Hey guys! It’s Janna. 🙂
We always like to share customer feedback on facebook, but it hit me today that I’ve never really shared how I feel about my bentwood wedding ring. After eight years, I can honestly say that not one day goes by that I don’t look down and smile at my ring. Now a big part of that is being able to have something Frank made with his hands sitting there on my hand, but another part is that anytime my hand passes in my line of sight, I just have to look at it. The grain is so unique and the tones of the wood so warm. Even though I get to see new rings Frank makes daily, I still never lose that awe I have when looking over a wooden ring and checking out all of its particular qualities – and it’s the same with mine.
I’m not the most gentle on my bentwood ring and I wear it pretty much non-stop (washing dishes, showering, crafting, yard work, etc.). Personally, I find that my ring needs to be refinished about every 4 years and even then, it’s mostly just because I happened to scrape it across something and break the seal of the finish on the edge.
It can pretty much go without saying, that wood items that get used daily usually end up needing to be refinished at some point. It’s no different with wood rings. The time frame for how long a ring will hold its finish almost entirely depends on how the ring is worn (more scrapes or exposure to cleaning agents, etc. = sooner refinishing). The finish for the average ring wearer will likely last at least 4-5 years before it looks like it might need a refinish. Those who are easy on their rings find that time frame can be extended several more years. The key to longevity of a wood ring is to protect the wood from weathering/deteriorating. This is done by maintaining the finish (it acts as a protective coating, keeping the wood nice and safe). That being said, even if a bentwood ring did lose its finish and start to turn grey, we can bring out the original look with a refinish.
I think the worst refinish case we had was from a surfer. He was in salt water daily and by the time decided to send his ring to us, it looked a bit like driftwood. Even then, Frank was able to recondition the ring, reapply the finish and it ended up looking just like new and was as structurally sound as the first time we sent it to him.
Wood rings were so uncommon when we started out on this adventure. Most were made by sandwiching thick peices of wood, drilling the inside and sanding down the outside. We even made a few that way before we started experimenting with bending the wood around. It seems like that was just yesterday, but here we are eight years later, living our dream of working for ourselves. Nestled just inside the woods in our own little shop – making and sending bentwood rings worldwide. It’s so surreal when we sit back and look at where we are. We definitely don’t take it for granted and we hope this will be something we can pass down to our children one day.