Body Jewelry – What makes it good?

There are a lot of people who feel that cheap mall jewelry is just as good as the high quality I sell. What’s the difference? Its all about the metal!

First, we need to look at who says what it is. The first thing most people see is 316, this simply means low carbon. But, where does that number come from? The people who developed the standards were welders and the measurements were more concerned with how the metal welds and how little it rusts. Stainless Steel differs from carbon steel in that it will not rust when exposed to moisture. Instead it contains a percentage of Chromium which creates a protective film which presents rust. The other ingredient that we’re concerned with is Nickel, which is what makes jewelry react poorly in the body. All stainless steel body jewelry has about .5% Ni. Stainless steel is an alloy, meaning its a combination of other metals that when mixed together create a product that is better than the individual parts. The International Organization for Standardization created a range of materials included to measure what kind of steel it is. The regulation is actually a range and if you looked at the numbers, its a broad range. In order to be 316 compliant, it can be along the low end of the spectrum in regards to how much chromium or nickel it contains or it can be in the high end. The ASTM has a little more strict measurement, but it’s still a range.

316L vs 316LVM: 316L simply is the measurement of materials but doesn’t indicate how it was created. All metals react to their environment, some such as Lithium or Potassium react more violently. The difference with 316LVM is the magic VM, which stands for Vacuum Melted. When the materials are processed they are melted in a vacuum which keeps most of the nickel in the core.

The most important part of a piece of jewelry is the mirror finish. If they people making the jewelry don’t care about the finish, how much do you want to bet they didn’t care about the materials? Higher quality metals will be able to polish better than lower quality materials. Also, when you buff the jewelry to a mirror finish you create a really nice layer of chromium oxide, remember that stuff that stops metal from rusting. The other benefit to a mirror finish is illustrated when you look really closely at it. A dull finish is actually composed of lots of little scratches and those little scratches are big enough for cells or other bacteria to hang out it and we don’t like them. However, a mirror finish has that effect because the light is refracted in one direction instead of multiple directions as in a dull finish. This makes the jewelry feel more smooth and soft to the touch. It also looks pretty!!!

This is where we get to titanium. Ever hear of someone say they had a stainless steel implant? Rarely, maybe bone screws are steel. But, most medical implants are titanium. Implant grade titanium is ASTM F136 6AI-4V ELI (Wrought alloy for surgical implant), which “spontaneously and immediately forms a stable, continuous, tightly adherent oxide film upon exposer to exygen in air or water.” Titanium works best in the body because it has 0% nickle and has a zero lymph response rate. You’re body wont waste energy attacking the metal, it will instead repair the tissue with less swelling. Its also light weight and very strong, it would even last during cryogenic freezing.

Titanium can also be anodized by running an electric current through the metal and the different voltages change it into different colors, brown, dark purple, dark blue, light blue, ice blue, light yellow, dark yellow, pink, blurple, teal, and green. It can’t however be turned black, Niobium however can be made black.

Another interesting note, Sierra Leone has one of the world’s largest deposits of rutile, a titanium ore used in making titanium.