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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.
If it's made out of Platinum-Iridium, you can make a wedding band which weighs exactly one kilogram.
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.
Don't get your question posted on /. immediately after a story about a man killing his wife
In Soviet Amerika the ballot boxes YOU!
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.
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.
That way, your wife can say, "It's very, very dense. Just like my husband."
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
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.
All I'll add to that, is if he's found a girl who will value his imagination, willingness to put all that effort, throught and dilligence in, more than she values waving some diamonds with no intrinsic value at her friends and having them wave their own back (sometimes with a concealed snide reference to it not being worth as much their diamonds), then he should under no circumstances ever let this girl go. She's more valuable than any precious metal or gemstone.
Good luck to the submitter!
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
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.
... and she gave me a Token Ring.
Honest.
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.
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.)