The bride brought the wedding band to be personalized for the groom.  Her instructions for the inscription:  My 1 in 7 million.

     Quoted the fee, engraved the ring, and before I called her to pick it up a couple of days later, she called me in a panic.  “Oh me!  Just CANNOT believe I gave you the wrong word!  You’ll have to do it again!” She went on to explain that the million should have been BILLION.  Like the population of the whole planet….not just a measly 7 million.

     She brought a fresh band and I gave her a break after her brain lapse.  Told her if she’d let me keep the ring, I’d engrave it on new ring at no charge.  She was thrilled, and I became the owner of a TUNGSTEN CARBIDE wedding band. Not gold, or silver, or stainless, or platinum.  Tungsten carbide.  Hardest thing since Hanna’s heart!

     Here’s the lesson for you fellow hand-engravers: A brand new #2 round carbide steel bur slid across the metal like a ball point on a piece of buttered glass.  Not a scratch inside, with all the pressure I could give it. The only option was to plug a diamond bur, the same size, in my Presto.  That worked like magic since a diamond is harder than the tungsten carbide.

     So, when you get a wedding band made of the stuff, be sure you have a diamond bur tucked away in a drawer.  That was over 2 years ago and I’ve not used a diamond again since the ring.  But I’m ready for the next one!

     Good idea to buy a few diamonds for your own bur bins, just in case.

    As I think about the ring in my samples, it’s 1 of a kind on all the planet, just like the old boy getting the fresh black wedding band.  Not another one anywhere like the one I now own, with those words, done in Calligraphy, with a #2 diamond bur!

     Perhaps I should put it up for a price, if some lady out there thinks a bit less of her beau than the bride who made the flub.

Happy lettering!

-Ken