Today we are featuring the Blackwood Titanium Band. This is one of our most popular ring designs. Don't let the simple esthetic of this design fool you, there's so much to it, that makes it unique that we had to write an entire blog about it.
What Is Blackwood Carbon Fiber?
Blackwood carbon fiber is the same as side cut carbon fiber. It's a super thick carbon fiber sheet or plate that is 1.5" thick or tall. We slice it into strips and then cut the ring from the side of it instead of the top. Cutting the carbon fiber from the side of a thick slab of carbon fiber gives it those unique waves that flow across the ring. It's a very expensive, very labor intensive and high risk carbon fiber to manufacture, which is why you rarely see it anywhere else. So much can go wrong if you're not absolutely precise.
We are composite professional turned jewelers which gives us the advantage on handling this material.
How do you bond carbon fiber and metal so well?
There's a few reasons very few traditional jewelers work with carbon fiber and more reasons why they don't touch side cut carbon fiber. One of the reasons is bonding carbon fiber to a metal liner to make a ring. If you do it wrong, the carbon fiber will delaminate from the inner liner of the ring over time. Most of the jewelers don't know how to do this properly or do it in a lazy way.
The way we do it is roughing both sides of the bonding area of the metal and the carbon fiber. In addition, we groove small anchors into both sides as well. Lastly, we don't use jewelry epoxy for this. We use ultra high grade infusion epoxy and take it through a proper curing and post curing process that can take a full 24 hours. It is important to treat the carbon fiber in your ring the same way you'd treat the carbon fiber in a super car.
Which metal options are there?
It's not secret we love working with titanium. It fits in with the aerospace world that we love so much. Titanium is the lowest cost of the bands and most aerospace oriented, so we use it the most often.. There's also the option of silver which has a very nice rounding to, gold, rose gold and white gold. Personally, I'm a huge fan of gold and carbon fiber. I love the contrast. The rose gold option is a 10k. so it has a more copper color. We can do any karat you'd like, but that was my personal preference of karat.
What is the finish?
The finish is a matte finish. The matte finish is gorgeous. We wrap it up around 800 grit paper and then just leave it. It has the perfect level of contrast in the waves of the carbon fiber. It really looks nice. We can do gloss or dry finish on request.
Is there a Glow Option?
There is a glow option too. This is a separate product under the Lume Range. It is called the blackwood lume band.
