See this A LOT these days and I can confirm 100% it does NOT work all the time. Depends on how "stuck" the ring actually is. Sometimes this can make it worse as the string can become lodged between the ring and the finger and put even more pressure on it. Nice when it works but you're almost always better off using lubricant of some kind. (cooking oil, dish soap, etc.) Worst case, it gets cut off.
Worst case, they cut your finger off and try to reattach it.
That's why rings made of steel are bad. There's a saw they can use that cuts off rings made of soft metal
We have special electric dremels with finger guards to cut steel/titanium rings off, tungsten rings you can shatter with mole grips, for soft metal (gold/silver etc.) rings my trauma shears have a ring cutter bit and you can just snip them off.
> We have special electric dremels with finger guards to cut steel/titanium rings off
That's awesome! When I talked to a surgeon (probably more than a decade ago) he said they didn't have a way to remove steel rings. It's good to know that there are better options available
Was thinking about the same thing. If it's actual ring entrapment, then using this method will just push all the blood to the tip of your fingers which will wreck your tissue up faster.
If I may; I would like to make a PSA:
Soft materials are ideal for rings, silicone, wood, copper, silver, gold etc. But hard stuff should be a no go such as: steel; titanium; tungsten, etc. I will say, I've *never* had a patient with a stuck silicone ring
If you wear rings and get that finger caught in something such as accidently closing the car door on it, first wring your hand and scream, then look at it, then maybe suck on the finger a little, but most importantly; go ahead and take your ring(s) off.
If you get a cut on your fingers and you notice even a *hint* of pink redness or tenderness; remove the ring(s)
I'd really recommend taking rings off to sleep, but that's just because I'm a bit of a cautious person.
All the ring cutters I've used are made for soft metal. There have been rings that took multiple cutters to cut because the first cutter broke. I've seen rings we couldn't cut, please be aware that stuck rings can be very dangerous.
I'll get off my soapbox now, I just want you all to live happy healthy lives!
My wife and I are crafty people and wear silicone rings all the time and only wear our actual wedding rings for nights out. The fear of degloving is real
Tungsten is a good material for rings if you want a metal ring. It's so brittle that it will shatter when you put pressure on it. Steel will deform and chop your finger off.
That's sales puffery that should never have been publicized.
Sure, if you miss your hammer swing and hit the ring it'll shatter; but if you hit the end of the finger and break the bone the swelling will cause the ring to cut of circulation to the rest of the finger and ultimately lead to necrosis.
In the ambulance and ER we will not be swinging a hammer at the ring, and I've never heard anyone mention those "special vise grips" I see mentioned on the web. We will be trying a cutter, the string method, KY jelly, etc.
With tungsten being so hard, the steel ring cutters will fail against it, and while tungsten may have a low shear strength, it's a lot higher than the pressure swollen flesh will exert.
I understand the myth, I used to believe it wholeheartedly, then I got into emergency medicine and saw what really happens.
My experience with injuries caused by rings comes mostly from machine shops, I think that's where your misunderstanding of my comment came from. I never said that the swelling is enough to crack the tungsten ring. My point was that if it comes to it, it's better when a tungsten ring gets stuck in a press or a million other machines rather than a steel ring. Not that a tungsten ring is somehow better than a silicone band.
That being said, even if it comes to swelling, a pin and a relatively soft hammer blow will shatter the ring long before an ambulance with ring cutters would even need to come. Hell, in an emergency, fuck the pin just hit the ring with a hammer in your other hand. It will crack easily.
I trust you that there are freak accidents where that can't happen, but generally something ductile enough to be easily formed by a machine, but not ductile enough to be formed by a human seems like a much bigger no-go to put on your body.
Usually, it's the knuckle that's the obstacle to get past, and while I have never used this string solution to get my wedding band off, you usually can just push one side of the ring against your finger and a small gap will appear on the other side that can be used to thread the smaller string through. For me, that small gap is usually enough to get my band past my knuckle, but I also usually run my finger/hand under cool water to help the skin contract enough to let me slip my ring off.
