This is a cautionary tale of the not so humble stainless steel ring so prevalent on the likes of wish and ali-express.
Please think twice about purchasing that ultra cheap stainless ring especially with a thicker band or signet. The above ring was worn by a cross-cutter from one of the local forestry companies. He came in in a panic with his ring finger swollen to about 15% bigger than its normal state and starting to turn purple.
He had caught it while he was working and it had caused swelling which in turn got worse when it was constricted by the band. He and his mates had been trying to cut it off with some side cutters but being a solid 2 mm of stainless it was to hard to cut or get access to around the swelling.
When it got to me another retailer had had a go at it with his ring cutter as well and had been unsuccessful so he sent him to me.
At this point it had become a medical emergency, any further swelling was likely to cause irreparable damage.
I judged he didn’t have time to make the trip to the E.R. And wait for them to have the same issues I was going to have removing it. Possibly anaesthetising his hand and causing injury to remove the band.
My first go-to was my ring cutter, which was thin enough to get access past the swelling for the correct positioning of the blade, but the hardness of the material quickly removed all the teeth from the blade which was only really designed for softer precious metals.
By this time his finger was swelling rapidly and had expanded to about 25% of it normal size and parts of the end of it were going white.
So the only thing left was my hanging motor and a cratex wheel which is much smaller version of a cut off disc used on an angle grinder in engineering.
I pulled some thin leather under the ring to attempt to limit the burns and lacerations that the heat of the cutting wheel would be likely to cause. My worker applied ice to the ring and finger between short cuts and again when the wheel wore down and had to be replaced.
Toward the end his friend was holding his arm steady.
Total time to get through the band would have just about been 10 minutes of agony for the guy.
Once I got through the band, his finger was crazy puffy and I knew from past experience that I would the need to trap the top side of the ring in a heavy vise so I could get heavy pliers on either end to prise the two ends apart enough to get his finger out.
This has happened twice in the past 4 years and I’m pretty sure the hospital has dealt with this problem on occasion as well.
The second time the swelling started because the guy had forced an undersized ring on his finger and it had become stuck and started to swell for which had got critical very rapidly.
So I urge you to spend the money with a jeweller if you want a heavy ring at least it will be to size and made from something that can be dealt with with speed and less injury. At the most it will be precious and made with more verve and care.
