VA-Tungsten’s main range is our Tungsten carbide rings which are made from the newest metal, Wolframite. The heavyweight and luxuriousness of the Tungsten Carbide rings are beautiful and have a scratch-resistant finish. We are extremely proud of this range. We have a lot of questions about the difference between pure Tungsten and Tungsten Carbide. The differences between them are quite big and we distinguished between them.
What is Pure Tungsten?
Tungsten refers to the chemical element, the metal itself. On the periodic table, tungsten is numbered 74 and is known for its hardness, durability, high melting point, high density and is somewhat rare. It is dark gray in color and known for being very difficult to work with. Tungsten is very brittle and not very malleable, making it hard to form into rings or other jewellery designs. As a result, it is often compounded into alloys.
What is Tungsten Carbide?
Tungsten carbide refers to the alloy, which is created by mixing tungsten with other substances. In order to make tungsten more malleable, it is mixed in equal parts with carbon to form a powder and then combined with a binder such as nickel or cobalt. The resulting metal is known as tungsten carbide and can be shaped into various items, such as wedding bands, golf clubs and saw blades.
So which are better, Pure Tungsten or Tungsten Carbide?
Wedding rings should be durable and able to last in terms of scratches, dents and other things that it might be exposed to. While Tungsten Carbide has many of the properties of tungsten itself, including its durability, strength and high melting point, it is a much better metal.
Tungsten ranks at 7.5 on the Mohs scale. It is very hard and durable but can still get scratched and damaged over time. Tungsten carbide is extremely scratch resistant at Mohs 8 to 9, and is the hardest metal for use in jewelry. Tungsten carbide rings are highly durable because they don’t easily acquire scratches or lose their luster.
Tungsten carbide rings, however, cannot be resized and must be changed if the ring becomes too tight or too loose.
Because of these reasons, VA-Tungsten only uses Tungsten Carbide to produce our rings which makes them the best quality, durable, scratch resistant and everlasting.