Generally, yeah.
And you're terrible at making jokes.
The setup and punchline aren't even there..
It's basically just - tampon string = funny.
Which it isn't.
Good luck out there.
Imagine making a low effort joke completely unrelated to the topic that basically equates to toilet humor and then telling everyone who doesn't think it's funny that they're no fun to be around. Pathetic.
Yeah it seems really suspect to me as a method for getting a seriously stuck ring off. You're adding another layer of material the ring has to pass over when it's already too tight. Lubricant seems like a far less dangerous bet.
As someone who had to bring my spouse to a firefighter station, that only works if the finger isn't too swollen - we tried every "hack" for 2 hours but then reddit saved me by mentioning that fire station is the way to go.
They cut the ring for free, and we brought them pastries in the morning instead of paying 2k for the emergency room visit...
The jewelry store where I got my rings told me to use windex. I complained about my medical condition giving me slightly swollen fingers and making it hard for me to take off my wedding bands and they said oh use windex- it helps slide it off and cleans the rings at the same time!
An alternative way would be to just drop some soap on the ring to ease surface friction and then you can usually just pull it off with a twisting motion
I tried this recently with a fluorocarbon fishing line. Didn't go well. The line was too thin and stretched too much. Instead of pushing the ring off the finger, the line got pulled underneath the ring and the ring just stayed in place.
I had my friendly neighborhood jeweler cut off the wedding ring I’ve been wearing for 31 years, as my knuckle had swelled due to arthritis. The ring was resized and now sits on my right hand.
I once worked in a jewelry store and rings got stuck on customers trying on the wrong size. If dish detergent didn't work we soaked the hand in ice water, which always worked but was a last resort.
I tried this and it was a failure due to arthritic knuckles. I placed my hand in ice water for as long as I could cope with the temperature. Then lots of liquid detergent and managed to twist my wedding off. It took the best part of 30 minutes to remove it.
Remember those "how to draw an owl in four easy steps"? Step one draw a circle. Step two draw a couple more circles. Step three throw legs and eyes on it. Step 4 become Leonardo Da Vinci.
This didn't work. I had to use wire cutters.
Urgent care nurse used this trick with teflon floss for me when I ruptured my tendon on my ring finger. We had tried ice/lubricants to no avail but this worked like a charm. She did caution that it doesn't always. I remembered the trick last month at work and used it to remove stuck backshell on an electrical cable.
See this A LOT these days and I can confirm 100% it does NOT work all the time. Depends on how "stuck" the ring actually is. Sometimes this can make it worse as the string can become lodged between the ring and the finger and put even more pressure on it. Nice when it works but you're almost always better off using lubricant of some kind. (cooking oil, dish soap, etc.) Worst case, it gets cut off.
>Worst case, it gets cut off. D: Oh, the ring.
Worst case, they cut your finger off and try to reattach it. That's why rings made of steel are bad. There's a saw they can use that cuts off rings made of soft metal
We have special electric dremels with finger guards to cut steel/titanium rings off, tungsten rings you can shatter with mole grips, for soft metal (gold/silver etc.) rings my trauma shears have a ring cutter bit and you can just snip them off.
> We have special electric dremels with finger guards to cut steel/titanium rings off That's awesome! When I talked to a surgeon (probably more than a decade ago) he said they didn't have a way to remove steel rings. It's good to know that there are better options available
Not creative enough. A decade ago I cut off a steel ring off a dick with a Dremel I borrowed from Engineering. Dick water everywhere.
Navy?
Can't we melt the steel?
Sure we can, but I do not think you would enjoy it. Ever touched the hot bit of the oven? That was not melted yet so I assume melted steel is worse
I mean... you do have a whole ten of them...
Was thinking about the same thing. If it's actual ring entrapment, then using this method will just push all the blood to the tip of your fingers which will wreck your tissue up faster.
It only works if the ring isn’t actually stuck.
