Black, dark-grey, tantalum jewelry, wedding rings

Tantalum offers the possibility to create black or dark grey jewelry and wedding rings without plating.

This metal is really very little known, but deserves all our attention; I particularly like it for the creation of jewels. I am one of the first creators in the world to use it, I work it since 2007 and it gives a unique touch to my creations…

Let’s make the presentations with tantalum :

A little physics: it is an element, a pure substance, its symbol is Ta. It is found in the mineral Tantalite and in other forms combined with oxygen. Its density is very high, almost as much as gold. Its melting point is exceeded only by 3 elements (carbon, rhenium and tungsten) and it exceeds 3000°C!

Do not confuse dark metal plating, which has a dark appearance (15 micron ruthenium thickness), with tantalum. I have even sometimes seen some of these pieces described as “black gold”, oh dear !… (I will explain the technique of plating in another article) .

This is an example of plating with ruthenium (layer of thickness: 0.1 to 0.15mm), also sometimes called “black gold”, almost the same colour as tantalum.

Tantalum has a bluish grey colour, it is rather dark. Depending on the finish, the colour can range from anthracite grey to blue grey and can take aspects similar to concrete, as in this example:

The advantages offered by tantalum in the creation of jewels are multiple, but this metal requires very particular skills. It is ductile but very hard at the same time. When able to play with its different properties, it is possible to create pieces combining aesthetics and durability.

This metal is also biocompatible, which means, in simpler terms – there can be no allergy.

Here is a pair of wedding rings in titanium with a band of tantalum:

Enough talking, here are some jewellery creations including tantalum:

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Visit cbijoux.com to see a wider range of jewelry designs, but also the FB page here .

Creation of personalized wedding rings by Cbijoux© instructions for use, click here.

To know more about tantalum, in a scientific way here is the link to the Wikipedia article.

Here, you can buy them at the ounce: Rare world metal mint

Rare world metal mint

and here some info in english from RWMmint :

Tantalum has a high melting point and strength, good ductility, is corrosion resistant, and is highly conductive of electricity and heat. These properties make it useful in the production of capacitors and other electronic components and its superalloys are used in the aerospace, nuclear, and medical industries. Approximately 60% of worldwide tantalum production comes from South America and Australia. Worldwide production in 2012 was only 765 tonnes of tantalum, compared with 2700 tonnes of gold. Please see the below links for more information.Black/dark grey tantalum jewels