Nothing quite like a just-for-her custom ring made with your hands.
Try looking at the date, it is encoded in the URL.
I had mine made from pure Platinum and pure Gold, which is pretty nerdy, actually hard to do, and pretty symbolic.
:-). Although, at a molecular level, the ring is, in fact two rings, it looks like one. To separate the two rings, you have to destroy both of them. Also, as the gold is soft, it shows a unique and distinctive set of marks that come from being worn, and thus no other ring, even one made exactly the same, will ever look exactly like it.
:-).
Pt and Au don't actually bond, so what the ring actually is is a ring of pure Gold, cast inside a channel in a ring of pure Platinum. The symbolism is as follows: The Platinum is a hard, industrial metal that supports the gold. protecting it from the dings and hits from below and the sides: symbolizing me, Soldier/Engineer. The Gold is shiny, beautiful, and soft: symbolizing my Wife, tall, blonde, you get the picture
To make, you have to have a pure Paltinum ring cast first, with the channel that will be the Gold ring. Since Gold melts at a lower temperature than Pt, the Pt ring then becomes the inside of the cast for the gold. Once the ring cools, you clean it up, and etch the gold in aqua regia to create a shimmering petina.
Good luck! Marriage is a great journey, hard at times, but well worth it, and nothing like what you expect
You could get a platinum ring that's plated with Iridium, since, I believe that Iridium is a bit fragile?
I saw wedding bands made of multiple forgins of different base metals. Like a Damascus or Watered Steel, but in copper, silver and a dark metal that looked amazing. E.E. Robbins carries these in Seattle.
Cable tie
My ring is tungsten carbide. It has a beautiful finish, nice heft to it, and if practically scratch proof. Mine is even inlayed with a thin strip of silver. The silver is pretty scratched up but the tungsten is still perfect. And you can polish the silver as much as you want without ruining the ring. You just get more inlayed if it swears away.
Tungsten Carbide: Totally geeky!
1: Virtually scratch proof, it keeps its finish forever
2: Very strong, it wont deform but is brittle enough to be shattered with a vise-grip or simmilar in an emergency as it cant be cut with a jewler's saw.
3: Tungten carbide just SOUNDS geeky, they use the stuff to mill stainless steel!
pretty easy to find for men these days but takes a minute to find one styled and sized for a woman. My wife and I are vey happy with ours.
Rubidium will make the perfect ring!
whomever told you that was attempting to sell you something.
Black diamonds are just diamonds that have nitrogen in them as well as carbon, and are as common as dross. Previous to the last decade or so they were called 'bort' and ground up into industrial dust. Debeers just wants you to think they are rare so they can make more money off their monopoly by conning the less informed.
Consider yourself more informed and less likely to be buying industrial diamonds for jewelry prices. ;)
-Magdalene --"there are 10 types of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who don't"
"Any Suggestions For a Meaningful Geeky Wedding Band?"
MC Hawking or the Minibosses are each geeky bands you can have at your wedding, but I'm not sure what you mean by "meaningful."
Summary? What summary?
My wife's ring was Titanium and Moissanite. It is a tension set design that simply couldn't be made out of other metals.
We went w/ Moissanite because it is almost as hard as diamond but without the "taint" (i.e. blood, marketing, and assorted BS).
I had a particular design in mind. I contracted with the online jeweler that made my her ring to make mine. They told me that after a few tries that ended up with broken stones (both Moissanite and then Diamond) that the design just wasn't viable in Titanium.
I ended up going to a local jeweler and having them make a ring from a Platinum/Iridium mix. I think 95/5 is a common mix. It's been a while, but I believe I chose 90/10 because I thought it had better material properties.
I really liked the ring, but grew somewhat envious of the lightness of her ring (the density difference between the metals is significant!).
I ended up later purchasing a Titanium ring from a local Teno (http://www.teno.com) that is what I wear as my wedding band now.
Evolution: love it or leave it
My husband and I had matching rings made with alternating parenthesis, squiggly equals, and the infinity sign, representing togetherness and equality forever.
not the wedding band. Hopefully, she is marrying you just for who you are not for what kind of cool wedding band you can give her. (If she is marrying you for that, find someone else!) This slightly geeky woman says, "Be genuine, sincere, and if you can handle it, romantic, but don't make it about the ring . . . make it about her."
If you decide to incorporate gemstones, I think many geeky ladies would prefer lab-created stones, whether they're diamond substitutes or whatever else. Moissanite is great in place of diamonds, it's even more sparkly (for lack of a more technical term).
I requested not to get engaged (and my now-husband happily complied) so I don't have an engagement ring, but my wedding band contains lab-created pink sapphires in a gradient from dark to almost clear. Which brings up another point -- marriage-related jewelry doesn't need to have white/clear stones. Some women (like me) find them fairly boring. It's something to ask about.