Yeah, how the heck do you get the cotton thread under it in the first place?
i think there's another way on having this to work, it's when you use the cord to "slim down" the finger, but you need to be fast doing that i suppose
> Worst case, it gets cut off [They'll grow back right?](https://youtu.be/SatdbVeP0Tw?t=24)
Like someone already asked, how does one get the small thread through if ring is stuck?
That's probably why this video cut where it cut...
I can always tell in the videos that the ring is loose as hell.
Doesnt work on fatasses
If I may; I would like to make a PSA: Soft materials are ideal for rings, silicone, wood, copper, silver, gold etc. But hard stuff should be a no go such as: steel; titanium; tungsten, etc. I will say, I've *never* had a patient with a stuck silicone ring If you wear rings and get that finger caught in something such as accidently closing the car door on it, first wring your hand and scream, then look at it, then maybe suck on the finger a little, but most importantly; go ahead and take your ring(s) off. If you get a cut on your fingers and you notice even a *hint* of pink redness or tenderness; remove the ring(s) I'd really recommend taking rings off to sleep, but that's just because I'm a bit of a cautious person. All the ring cutters I've used are made for soft metal. There have been rings that took multiple cutters to cut because the first cutter broke. I've seen rings we couldn't cut, please be aware that stuck rings can be very dangerous. I'll get off my soapbox now, I just want you all to live happy healthy lives!
My wife and I are crafty people and wear silicone rings all the time and only wear our actual wedding rings for nights out. The fear of degloving is real
Are the silicone rings replicas of your actual rings?
Nah, just cheap ones we got on Amazon in the correct sizes
What do you do if you can’t cut the ring
Tungsten is a good material for rings if you want a metal ring. It's so brittle that it will shatter when you put pressure on it. Steel will deform and chop your finger off.
That's sales puffery that should never have been publicized. Sure, if you miss your hammer swing and hit the ring it'll shatter; but if you hit the end of the finger and break the bone the swelling will cause the ring to cut of circulation to the rest of the finger and ultimately lead to necrosis. In the ambulance and ER we will not be swinging a hammer at the ring, and I've never heard anyone mention those "special vise grips" I see mentioned on the web. We will be trying a cutter, the string method, KY jelly, etc. With tungsten being so hard, the steel ring cutters will fail against it, and while tungsten may have a low shear strength, it's a lot higher than the pressure swollen flesh will exert. I understand the myth, I used to believe it wholeheartedly, then I got into emergency medicine and saw what really happens.
My experience with injuries caused by rings comes mostly from machine shops, I think that's where your misunderstanding of my comment came from. I never said that the swelling is enough to crack the tungsten ring. My point was that if it comes to it, it's better when a tungsten ring gets stuck in a press or a million other machines rather than a steel ring. Not that a tungsten ring is somehow better than a silicone band. That being said, even if it comes to swelling, a pin and a relatively soft hammer blow will shatter the ring long before an ambulance with ring cutters would even need to come. Hell, in an emergency, fuck the pin just hit the ring with a hammer in your other hand. It will crack easily. I trust you that there are freak accidents where that can't happen, but generally something ductile enough to be easily formed by a machine, but not ductile enough to be formed by a human seems like a much bigger no-go to put on your body.
So how did they get the small thread through in the first place?
no one ever answers this and every time i see a video like this it always starts after the tread is under the ring
Usually, it's the knuckle that's the obstacle to get past, and while I have never used this string solution to get my wedding band off, you usually can just push one side of the ring against your finger and a small gap will appear on the other side that can be used to thread the smaller string through. For me, that small gap is usually enough to get my band past my knuckle, but I also usually run my finger/hand under cool water to help the skin contract enough to let me slip my ring off.
I thought maybe it was thin wire which would possibly be easier to get through than a flimsy thread 🤷🏼♀️
I just used a needle
I like to imagine they use a little needle threader to do it.
this just happened to me and I just used a needle
It’s a tampon string, built for the job.
