Same Gold, New Chapter

Thirty-five years ago, Tom traded gold bands with Cheryl on their wedding day. Their rings stayed with them through more than three decades of marital bliss and endured the natural wear and tear of adventures, home projects, raising a family, and everyday activities. Tom and Cheryl noticed their rings thinning at the edges and losing their shine. Eventually, Tom set his aside to protect it against further damage.

Meanwhile, Tom and Cheryl were starting a new chapter. They bought a second home in Golden, Colorado, where the foothills rise straight up from the edge of town, and the mountain view they had always dreamed of now sits right outside the window. Tom wanted a ring that could honor where they had been and where they were headed. 

Every anniversary and every scuff from ordinary life had worked its way into that old gold, so leaving it in a drawer for good was never an option. His idea was to melt his band and Cheryl’s down together and carry that gold forward in a wider ring’s hidden inlay, with the mountain view engraved on the outside. This way, Tom could hold on to the gold’s more than three decades of history within a design that captured the excitement and wonder waiting for him and Cheryl in Golden. 

We built Tom’s ring in two layers. The outside is an 8mm black titanium shell, turned on the lathe with a domed profile that rolls smoothly over the knuckle. We heat-treated it to black, then brushed it to a soft, low sheen. The inside is a hidden inlay of 14k yellow gold made from Tom’s and Cheryl’s original bands, so the gold they wore through all those years stays on his ring finger. 

The first problem was math. Tom’s old band was 5 to 6mm wide, and his new one is 8mm. Even melted down together, two bands worn thin over 35 years didn’t hold enough gold for a hidden inlay that wide, so we added about 25 percent more 14k gold to make up the difference.

The engraving came last, after we had seated the hidden inlay and blackened the titanium. It started with a reference image of Tom and Cheryl’s view from their new home in Golden. We turned that lookout into artwork sized to wrap the full band, with the Front Range rolling around the outside and the Colorado 14ers lined up the way they sit on the horizon from town. The laser cuts through the titanium surface, through the black oxide to the bright metal underneath, so every ridgeline gleams against the dark band. On the gold inside, we engraved one word: forever. An ultrasonic bath cleared dust from each engraved line before the ring passed our quality check.

Tom’s ring now splits its time between their home on the East Coast and the house in Golden, ready for whatever the next few decades bring. Wherever it goes, it holds the gold from both of their wedding bands. What once sat forgotten in a drawer has its shine back, and Tom wears it proudly.