Do Gun Solvents/Oils/Cleaners Damage Gold Rings?

[1976B.L.Johns.]

Congratulations!

Do not know about solvents etc.
Rings can just plain wear due to time and friction.
I have seen some thin wedding bands on some older folks that are getting mighty thin.

I would rethink wearing any rings in a construction environment.

That is why I had mine tattooed on.
If that ring gets snagged, I WILL lose my ring finger!

 

[Deus Machina]

Reiterating: depends on the alloy. The gold is safe. Its other metals might not be.
Also, my advice is to not wear a metal ring working construction. Get too close to a saw, slip and catch yourself wrong on scaffolding or something, or grab a swinging load wrong and you're going to have a bad day. It's a good way to turn a cut into a shred, break, or amputation.
Source: I've worked with mills and lathes, as a mechanic, and now at the medical examiner. So obviously the finger is never the worst of my customers' particular problems, but we can tell if they were wearing one.

On a good note, if you deglove your finger and can find it, at least it's possible to make sure it's yours! Assuming you have a full set of prints on file.

Seriously though, you can find rings made of silicone in any color you want. They're cheap, less durable than your finger but more durable than most soft metals, and any solvent that will touch that shouldn't be out of a laboratory. Keep one of those for work and keep your official one (and finger) in better condition.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Unless you're using a combined solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid . . . your gold is safe.
(If you are using Nitric/Hydrochlor to clean your guns, you got bigger problems than just your ring)

and even if you did drop your gold ring into a solution of NHO3 & HCI “gun cleaner”. Just leave it, and recover the gold!! lol

 

[Walkalong]

Seriously though, you can find rings made of silicone in any color you want. They're cheap, less durable than your finger but more durable than most soft metals, and any solvent that will touch that shouldn't be out of a laboratory. Keep one of those for work and keep your official one (and finger) in better condition.

I know a number of folks who do this.

 

[johnjohn]

Mine is so called "white gold" and will be 60 next month. Have had to have it stretched twice.

 

[johnjohn]

Sorry I was going to tell ya'll that no gun solvents damaged my ring. Some of the stuff me and that ring have been exposed to make gun cleaning solvent seem like "cool aid".

 

[doubleh]

First off congratulations on your marriage.

Very early on in my married life I had my ring crushed enough to cut my finger rather seriously. That did NOT feel good at all but the removal was worse and I never wore a ring at work again. In fact I really don't like wearing a ring to this day and find them annoying but I do wear my wedding band once in a while to satisfy my wife. We are now on 64 years and counting so it's the least I can do for a gal that has taken very good care of me over the years. She is a ring junky and I am a ring detester. I wouldn't give a nickel for any ring every made if I have to wear it but she has had two very nice ones made for me over the years so I make an effort now and then.

 

[Thomasss]

Just complete my 45th year and still going strong. I had my ring on and off many times due to construction, photo film processing and running a print shop for my first 20 years. My wife gave her diamond to our daughter for her wedding. If I were to do it all over, I would have put it on a necklace. Now my wife sized it down and she wears it.

 

[.308 Norma]

Guess who had the unpleasant job of climbing around under the sink, removing the P-trap, and cleaning it out (ickie-poo) to see if it was still in there. It was, and I got a true Heroic Reward for retrieving it, so I suppose it was worth the disgusting effort, both dollar-wise and Other Wise.

Ha! That reminds me of the time my wife dropped an earring in the bathroom sink. She told me what she had done, and as I was getting ready to remove the P-trap, she said, "Wait, let me get the clean sheets and towels out from underneath the sink first." And I said, "Oh, don't worry - I'll be careful and not spill anything."
I WAS careful! I carefully removed the P-trap, and carefully reached up and dumped it in the bathroom sink!
The darned earring hit the bottom of the cabinet, along with the water that had been in the P-trap, and it splashed all over my wife's clean sheets and towels! I didn't get any reward, "heroic" or otherwise. for that little stunt. In fact, that was over 40 years ago, and every once in a while, my wife still teases me by saying, "Oh, don't worry - I'll be careful!"

 

[edwardware]

Do gun solvents damage metal rings?"

Stay away from nitric acid, and glove up before mercury amalgam deleading barrels, and you'll be good.

