Kids, Jewelry Advice From Your Ol' Uncle Don

[BigDon]

My daughter Boo has brought to my attention that some kids today have taken to wearing titanium jewelry, specifically rings. Which is a very, very bad idea.

If you catch it on something your finger will come off, or worse, deglove. There are better choices with softer metals.

I believe one of the Apollo astronauts lost a finger that very way just jumping out of the bed of a pickup truck. (They put it back)

So unless you are a press operator the risk isn't worth the fashion statement.

That is all.

[Ronald Brak]

Have to agree with you on this. I don't think people should even wear a gold wedding ring if they are doing heavy lifting. (And then there are all the nasty things that can happen to jewelery and piercings if you muck around with the wrong equipment in the high energy physics lab...)

[hhEb09'1]

Have to agree with you on this. I don't think people should even wear a gold wedding ring if they are doing heavy lifting. (And then there are all the nasty things that can happen to jewelery and piercings if you muck around with the wrong equipment in the high energy physics lab...)Jewelry can be dangerous, but I'm not so convinced that softer metals would make a difference. Most gold jewelry is "tough" enough that it's going to take my mere finger with it, no?

[Ronald Brak]

I'm sure that a gold ring would be safer than a titanium ring, but just how much safer I couldn't say. If a ring is only just caught on something, then then I'm sure you'd have a much better chance that some gold would scrape off before your finger does than the chance that some titanium would scrape off first.

[cjl]

I'd be willing to bet that gold or silver is more than strong enough to take your flesh and finger with it.

[Ronald Brak]

I suggest going to the cupboard, taking out a gold brick and a titanium one and then scraping a nail along both to see which feels more "slippery."

[davidlpf]

Another little peice of advice if you plan working in hospital don`t wear anything or carry anything ferro magnetic. This is because most places have MRI`s that can turn those items into projectiles.

(actually saw a preview for the nest ER and the forgot to switch gurneys of a patient to one that did not have a metal bottom (ouch!).)

[hhEb09'1]

I suggest going to the cupboard, taking out a gold brick and a titanium one and then scraping a nail along both to see which feels more "slippery."I haven't seen a 14K gold brick in like forever! :)

[ravens_cry]

'degloving' eh?
Curiosity may kill the cat, but it completely squicked this corvus. Ugh, I just had to do an image search.

[HenrikOlsen]

So unless you are a press operator the risk isn't worth the fashion statement.
I don't think it's done solely for the fashion statement though, as titanium for jewelery has several advantages over gold including better scratch resistance and being hypoallergenic, it's also slightly cheaper.

There may be the freak accident where being of titanium would make a difference, but I think in most accidents involving a ring it wouldn't make a difference.

[LotusExcelle]

I had been looking into tungsten as well. What I do is *incredibly* rough on the hands and a tungsten seemed like the better choice. In the end I decided that I'd rather just take the ring off when at work.

Does anyone remember the scene in The Abyss when the ring saves Ed Harris' hand from the door?

[Tog_]

We had a guy at work catch his gold wedding band on the truck bay doors one night. It tool the skin from the ring to just below the big knuckle and deformed the ring tot he point that it had to be cut off to be removed from the wound. He was back the next day, and there was no permanent range of motion damage, but it was ugly.

[Whirlpool]

That's why most Manufacturing,Construction Companies or anything related prohibits their workers to wear jewelries at work .

[Fazor]

There was a cop in Pittsburgh who came across a car that was stopped at a green light, with two people in the front and one in the back. All appeared to be asleep (they were). When the one in back woke up, he saw the officer then shoved something in his mouth. Knowing he was swallowing drugs, the officer made the very bad mistake of opening the door and trying to reach in to grab the guy before he could swallow.

At that point, the driver woke up, and hit the gas. The door slammed on the officer's hand, pinning his fingers. His hand would have been able to slide out, but his gold wedding band caught; taking him on a 15 minute chase that averaged 70 mph. At one point he managed to unholster his gun and fire blindly through the back window, and killed either the back-seat passenger and/or the front seat passenger, and wounded the driver. His finger was finally ripped from his hand (and subsequently a great deal of skin from his body; what hadn't already been drug over the road that is).

And here's the frigg'n kicker; when he came out of his coma two weeks later, he was greeted by protests in the street claiming police brutality. Fortunately, the grand jury found him not guilty of manslaughter (By one vote)

[BigDon]

Which proves the system works Faz.

I should state that I presumed you would know about intentional weak points jewelers will put in most rings if you asked them. Some already have it built it. I had that done to my wedding band when I was married and working with my hands.

[Fazor]

Which proves the system works Faz.
I guess that's the optimistic way of looking at that situation that I have been missing all these years. :)

[grant hutchison]

Jewelry can be dangerous, but I'm not so convinced that softer metals would make a difference. Most gold jewelry is "tough" enough that it's going to take my mere finger with it, no?Yes.
If you want a ring that won't rip some of your finger off, you're going to need to choose a ring that is softer than your finger.
The main advantage to gold is that, when your finger has been injured and has swollen to twice its normal size, it takes less time to saw off a gold ring than a titanium ring. So you get your circulation back sooner. :)

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

You may not be able to bend the Ti ring after the first cut, so it takes another 30 sec with the Dremel to get it off. Doesn't sound like that much of a difference, once it's stuck.

