Don't ask me why, but I took my stainless steel ring and I heated it up with my gas stove. I stuck it in there til the metal turned red, and the flame which is normally blue turned orange for some reason when the metal turned red. Anyway, afterwards i cooled it off in water and now it's all discolored and it feels different. It's weighs less and it doesn't feel the same. Plus, it's ugly cause it's all black and blue. What happened? Someone help
Stainless steel has a rating. I don't know what your ring's stainless steel rating is. If you know, you can look it up. The rating will tell you how much steel vs other metal it has (usually Cr and Ni). But usually when you heat the stainless steel to extreme temperature it will discolor due to oxidation. What is worse is that you cooled it off in water (I assumed that you did it while it was still hot). By rapid cooling, you have changed the physical structure of the steel itself. It will change the hardness of the steel. That is why it feels different. Look up on annealing, normalizing, quenching and tempering under heat treatment for steel.
I would first check it with a magnet. If it is attracted to the magnet it has too much steel in it and that is what oxidized,not the CR. U might try to clean it with a good acid .
My fiancé got a Tungsten wedding band. It's super tough and doesn't scratch. We made sure to get an extended warranty, because those rings can't be resized and otherwise we'd have to pay for a new one. We were thinking about titanium, but it's really light and he just didn't like the feel of it. The tungsten was heavy and felt durable and manly. He also loves the color, it's darker than silver so it looks non traditional. Make sure to get a ring with a curved band for comfort, or he may not like wearing it. Platinum actually scratches easily, so don't even think of it! My fiancé's wedding band was about $250, a bit more with the warranty. Stainless steel will be cheaper, but it's not as durable or scratch resistant as tungsten.
You oxidized it. There is nothing you can do to recuperate the oxidized metal. The best you can do is to polish off the rust with a commercial metal polish paste.
