Proper care and feeding of rings?

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

Does anyone on my f-list wear a ring? The rings that Doris and I picked out should be ready soon, and I've never worn a ring that had a precious stone in it. I've heard that I should take the ring off when I put hand lotion on. What about when I wash my hands?

When do you take your ring off? What should I be careful of?

Comments

[mmmfishfingers.livejournal.com]

I wear a ring but it doesn't have a stone in it.
My mum does though and she never takes it off. Washes her hands and everything with it on. But hers probably isn't that expensive...

[sarahetc.livejournal.com]

I take mine off if I put hand lotion on in the middle of the day, but if I put body lotion on after a shower, I don't bother taking it off. The only time I've taken it off are when I've used very harsh cleaning chemicals and even then it was mostly because I didn't want to scratch up the gold, not because of the stones. Otherwise, I wear it all the time-- handwashing, dishwashing, gardening, swimming, everything. I don't think you have any reason to fear the stone would fall out and the only reason not to wear it while you put hand lotion on is that it will dull the setting until the next time you wash it. I find that just having mine on when I wash my hair every day keeps it clean enough.

What sort of metal is the setting?

[cotume27.livejournal.com]

I take my rings off when I wash my hands or put lotion on or anything that I'm gonna have my hands in something "icky". Mostly because if I get my rings wet, they have the tendency to slide off my fingers. Also, all three of mine have a lot of little places that stuff could get into really easily, and I'm afraid if I got stuff into my spinner ring, that it wouldn't spin as easily

[schizoauthoress.livejournal.com]

Well, your stones are diamonds and sapphires, right? My mom's got a similar ring, and she never took it off except when she was using cleaning chemicals -- that was because she didn't want to dull the gold.

I've had diamond-and-ruby earrings forever, I only clean them periodically, and the stones are absolutely fine. Precious stones like that are tough. ^_^

[yubsie]

I leave my ring on for almost everything. Definitely while washing my hands. The ring's tight enough that I'm not worried about it coming off, and I would be worried about dropping it or something.

My ring's diamond, which means it's a tough little thing (even if it is thermodynamically unstable :p). I actually only take it off when I'm worried about the ring damaging something else. Basically that means I take it off for karate (because getting gauged by a ring in sparring practice is no fun) and when I'm in the lab (because I'm worried about the ring tearing my gloves more than anything else. :p)

[zooey-glass04.livejournal.com]

My engagement ring is platinum and sapphire (it's pretty similar to the one in this icon)and I wear it all day. I do wear rubber gloves if I'm washing up or cleaning, but I'm not particularly careful about soap, hand lotion and so on. I notice you said to Sarah your ring is platinum, which is a very strong and unreactive metal, so providing you don't pour bleach on it it should be fine. I take my ring off when I sleep, partly because the setting is so high, so it catches on things, and partly because DF has a great hatred of me wearing rings in bed (but you're not properly naked!). Generally I don't put it on until I've washed and put lotion on in the morning, and I take it off when I shower, but mainly to save me polishing it up, ahahah.

The one thing which is worth checking is how the stone will react to water. If you have a precious stone like diamond or sapphire, it should be pretty impervious to most things, but there are certain stones which are more vulnerable. Opal is the main one - they get spoiled if they get too much exposure to wet.

So exciting, omg! Are you going to have a little ring exchaning ceremony? I feel you should do something special and make a little (private) event of it. I felt very strongly about getting a formal proposal for that very reason - I wanted it to be a bit of an event. DF did go down on one knee, although he picked the local scummy pub to do it in, which was - ahem - not quite what I had in mind. He was too excited to wait until he had me somewhere nicer, though, so it was romantic in a DF way ;)

[nytshd3.livejournal.com]

aww, yay :)

i still think you should have a small party at your house to celebrate :) but then, im always up for celebrating :)

[invisibleshrew.livejournal.com]

What they ^^ all said!

I've been wearing my rings almost all the time for mumble years now. The few times I've take them off I loop them through a cord and either I or Mediabloke wear them as a necklace for safekeeping.

The only thing I'd add is that it's a bad idea to put hard and soft metals together (so that the harder one doesn't wear away at the softer when they rub together) - so if you wear any other rings you'll want to keep them entirely separate. I wear my much loved cheapie 9ct gold ring safely away on my right hand.

Eeeeee. Rings! Still so excited for you.

[lvs2read.livejournal.com]

What they all said. *points up* I've had a sapphire/diamond/gold ring that I've worn for 25+ years, through all kinds of rough usage, and it's just fine.

Congratulations to both you and Doris! *hugs*

I don't know anything about rings.

[razycrandomgirl.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say congratulations! :D