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Gold has been a prized metal throughout history, in high demand for its brilliant shine and gleam. Gold is a soft metal, easy to shape, and when taken care of and polished correctly, its radiance can remain intact. It’s important to check the condition of your gold jewelry frequently and to care for your pieces on a regular basis.

When your everyday gold begins to lose its beauty, first use a jewelry cleaning cloth to remove excess dirt and makeup. If the gold piece still seems dull, take a soft bristle brush, such as a baby’s tooth brush, and gently scrub the jewelry with a mild liquid dishwashing detergent. Then, rise the item off and dry it carefully with a professional polishing lint-free cloth, to reduce the possibility of scratching your gold jewelry. Taking special care to clean in between cracks and crevices will ensure your jewelry’s long lasting shine and keep it in beautiful condition. To clean overly dirty gold jewelry, make a solution of six part water and one part household ammonia, and soak the item for one to two minutes. This should loosen the grime and make it easier to brush off and rinse away. Again, dry with a soft cloth to polish shine into the jewelry. Remember that harsh chemicals such as ammonia should not be used on precious gemstones (except diamonds), so check with a local jeweler about your specific piece before washing. For a professional clean and/or repair, bring your gold pieces to a local jeweler to have them steam-cleaned or bent into shape.

You can also take certain steps towards avoiding the damage your jewelry can incur over time. Firstly, keep your gold jewelry away from everyday chemicals. Cleaning products, chlorine bleaches, lotions, soaps, oils, powders, and even perspiration can prove harmful to gold’s complexion. Always take off your gold jewelry before swimming or washing dishes, to prevent harsh chemicals from damaging your gold’s natural shine. Remember to wash your hands before putting on, or taking off, gold jewelry. This helps prevent contamination of the gold from your skin’s natural oils and other substances that you have come in contact with. Also, remember to remove hand jewelry such as rings and bracelets before strenuous activity. Since gold is a soft metal, it is prone to scratches and dents, and these damages are most likely to occur to pieces more prone to getting knocked about.

Be careful to stow your jewelry in a safe place; leaving jewelry on a countertop can result in a precious gold ring lost down the drain. It is best to keep gold pieces in separate compartments such as jewelry cases or soft cloth bags by themselves, not rubbing against other items and materials. Even keeping your gold pieces in plain tissue paper will help keep their gleam. For extended preservation after cleaning, it is a good idea to keep your gold jewelry in airtight zip lock bags. This helps maintain your pieces’ luster and texture, allowing the surface to remain shiny and scratch free.

Also, do not wear gold necklaces, bracelets, or rings together with jewelry of another metal such as silver or platinum, because these harder metals can scratch and damage your softer gold jewelry.

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Men have decided that there has been enough of this feminine metals jewelry stuff. Real men want a jewelry item that can stand up to anything and still look and feel like the strong individual they are. Tungsten Carbide jewelry items are just such an item and one that any man can feel confident wearing. Rings, bracelets and pendants used for Tungsten Carbide jewelry will not scratch, deform or react (unless Cobalt is added) under any circumstances and are ready to exude strength.

Only diamonds are stronger

Tungsten Carbide jewelry is so strong that its manufacturing process is like cutting raw diamonds. In fact, the polishing and shaping of Tungsten Carbide jewelry is accomplished with diamonds and an oxygen free furnace that operates at 6200F. Pure Tungsten is actually fairly soft. Combine it with Carbide and put it through the manufacturing process, however, and metal results that are second to none where strength and durability is concerned.

A mans manufacturing process

With Tungsten Carbide jewelry there are few, if any, wishy washy artists hanging around ready to engrave a soft metal into a piece of jewelry. This jewelry starts by grounding Tungsten and Carbide into a powder and compressing it into a bracelet or pendent blank with extremely high pressure.