However, for an engagement ring (and other rare circumstances) spending a lot of money demonstrates selfless sacrifice.
"Selfless sacrifice"? Seriously? From one married guy to another you are downing the cool-aid a bit too deeply. It would be only selfless if you got nothing out of the deal. Presumably you are married to someone you actually like so there are, ahem... benefits for you too. Furthermore I've yet to meet a guy who was *really* sacrificing to buy a ring for his gal. Yeah they're expensive but cutting back on the number of video games you buy doesn't count as a sacrifice.
My wife proposed to me and did not want an engagement ring because she does not like jewelry. We paid for our own small, inexpensive wedding only because I wanted to have something for my family--she wanted to elope. Instead we spent our money on 3 weeks in New Zealand and a house down payment.
We bought each other our wedding rings. I told her what I wanted (plain titanium) and she told me what she wanted (plain yellow gold). We were happy to buy each other exactly what the other wanted. The whole point is to serve as a positive reminder of the other person...you don't want to look down at your finger a couple years later and think "man this isn't really what I wanted."
If she wants to pick the color of the flowers at the ceremony, yeah sure fine. But this idea that the best thing for the guy to do is sit back passively on everything wedding-related is really counter-productive. That strategy absolutely will not work for any of the other major decisions in the rest of your marriage. So don't get into a bad habit early.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
More of the same. Unfortunately, no actual citation links, which means I'd have to go find the appropriate journals (likely physical archives) to verify those statistics...
Which, again, misses the point. They're statistics. Even if I assume all of the statistics are true, all that tells me is to be careful who I trust -- and my mother could've told me that.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Ours cost around $20,000 and it was in a registry office with only about a dozen people.
We had our wedding at Lake Louise and for plane fair, a full week of accommodations and the wedding, and about 12 people (yes small group) we spent less than $10,000 including the dress, honeymoon and reception. I'm not criticizing what you spent (so long as you enjoyed it) but a wedding does not *have* to be expensive. Basically it only gets expensive when you go for all the cliched traditional stuff and don't care about the cost. $5000 for a dress is frivolous. She may want it and if you've got the money you'll hear no argument from me - but don't think for a moment that spending $5000 is a requirement no matter what she says.
Children on the other hand are a different matter...
Are we talking about an engagement ring or wedding band or something that functions as both? Wifey has a couple. A relatively simple gold wedding band she wears all the time, a nicer wedding ring and the $10K engagement ring that she rarely wears. Is being flashy geeky? Is being geeky flashy? Keep It Simple Stupid. Something like that should be special emotionally, not materially. Get her what she wants, I like the idea about proposing and letting her pick it out. Pitch your idea and if she loves it you win both times.
http://www.iridiumjewelry.com/ Toll Free 866-888-6400 Custom Jewelry Please take a moment to check out some of our custom ring designs. Send us a drawing, we can draft it into a full color design. Don't restrict your purchase to Gold and Platinum. You can select Palladium, Iridium, Osmium, Rhenium, Ruthenium and many other metals. basically anything that is not radioactive or hazardous.
My wife and I live in Virginia, which does not recognize common-law marriages. Being married creates a number of legal rights with respect to each other, that otherwise would be difficult or impossible to create.
Common law is also not an option for many military couples. A person shipping out to Iraq may want to establish married status with their partner before they go.
Also, while you might not see a difference between common-law marriage and (for lack of a better term) decisive marriage, others do. I wanted to take an affirmative step of greater commitment, and would have wanted to get married even if we did live in a common-law state. But my wife and I don't like big expensive parties so we held a small cheap wedding...the emotion was no smaller, just the guest list and the bill.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Girls also care deeply about the being married part, but the getting married part is much higher on their list of important events than it is for guys. Someday you'll grow up and realize that this is a pretty much universal truth that reflects not one bit on how selfish the girl might be.
Please. It is 100% about how selfish the girl might be. Getting married requires you to go down to the court and get a marriage license and an appropriate legal authority to declare your marriage valid. Total cost is less than $200 almost anywhere. Anything beyond that is about showing off in front of friends and family and IS selfish. If that is what you both want there is nothing wrong with that but don't have any illusions about what your bride is doing if she demands that sort of wedding.
Yes I'm married. My wife was appalled by the idea of a large wedding where she would be on display. So we had a nice small ceremony in a nice location and genuinely enjoyed ourselves. More than I can say for many other couples.
Not sure if Cybrid still plays, but saw them at the Mozilla launch party at DNA Lounge in San Fran back in 2002, very good! wearecybrid.com Les Horribles Cernettes would be my first choice, but they are in Switzerland http://musiclub.web.cern.ch/MusiClub/bands/cernettes/
My wife got me my wedding ring from metamorphosis designs ( http://www.metamorphosisdesign.com/ ). The designer, John Biagiotti, works with many exotic materials. My wife decided that my ring should be made from 18kt gold and meteoritic iron. Or, if you are more interested in natural history, you could get dinosaur bone...
