​Cobalt Mens Wedding Rings – A Metal With Full of Features

Cobalt Mens Wedding Bands – A Metal With Full of Features

Recent domination and far reaching lead of tungsten in jewelry world is fading in favor of Cobalt which is a brand new entrant in the market. Men’s cobalt bands are emerging as a valuable new addition to jewelry retailers’ showrooms. Cobalt not only shares some common features with tungsten, but also adds a few unique advantages of its own to them. With 7.5 score on Mohs scale, cobalt is fairly scratch resistant though not as much as tungsten is. It also shares the valuable characteristic of permanent polish with tungsten. That said, cobalt easily outshines tungsten in every sense of the word at any given day. This is because the natural color of tungsten is cool steel gray which is wonderful for you if you that look pleasing you.

However, if you want to have platinum like presentation and sheen, as is the case with most of the people, you will quickly be attracted by cobalt wedding rings.

Cobalt free tungsten mens wedding bands has been a strong marketing stunt of both manufacturers and retailers for many years now. But it is an anomaly that same retailers and manufacturers are luring customers into purchasing cobalt bands instead of other contemporary metals based bands. It is confusing to customers how cobalt in tungsten bands is bad but good as a standalone metal for bands. Since we all are not scientists, at least not me, we can’t really understand the physics behind all this and can’t understand how different metals and their elements interact. It, however, seems that as all children, for that matter some adults too, don’t play well together, so don’t elements.

When cobalt is used by manufacturers as a bonding agent in tungsten carbide bands, it becomes corrosive when comes in contact with skin oils. It results in irritation, redness and discoloration of skin and band. However it is altogether different in creating cobalt chrome alloy. In this alloy, chromium, which is used in stainless steel products as well, is combined with cobalt due in part to its anti-corrosive characteristic. This marriage of cobalt with chromium creates an alloy which is bio compatible and fully hypoallergenic.

In addition to science, there are several other advantages of cobalt bands over other metal bands. Tungsten, cobalt’s biggest competitor, is one of the strongest alloys in jewelry making due to its high resistance to scratches and permanent polish features which keep it from becoming dull or dinged up. The flip side is that this extreme hardness makes it difficult for the designers to carve out certain styles with tungsten. Cobalt bands are free of this limitation in designs because cobalt is much more malleable than tungsten. It doesn’t chip or crack owing to this malleability which quality makes it brilliant for diamonds and custom work.

Cobalt mens wedding bands are also ideal for those people who want durability without a constant reminder that they are wearing something heavy. Cobalt bands are extremely lightweight and don’t give a weighty feel to the wearer. It is perhaps for this very fact that cobalt bands are the best sellers at most of the retail jewelry stores.

Wedding bands made of cobalt which can be called a metal full of surprises are reasonably priced, much less than the white gold of platinum bands for sure.