A quiet luster

From here the blank is cut and polished to a fine shine that is nothing like what a person might expect from gold or silver. If a close color where to be assigned it might be that of a dull polished gun grey. As with the raw diamond polishing process the Tungsten Carbide jewelry manufacturing process goes through almost 30 steps before a metal piece is ready.

Lifetime polish

One of the more remarkable parts of this process is that once the metal is done being polished it will never lose its finished luster. To date, never means never. There have been no reported scratches, dents or deformations. Tungsten Carbide jewelry is made for life. This statement is also backed up by a large majority of manufacturers. If a Tungsten Carbide jewelry item won’t fit any longer, because of weight gain or loss, they will replace it at only an administrative charge.

A heavy feel

With this image to stand up to Tungsten Carbide jewelry needs to have the presence that it is expected to have. In feel, the Tungsten Carbide jewelry piece is remarkably heavy. In other words, the wearer will know that it is there. This is just a further characteristic that a real man wants in his jewelry.

A variety of styles

A man might think that this overriding emphasis on strength would lead to a limited selection of Tungsten Carbide jewelry pieces. This is far from the truth. Once the blanks come out of the high pressure furnace they can be cut into a variety of pieces. Wrist bracelets, both in solid form and linked, rounded cuts or pieces with holes in them, there are quite a variety of styles to choose from.

Be careful

Not only because these Tungsten Carbide jewelry items can be a bit pricy, but because they are supposed to last forever without disappointment, there are a few things to watch out for. Firstly, make sure that there is no cobalt in the piece. If there is, a discoloration of the piece will occur when it hits the skin. This CANNOT be repaired. Second and lastly, make sure the dealer is reputable. Some manufacturers will sneak some other metals into the mix. This will eliminate the strength and durability aspects of the piece.  If the cost is going to be paid make extra sure the right stuff shows up.

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A man wearing a wedding ring is a rather new phenomenon. But as more men choose to show their love and commitment by wearing a ring, the choice has become more varied, so as to meet all tastes and financial possibilities. When we think of men’s wedding bands, most of us think of plain gold. But how many of you out there know that you have such a varied choice of men’s wedding bands that it is impossible not to find at least one model that will be perfect for you.

Your choice can be difficult if this is the first time you have picked and worn a wedding band. If it’s not in your nature to wear jewelry, maybe you should opt for something less flashy, and consider something simple and plain. Remember that plain and simple is more often considered classier than the more sophisticated bands, not to mention that it can be a lot less expensive.

As mentioned before, you can opt for plain yellow gold, but if you want your wedding band to be a little different, there is always the possibility to choose white gold or platinum. The latter, however, may not be the best choice for you, because although it is very similar in appearance with white gold, it is a lot heavier and more expensive. If inexpensive is what you are looking for, than you can choose men’s wedding bands made of stainless steel or titanium.

Men’s titanium wedding bands are not very common in the local jewelry stores, but they are widely available on the Internet, and many men prefer this material because of the many advantages it comes with. First of all, it looks great, which is what many people look for. Secondly, when it comes to being scratch resistant, you should know that titanium is much harder than silver or gold, though very lightweight. Many people are allergic to gold and silver, but with men’s titanium wedding bands you needn’t worry about this aspect, as titanium is hypoallergenic.

Going back to how great they look, you should know that men’s titanium wedding bands can be shaped into many styles, and can easily be colored in different colors that can be matched and mixed. This is the reason why you can such a more varied choice of titanium wedding bands than you do of other materials, such as gold. Men’s titanium wedding bands also come with a varied choice of finish, of which the most common are brush polished, matt and satin. Effect can be added to titanium rings by coupling them with one or more precious gemstones.

All in all, aside from being trendy, modern and great looking, men’s titanium wedding bands come with the advantage of being strong, though lightweight, highly resistant, and, above all, very reasonably priced. If you have decided to show your marital status and your commitment on your finger, why not check out all your options? You’ll surely find that men’s titanium wedding bands are a very good choice.

Tags: titanium wedding bands, wedding bands