Expecting to be shot down on any number of fronts, may I offer something purely speculative? How about making the band out of any old crystalline titanium, but having a stone that itself contains some quantity of xenon hexaflouride? You get the symbolism of the ultimate loner, a geek, uniting with something else. Plus, it establishes that, in order to be stable, you need five more women.
I'll second on the Tungsten Carbide rings. I've had mine for about 18 months and it's still in pristine condition. There aren't even blemishes on the matte part where I'd expect there to be more-easily deformed fine structure. I also like the substantial weight of it.
Also, there's a removal method (copied from http://www.titanium-jewelry.com/about-tungsten.html, the retailer where I got mine)
"Materials, like tungsten carbide or ceramic, can only be removed by cracking them into pieces with standard vice grip-style locking pliers. Standard ring cutters will not work. Place vice grip-style locking pliers over ring and adjust the jaws to clamp lightly. Release and adjust tightener one-third turn and then clamp again. Repeat until a crack is heard, and then continue clamping in different positions until the hard material breaks away. Take care not to slide or rotate the cracked ring on the finger. If the ring contains an inlay of gold, the exposed gold can then be cut or clipped in the usual fashion."
After watching my boss go through the weekly ritual of trying to get his gold wedding band back into round using channel-lock pliers, I opted for a plain titanium ring with a black diamond coating. Cheap, practical, and incredibly durable. Is there anything more nerdy than that?
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
http://www.google.com/search?q=geeky+wedding+band
~ In Trust, We Trust ~
without fighting, then your doomed ;)
'Geek' and 'wedding' in one sentence? Who are you and what have you done to the real /. ?!
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
I suggest Devo, or perhaps Wierd Al. He puts on one helluva show. ;)
Seriously, let's step outside the proverbial box for a moment. Does it have to be a metal? How 'bout carbon? Am not suggesting you have the means to make a ring of buckyballs, but perhaps a layer of man-made diamond over another - perhaps recyclable - material?
BTW, congratulations!
We bought rings made of Tungsten, they look great, always shines, scratch-resistent, they have a strong-dark-metal looking. And in the place where I bought them they give the service for laser-inscribing letters (up to 12 characters). My wife love it, she never liked those gold boring rings that is only a measurement of economical status.
My wife is pretty "geeky", though not the way most slashdotters are. Maybe more "geek-hip", or "geek-hippie"? Anyway: she doesn't like, or really wear, jewelry (or wear makeup, etc.). So the wedding (and engagement) ring had to be:
- Unobtrusive ... if I wanted her to wear it.
- Relatively inexpensive
- Attractive
- Demure
What I ended up doing was taking an old earring with a diamond in it (like .4 karat, old European cut - it belonged to my grandmother, given to her by her father - the other earring had been lost), and took it to a local honest-to-god jeweler (not just a jewel and gold shop, like most are). I drew him several profiles of what I wanted the ring to look like, as well as a 3D sketch, and specified the other characteristics of the ring.
End result: a beautiful white-gold ring with a tapered band and stones inlaid flush to the band face: the center diamond with two sapphires, one on either side. The whole ring face is smooth, so she can do (mostly) whatever she wants while wearing it, and it's only a single small band, so she doesn't have to worry about multiple wedding/engagement rings. She's very fond of it and gets compliments all the time.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Don't spend money on something that is practically useless. My Aunt and Uncle were married years ago and had more important things to worry about than rings. Eventually they both just decided on something more practical for his profession (he runs a brewery and a ring would just get in the way). He had a narrow tattoo done around his ring finger that simply says "Spoken For" in black ink and a font that is more readable than anything else on a ring would be if it had writing.
For the wedding RING, go with Tungsten Carbide. Beautiful, never scratches, cheap.
For the weeding BAND, take the money you saved by not buying Iridium and get Kraftwerk to perform. Geekiest band ever.
from you 0wn bones
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7050
What jackass modded the parent flamebait? Giving a ring isn't a selfless sacrifice and never has been. There is a reason it is called a marriage contract - both sides get something. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.
That was nothing compared to what I lost buying back my house and furniture after the divorce a few years later: 200.000 euro.
Reality doesn't give a shit about true love.
I cringed for the entirety of those last three sentences. Then I read them again. WHY? WHY WOULD I DO THAT?!
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
I gave my wife a 4 ring gold puzzle ring. I bought myself a 6 ring silver puzzle ring. They are geeky, and reasonably inexpensive. A silver ring will run $30 - $300 depending on style and thickness. Silver kills bacteria on contact, and can be cut off if needed. The 5 ring puzzle ring is supposed to be harder to solve... The bottom line, was she liked it, so clearly I made the correct choice.