 

[230RN]

I'll be careful and not spill anything."
I WAS careful! I carefully removed the P-trap, and carefully reached up and dumped it in the bathroom sink!

Needed a good laugh, thanks!

Terry

 

[Appalachiannative]

Congratulations!

Do not know about solvents etc.
Rings can just plain wear due to time and friction.
I have seen some thin wedding bands on some older folks that are getting mighty thin.



That is why I had mine tattooed on.
If that ring gets snagged, I WILL lose my ring finger!

Lol! My old man is the only tattoo artist who's ever inked my skin and he's done a few wedding ring jobs. Only time he's been willing to work on fingers

 

[Resist Evil]

Congratulations on your marriage. May it be your last one. I've been married twice adding up to 49 years. I've been cleaning guns for 56 years. At no point have I seen any deterioration of my gold rings from firearm solvents.

Since my career was as a commercial/industrial construction electrician, I wanted inexpensive 10k gold rings for their durability. I was pretty religious about wearing good leather gloves my entire career because getting cuts from pipe, wire, etc. on my hands meant open sources for infection and, in my day when we worked things hot more nonchalantly, I got bit less often. Because of the gloves, I was less likely to snag the ring on something.

Truth be told, you're probably better off without a ring at work. I was lucky. When you're on the job, you're just meat and nobody cares about your metallic symbol of devotion and commitment to your beloved. Take it off and stick it in your jeans' watch pocket before you get out of the car on the job. FWIW.

 

[tws3b2]

Been wearing mine for 58 years now. Used lots of hopps 9, wd40, tons of different brand oil, break parts cleaner, bluing, stock refinish chemicals, you name it. No problems.

 

[wayneinFL]

Congratulations on your marriage. May it be your last one. I've been married twice adding up to 49 years. I've been cleaning guns for 56 years. At no point have I seen any deterioration of my gold rings from firearm solvents.

Since my career was as a commercial/industrial construction electrician, I wanted inexpensive 10k gold rings for their durability. I was pretty religious about wearing good leather gloves my entire career because getting cuts from pipe, wire, etc. on my hands meant open sources for infection and, in my day when we worked things hot more nonchalantly, I got bit less often. Because of the gloves, I was less likely to snag the ring on something.

Truth be told, you're probably better off without a ring at work. I was lucky. When you're on the job, you're just meat and nobody cares about your metallic symbol of devotion and commitment to your beloved. Take it off and stick it in your jeans' watch pocket before you get out of the car on the job. FWIW.

I do telephone work. I've seen enough tools vaporized, I've never worn a ring while working on equipment. I wear plastic framed glasses, and my watch is plastic, on a fabric band. When I worked in a garage I kept the ring on a toolbox. Working telecom it goes on my keyring.

 

[tws3b2]

Back in the day when I was much younger. I would hang out at local garage as much as I could. It was nothing to see Mr Kistler pop the hood of a running car, pull a wire from a spark plug, hold it to his hand and watch it arc to his ring. Yep, it's getting good fire. Now days high tech, high $ machines to tell.

 

[doubleh]

I do telephone work. I've seen enough tools vaporized, I've never worn a ring while working on equipment. I wear plastic framed glasses, and my watch is plastic, on a fabric band. When I worked in a garage I kept the ring on a toolbox. Working telecom it goes on my keyring.

I used to work high line construction for the local electrical co-op back in my young and dumb days. I had quit wearing rings already but the worst shock I ever received was one time we were loaned out to the telephone co-op to repair some downed lines. It was under build on a 69 KV transmission line and one parting was in the middle of a span. We pulled it up, pulled the winch truck under it, and I stood on top of the cab to make the splice, Every thing was fine until I grabbed both both loose ends to insert them into the splicing sleeve. I though my teeth were going to shake out before I managed to get loose from it. I had been bit a little before when doing the same thing under 7200 and 14.4 KV lines but 69 KV puts static induction on steroids.

