Wooden Wedding Rings — Frequently Asked Questions
By: Urban Designer
Tags: Weddings, Woodring

If you’re currently ring shopping, you’ve probably come across more than your fair share of traditional metal rings. While these certainly have their place, wood rings are becoming more and more common due to their trendiness, style, durability, and relatively easy upkeep. Despite this, there’s still a lot of misinformation out there that might keep some from buying them. We are here to help this and provide some clarity that can help make your ring decision that much easier. Read on for some of the most frequently asked questions about wood rings.

Q: What kind of wood is best for wooden wedding rings?

A: Not necessarily exclusive to wooden rings, any kind of hard wood is the way to go for all types of wooden jewelry. This is partly due to durability and partly due to work-ability, as soft woods are prone to cracking and splintering during the ring shaping process. With harder woods, they have a much lower likelihood of this. This also has the additional benefit of creating a significantly more durable ring for the consumer that is highly resistant to bending, breaking, scratches, and discoloring.

Most rings won’t use any soft woods in their constructions, but it’s also worth giving a once over before buying. If you’re shopping around for a good wooden ring, keep your eyes open for those made with cedar wood, oak, cherry, zebra wood, sandal wood, pine, or ash. Use of any of these woods will ensure the ring is high-quality and built to last.

Q: Are wooden rings actually durable?

A: While wooden rings aren’t quite as hard as their stainless steel or other metal counterparts, they are still incredibly durable with proper care. As long as they’re stored with care and aren’t submerged in water for long periods of time (for example: at a pool or in the shower), wooden rings are extremely durable and perfect for long-term wear. Contrary to popular belief, they actually improve with age, staying just as strong while developing a richer, more beautiful patina with wear.

A: Maintaining wooden rings is actually probably significantly easier than you think. Most require very little care, although there are a couple practices any wooden ring owner should consider to keep their ring looking (and wearing) it’s best.

* If you have a wood inlay ring: a good polish with a soft, lint-free cloth will keep the metal portion looking shiny and new while also keeping the wood clean and well-conditioned.

* If you have a pure wood ring: an occasional conditioning with a good oil will keep the wood strong and comfortable while preventing any cracking due to dryness. This is often unnecessary as our skins usually provide all the oils necessary, but it’s a potentially important maintenance step if you don’t wear your ring often or find you have practically dry skin or a particularly dry climate.

Regardless of whether your ring is pure wood or just a wood inlay, however, you should always store your ring in a safe place while not wearing it and avoid submerging it in water. Wooden rings are made with organic materials that make them durable and water-resistant, but that doesn’t mean they are indestructible. Too much exposure to water or to excess force (like accidentally stepping on it) could damage it, so avoiding either of these is critical to keeping your ring in the best shape possible.

A: The answer to this depends on how the wood is sourced and on the business practices of the company in question. Here at Urban Designer, all of our wood rings are eco-friendly and friendly to our planet. This is because we only use 100% reclaimed wood, avoiding any and all freshly felled trees in our products. This gives old wood new life while keeping our forests right where they should be. This also means we create far less waste, which is great for us, animals, and our planet as a whole.

A: Wooden rings come in a variety of different prices that can suit just about any budget. Overall, they’re not any more expensive than their metal counterparts, and can oftentimes even end up far less expensive! Prices will vary depending on brand and wood, although you will find most of our Urban Designer wood rings are pretty affordable coming in somewhere between $60 and $90. You can find prices even more affordable than this if you catch a sale or buy a wedding set.

A: One of wood rings’ biggest downfalls is that they cannot be resized. Once a wooden wedding band has been shaped in the initial creation process, there’s nothing you can do to change it. With this in mind, ensure you carefully measure and know your size prior to purchasing! You can replace the ring for the right size, although this will obviously provide a delay and time without your beloved ring, so it’s best to just get it right the first time around. If you have any doubts after measuring and checking our charts, please feel free to contact us for help!

A: With the ever-increasing popularity of eco-friendly, natural alternatives to — well — everything, the trendiness of wooden rings has also been on the rise. Everywhere you look, someone is wearing an awesome koa wood ring or matching wooden wedding bands. But did you know you can make these great statement pieces at home? Well you can and today we’re going to show you how in 9 relatively easy steps. Please click here to read more.