Hardness/Scratchability of platinum vs stainless steel

[thecat]

Hi, if I wear a platinum and a stainless steel band together, which will destroy the other more?

I used to wear 2 platinum bands together. One is highly polished while one is matte finishing. I happened upon a stainless steel band which is exactly like my matte band and I got it as a travel band. As there are scratches on my matte plat band, I find myself preferring to wear my polished plat band together with new SS matte band. I will wear the old matte plat band once I send it to re matte nicely. So in the mean time, will SS band destroy my plat band when they are worn together?

Thank you.

 

[OECrystal]

To really find the answer, you'd have to look up the rockwell hardness of each alloy. There are a bunch of different types of stainless alloys with varying degrees of hardness depending on what the element composition is.

The short answer is if it's only for a short period, I don't think stainless will severely damage platinum if at all.

The slightly longer than short answer/suggestion is to ask about getting another matte stainless band, going to your local hardware store and picking up some finishing sandpaper (1000, 1500, 2000 grit), and with some baby oil start polishing. Shouldn't take more than ~5 minutes to turn matte stainless into polished stainless. To me it would feel satisfying knowing a little elbow grease produced something shiny, but if you're not the DIY type, any jeweler should be able to put a polish on it.

Hope this helps!

 

[thecat]

To really find the answer, you'd have to look up the rockwell hardness of each alloy. There are a bunch of different types of stainless alloys with varying degrees of hardness depending on what the element composition is.

The short answer is if it's only for a short period, I don't think stainless will severely damage platinum if at all.

The slightly longer than short answer/suggestion is to ask about getting another matte stainless band, going to your local hardware store and picking up some finishing sandpaper (1000, 1500, 2000 grit), and with some baby oil start polishing. Shouldn't take more than ~5 minutes to turn matte stainless into polished stainless. To me it would feel satisfying knowing a little elbow grease produced something shiny, but if you're not the DIY type, any jeweler should be able to put a polish on it.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the response, OECrystal. Ya, I think you're right that the platinum and SS bands should be able to withstand being paired together for a few months till I get the other plat band re matte.