As you may now know, tungsten carbide is the hardest metal you can get in the form of a ring. It is great because it doesn’t get scratched, but some have voiced concerns that in an emergency the ring will be very difficult to remove.
Some retailers sell tungsten carbide rings that contain cobalt, these are cheaper to make but have the downside of causing a reaction with the oils in our skin. Cobalt can cause an allergic reaction and leave a green mark on your skin, and sometimes permanently stain your ring.
Another benefit of having a ring that will snap in two is if you for example you accidentally close a car door on your ring, a softer ring will deform and squeeze your finger, probably cutting off circulation and will then need to be removed immediately to avoid harm. A tungsten carbide ring will either shatter or nothing will happen at all, either way your finger should escape safely.
In any situation where there might be a medical necessity to cut off or remove a tungsten ring–for instance excessive weight gain, hand injury, etc.–removing a tungsten ring doesn’t pose much more of a challenge than cutting through a gold or platinum wedding band. In our own jewelry shop, as in many other jewelry shops, we have a cutting tool designed for cutting titanium and tungsten wedding bands. In addition, tungsten bands can be fractured into pieces using vise-grip pliers.
When we contacted our local hospital emergency room and asked if they were equipped to remove tungsten wedding bands in an emergency, they told us that most hospital emergency rooms are prepared to handle almost anything, and assured us that it would be no problem for them.
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