 

[lemaymiami]

Great to hear of longevity in marriage (me? it will be 43 years this September...). As far as rings go - I had to quit wearing any jewelry on hands the moment I took up fishing as a mate on charterboats all those years ago. Put simply, any jewelry, on fingers particularly, put you in serious risk of losing a finger when wiring up any big fish... I've carried that habit forward all these years and as a fishing guide - more than once not wearing a ring was a blessing with big fish at the boat (my definition of big is a fish that is easily twice my weight - and at close quarters.... on the bitter end of the leader material (wire, mono, or braid...) I'm hanging onto.. .

A side item about gold.... since I had my Department's property room for several years I routinely handled fairly large amounts of recovered jewelry as part of the job (mostly recovered stuff of unknown origin..)... and an old jeweler advised that I'd be well off keeping a small magnet handy - since that's the easiest way to learn which items are gold - and which - just look like gold...

 

[zdc1775]

I will also extend my congratulations to the newlyweds and will also add that while normal cleaning chemicals won't have any readily noticeable effects you really should rethink wearing a metal ring in construction. I don't work in EMS anymore but I have seen more degloved fingers from someone catching their wedding ring on a machine, tool, or box than I care to count.

Personally, I stopped wearing mine after watching my sergeant completely rip his finger off when he got it caught on the door frame of a humvee while jumping out of it, I did do the silicon rings for a while but now it's a tattoo so I don't even have that to worry about.

 

[wayneinFL]

Got married the other weekend (6/03) and it was awesome. I've been wearing the wedding band (10k gold ring) non stop since then. I went with 10k over 14k as I work in construction (but can still wear the ring) and am pretty hard on the items I wear daily. I was told 10k is a harder metal then 14k thus it is harder to damage/scuff. Today is my first trip to the range as a married man and as I was packing my gear it hit me, "when I get home and clean my firearms, should I take off my ring? Do gun solvents damage metal rings?"

The only solvent I currently use now its Hoppes #9 so this is more a question born out of curiosity rather then an oh %#*@ moment.

Do (can) Gun Solvents/Oils/Cleaners damage a gold ring? If so why? I assume ammonia based solvents but what else?

Have you ever destroyed a wedding band using a gun related chemical/concoction? If so which one?

Congratulations.

We had our 34th anniversary yesterday. At 51 years old, we expect to have many more.

I can't think of anything over the last 3 decades that was less important to our marriage than the rings.

Even if one of you think it's important, it won't mean anything if you don't have a finger to put it on. It would be wise to take it off while you're at work. Or any other physical activity.

 

[hso]

Put your gold band on when you go out with your wife and wear a silicone band all other times.

You won't risk any electrical contact nor mechanical injury with the silicone.

As to solvent damage...your ring is less than half gold. The remainder is silver and copper. You're unlikely to damage it with solvents unless you're soaking in them for extended periods of time.

 

[wesmonster]

OP, you're missing a 'golden' opportunity here.
I bought an inexpensive ultrasonic cleaner for gun parts and while it doesn't get used often, it works great. Mine was just the cheapest one Harbor Freight had, but big enough to clean a 1911 slide or frame.

Jewelers use the same thing to clean jewelry, so tell your wife you're so concerned with protecting your ring you bought an ultrasonic cleaner for that.

But no, I do not see any gun cleaner causing damage to a 10% gold ring. Except for the heavy duty bore cleaners, eveything else is pretty mild. If gloves aren't required, I'd be more concerned with White Lightning or other off the shelf cleaners. I think if a product like Breakfree CLP had a bad reaction to jewelry I'd have heard about it by now.

 

[Riomouse911]

Congratulations! May you both have a long, happy and healthy marriage.

It is 19 years next month for my wife and I. (I am on #2, she #1)

She married me knowing full well my gun related hobbies, and unless I spend enough to push the $$ limits, she lets me indulge as I please.

As for solvents, my 19 year old white gold ring is 14K, and it hasn’t been affected by almost two decades of shooting, solvents, oils, etc. ( I am pretty good about wearing gloves, but sometimes stuff gets on the hands/ring.) It gets more scratches from sand/paver and concrete projects I have done than gun stuff.

Stay safe.

 

[Riomouse911]

56 years for us today, but my better half has never fired a gun.
My ring shrank all by its lonesome. Honest.

Mine is a tad tighter than it was back then, too. We must’ve bought a similar self-shrinking alloy ring…

Congratulations to you both on 56!

Stay safe.