How about a Remember Ring? It has a chip in it that causes the ring to heat up on the day you set it to.
http://www.boonerings.com/
Titanium, Tungston Carbide, Stainless Steel, and I wouldn't be suprised if you could get him to do Iridium or Iridium plated. Alsc does some unique treatments to hardwood mated with metal, Stone and metal, Carbon Fiber and metal... other types of unique metal treatments.
And some really cool stressed-metal diamond mountings for Engagement/wedding rings. If he don't have it, He can make it... if he can't make it it doesn't exizt.
(A very satisfied customer)
I had the same thoughts, but then I realized I could buy gold and use the money I saved for a nice honeymoon. Now, 2 years later, the gold has conformed to my bone structure by bending and my bones have been saved from breaking a few times by the ring giving way. If I need a resize or replacement, I can go to any gold shop or jeweler...
You are good with any material lasting 8 or 9 years, which is the average duration of first marriages in the US.
As the late George Carlin said -- "I like to leave symbols to the symbol-minded", if you get the pun. It isn't about a ring or any other symbol. Life is about life, nothing less or more.
Seriously, let the female choose the band, the rock (I personally am opposed to diamonds on the grounds that DeBeers has richly profited from the slavery system of Apartheid in South Africa, and continues to do so. Wife will NEVER get another and she's OK with that. Emeralds are much more rare, as are rubies, than diamonds.) and everything about the entire process. If she proposes to you, so much the better!
http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/19/good-blogs
The platinum profile rings (that are shaped like your profile) are awesome.
Nice idea, hot sex won't affect it. Oh wait this is /. and geek sex, nm.
So if you have to spice things up maybe have the ring made by Pandora & Pendragon, they started out as kinky jewelers but do all sorts of custom art jewelry work in rare materials now. I'd personally say go for the 14k gold handcuffs too, cause she's gonna own your ass anyway if your choice displeases her, but hey it's your call.
Best of luck.
I geeked out a bit in choosing my wedding bands. Since I work in a laboratory, I decided to go with titanium bands. Ti is not as hard as one would think so it does show wear, but it is hypoalerginic and fairly nonreactive. The best part is that it's cheap. I also considered getting a ring made out of tungsten, but after I read how hard it is to remove one of those during an emergency trauma, I changed my mind.
Basically, anything you get that isn't made of a conventional metal will be difficult to resize. One thing I like about my titanium bands is that I got a matched pair machined with engraving for 99.99. Free shipping. So at that price, if one gets lost or stolen or whatever, no biggie!
And it's light as a feather, I wear a 7mm ring which would way a ton if it was gold etc.
As a geek girl married to a geek boy, my best advice is to pop the question and then go pick out an engagement ring together. She's going to wear it for the rest of her life (you hope), so she's going to want to have some choice in the matter. As well as you might know her, I doubt you can picture HER most desired ring more than she can. Plus, these days a lot of people choose rings where the engagement ring matches both his and her wedding bands. Besides, being asked to be married is so much more the thrill than the ring is.
I can't tell you how many times I counted myself lucky to have married a lady more frugal than myself. Her rings turned out to be on sale and we got them for $1,500 instead of a little over 2k. Her dress was less than $200, she hired a seamstress she knew through church. I think we budgetted $150 for decorations. $200 for refreshments, I think our cakes were $300 but they were no joke the best cakes I have ever had in my life. I am seriously considering getting a birthday cake from the same lady this month, she must use an egg per serving of cake or something. I think our one big extravagance was for dance lessons. But even there we've been taking ballroom lessons for over a year and the cost for having our dance choreographed was added into the purchase of a package of lessons.
I spent many years (almost 10) trying to get a pure Iridium wedding band made (well, two). My marriage ended before I found anyone who would do it. Several places that could do it (NASA contractors) wouldn't even talk to me because I wasn't the government or some educational institution, and didn't come with a $100,000+ order.
I did determine that there would be no medical problems with it, in all likelihood. I also determined that it would likely be relatively brittle, but that was just a comparative thing.
If you ever figure out where to get it made, please follow up, as I would still like one for a personal memento rather than as a wedding band.
Cheap is the other. I wear a $10 silver band that I bought at Hot Topic the day before the wedding. Nothing says "true love lasts forever" like Hot Topic. Cool = less popular for me, always has, always will. But really, my wife wears (when she does) a very nice beaten silver band bought from a classy boutique in SoHo. Total cost: $145. She picked it out, we went and bought it together, and she loves it. "Expensive" is equated to "good" so much these days... enough to make one sick.
I'm getting married this fall and took at look at the iridium rings at the company (www.americanelements.com) and saw they also have scandium and hafnium wedding rings? I like the idea of scandium but wonder if it looks good, lasts, etc. How about hafnium?