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Jeff McWhinney's Intelligent "Active Wedding Rings"

By Rain Noe - January 22, 2015

in Digital Fabrication

This past weekend I was at a martial arts training session. With twenty of us in the room, we rotated through partners for the hand drills. One woman neglected to take her wedding ring off, and left me this little gift on my forearm:

Sure, it's just a tiny scratch, but it could've been a lot worse if we were going faster or harder.

I get that people don't want to remove rings that are difficult to take off, but it's kind of inconsiderate. And it's not just martial artists that need to regularly remove rings: Gym goers, folks who use hand tools, tradespeople whose fingers might get snagged are all better off with the jewelry off.

Someone who recognizes this, and is doing something about it, is designer Jeff McWhinney. An athlete, bicycle component designer and former Senior Research Machinist for 3M, McWhinney has turned to designing easily-removable "active wedding rings."

Each design features unique, hinged opening mechanisms. This avoids the need for buying an over-sized band to gain knuckle clearance and can be a vital performance and safety feature in many professions or sports—places where all jewelry must be removed prior to activity. It also allows easy removal for washing hands, showering or even sleeping. These special features contribute to functional, modern art pieces that you will enjoy wearing daily.

These are precision pieces that come in multiple sizes, and different sizes do not share parts. So each one is machined out of a billet using a 4-axis CNC mill and, "12 to 16 different tools to reach their final form." Material options include titanium, stainless steel, platinum, gold and the exotic Mokume-gane, a/k/a "wood grain metal."

Check it out in action:

This alternate design opens all the way:

You can seee McWhinney's full line-up of ring designs here.

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Kirsty Bennett

10 years ago

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I love these ideas, I am trying to find wedding rings for myself and my hubby to be . He works offshore and is unable to wear a ring whilst working , however I would like to wear his ring in his absence until he comes home. is there some way a large mans ring could be hinged to be smaller to fit me whilst hes gone ?
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Mike Nelson Pedde

10 years ago

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As someone who has worked moving furniture, worked with fishing nets, in a sawmill/woodwright shop and doing carpentry, wiring and other construction work, I can offer an even better reason forcremoving your rings than scratching someone's forearm: keeping the finger that's holding the ring on.

Good idea, these.

Mike
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Young

10 years ago

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I met Jeff two years ago at Interbike he showed me some early prototypes. His rings Kick butt
The level of detail in spot on. The comfort is amazing.
Save up your pennies and get one of these or two.

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