[grant hutchison]

You may not be able to bend the Ti ring after the first cut, so it takes another 30 sec with the Dremel to get it off. Doesn't sound like that much of a difference, once it's stuck.Ah, power tools.
Here (http://www.hswalsh.com/Ring_Cutter_.aspx?i=TR10&c=286) is the sort of thing I was talking about. It takes a while.

Grant Hutchison

[BigDon]

Treb, what's your Ti cutting experience, if you don't mind me asking? I've done it. It's a stone...difficulty.

[mugaliens]

All jewelry is prohibited during military flight operations for digital reasons.

[BigDon]

We had a guy at work catch his gold wedding band on the truck bay doors one night. It tool the skin from the ring to just below the big knuckle and deformed the ring tot he point that it had to be cut off to be removed from the wound. He was back the next day, and there was no permanent range of motion damage, but it was ugly.

Okay, I learned in furniture moving school that a deforming metal object would actually be absorbing the energy stress that would otherwise have been transfered to his digit. An unyeilding titanium ring would have transfered all of that extra energy to the digit. How much extra? Enough to deform a gold wedding ring.

There would have been a different outcome.

Thank you, Tog! :)

[KaiYeves]

I don't really wear jewelry except for sport watches and sometimes lanyards.

[Neverfly]

I wear neither jewelry nor make up.:)

[LotusExcelle]

Then explain your iridium skullcap and socks, sir!

[Neverfly]

Then explain your iridium skullcap and socks, sir!
Traditional garb of my homeworld.


You should have seen what I wore when I was a Mormon.




*I have never been a Mormon.

[Trebuchet]

Treb, what's your Ti cutting experience, if you don't mind me asking? I've done it. It's a stone...difficulty.

Must confess I haven't. I'll have to see if I have a sample Ti bolt at work and stick it in the vise. I'll try to compare to steel bolt of the same size.

[HenrikOlsen]

ok, looking on damage stats, the argument is clearly in BD's court
the inability of energy dissipation by deformation for titanium counts if you belie your may get caught during work

[korjik]

ok, I am seriously thinking that BigDon should be banned for a day for making me remember the poster they had in the motor pool that showed what a degloved finger looks like. :)

ick

ick

ick

:P

[closetgeek]

Well to anyone thinking about getting body jewelry I should warn you, panty hose and belly button rings don't go well together. The little ball in my belly button ring came out and the ring got itself tangled in the nylon, which is apparently a rather resiliant material, slightly more resiliant than skin, at least. OUWYYY!

[BigDon]

Oh I HATE it when that happens!

[Ross PK81]

Jewelry can be dangerous, but I'm not so convinced that softer metals would make a difference. Most gold jewelry is "tough" enough that it's going to take my mere finger with it, no?

Can't see gold cutting through the bone.

[ravens_cry]

Can't see gold cutting through the bone.
Maybe, maybe not, but put enough pressure behind it, and water can cut through metal sheet. Also, the ring isn't gold, it is a gold alloy, which is harder then gold by itself.

[grant hutchison]

Can't see gold cutting through the bone.It can get enough of a grip on the soft tissues to either strip them off the bone ("degloving"), or to pull the finger off at the joint ("disarticulation").

Grant Hutchison

[Fazor]

It can get enough of a grip on the soft tissues to either strip them off the bone ("degloving"), or to pull the finger off at the joint ("disarticulation").

Grant Hutchison

You beat me to it. The danger in the gold ring isn't so much the ring cutting through the bone; it's the ring catching on something and leading to the eventual pulling off of said finger.

[ravens_cry]

Somehow, disarticulation was less gross then degloving. Maybe because it just looked like meat. Hip disarticulation looked like a ham or leg of lamb. Ew, a terrible and traumatic injury, but not quite the cookie tossing potential.

[LotusExcelle]

Disarticulation? isn't that what George W. has?

[Fazor]

Somehow, disarticulation was less gross then degloving. Maybe because it just looked like meat. Hip disarticulation looked like a ham or leg of lamb. Ew, a terrible and traumatic injury, but not quite the cookie tossing potential.

Oh yes; we had some interesting degloving pictures in the Academy's emergency response/first aid section.

The kind of injury where you look at it for a few seconds going "and what exactly is this? ... oh ... OH [expletive]!"

[BigDon]

Somehow, disarticulation was less gross then degloving. Maybe because it just looked like meat. Hip disarticulation looked like a ham or leg of lamb. Ew, a terrible and traumatic injury, but not quite the cookie tossing potential.


Are talking about disarticulation or dislocation?

I assure you I found that somebody losing their leg at the hip is very disturbing. Especially when *you* have to do something about it!