Wooden wedding ring question

[MauleSkinner]

First, a little background…
A week ago, my wife was walking the dog. The dog bolted after something, and the leash snagged my wife’s wedding ring. She had surgery Thursday on her broken finger, and it looks like she’ll recover just fine. Her wedding ring had to be cut off her finger.

While it’ll probably be a good while before she can wear a ring on that finger again, she was looking at the silicone wedding rings that can break away. I know that if I made a bentwood ring with the grain running around the finger, it would be stronger than she wants…what about making it out of a single piece of wood so there would be short grain on two sides that would break away fairly easily? Or maybe with the grain running parallel to the finger? Has anybody done a ring like that? If so, is it otherwise reasonably durable, and are there species of wood that would be better than others for such a project?

Thanks!

David

[Old Sawman]

Just cut a gap on one side so it can "break away" ... just be sure it is wide enough that it won't pinch ... just a thought ...

[iclark]

I made a bunch of friendship rings out of mahogany when I was in high school. Easy to make using a couple of hole saws.

The grain was parallel with the ring (drilled them out of a board).

They looked very nice and were fairly comfortable, but they tended to break after a few weeks. The constant bumping and gripping something against them eventually hit the end grain wrong and started a crack that then failed.

Finding a wood that would breakaway at the right load level no matter which way you loaded it up but not break when she is cutting her food at the dinner table could be very frustrating.

If the silicon rings that can break away are not horribly expensive, I would suggest buying one of them. The peace of mind is worth it.

[MauleSkinner]

That’s kind of what I was wondering, thanks. We’ll go a different route than wood.