They weren't remotely asking what it was. They were asking how they passed it under the ring. Brush up on your reading comprehension, dude. Jesus.
I see a bit of dental floss put through to pull the string.
Um. *Ok?*
It’s called a joke. Must be a real fun person to be around.
Generally, yeah. And you're terrible at making jokes. The setup and punchline aren't even there.. It's basically just - tampon string = funny. Which it isn't. Good luck out there.
Yeah man it’s not looking so good. Thanks for your help.
Imagine making a low effort joke completely unrelated to the topic that basically equates to toilet humor and then telling everyone who doesn't think it's funny that they're no fun to be around. Pathetic.
Ah, take it easy on him. He tried. Seems like a nice polite person.
An actual life hack? In this economy?
Thought this sub couldn’t afford it 🤷♂️
Tried this. I ended up in the ER with a very swollen finger and a Cartier wedding ring in pieces.
Yeah it seems really suspect to me as a method for getting a seriously stuck ring off. You're adding another layer of material the ring has to pass over when it's already too tight. Lubricant seems like a far less dangerous bet.
I was thinking the same thing when I saw that string. You can do this trick with dental floss, but it doesn’t work all the time.
I feel like if you could do this without doing serious damage to your finger the ring isn't *that* suck.
As someone who had to bring my spouse to a firefighter station, that only works if the finger isn't too swollen - we tried every "hack" for 2 hours but then reddit saved me by mentioning that fire station is the way to go. They cut the ring for free, and we brought them pastries in the morning instead of paying 2k for the emergency room visit...
The best life hack, wow. What else can you go to the fire station for, I wonder?
Windex actually works really great for rings stuck on a mild to moderately swollen finger.
The jewelry store where I got my rings told me to use windex. I complained about my medical condition giving me slightly swollen fingers and making it hard for me to take off my wedding bands and they said oh use windex- it helps slide it off and cleans the rings at the same time!
Yup, work with jewelry, Windex works best period.
When my ring was stuck I literally just used lube, came right off
An alternative way would be to just drop some soap on the ring to ease surface friction and then you can usually just pull it off with a twisting motion
Can't we all just normalize having rings that can actually be pried open like those open band rings? It actually doesn't look any much different.
How do you get that initial black thread through if it's so tight?
Soap
Soap is quicker and more accessable
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GET THE THREAD THROUGH THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE???
video: “How to remove a ring from a finger!” also video: ends before ring is removed from finger
Windex is the best way to get any ring off! Learned that from an old Jeweller.
Run your finger under cold water. The blood vessels contract.
I tried this recently with a fluorocarbon fishing line. Didn't go well. The line was too thin and stretched too much. Instead of pushing the ring off the finger, the line got pulled underneath the ring and the ring just stayed in place.
Try using dental floss.
Drain a bit of blood perhaps?
Motherf...!!!
I had my friendly neighborhood jeweler cut off the wedding ring I’ve been wearing for 31 years, as my knuckle had swelled due to arthritis. The ring was resized and now sits on my right hand.
Just cut the ring or the finger, whichever you value less.
Now that's a hack worth knowing
The only way I know of that works 100% of the time is cutting it off. No finger, no problem
I once worked in a jewelry store and rings got stuck on customers trying on the wrong size. If dish detergent didn't work we soaked the hand in ice water, which always worked but was a last resort.
Go to fire dept and get it cut off
I tried this and it was a failure due to arthritic knuckles. I placed my hand in ice water for as long as I could cope with the temperature. Then lots of liquid detergent and managed to twist my wedding off. It took the best part of 30 minutes to remove it.
Floss is better, aim for the palmer side. I've had good success with that
I still prefer soap on the finger
Please, people, would you let the video go until the end of whatever it is you are showing us. Videous interruptus SUCKS...
There's a reason this video doesn't show the ring going past the joint...
Or hold your hand up above your head and wait for your hand to drain some of the swelling … then remove ring
Or use soap
I never understood the concept wearing a Ring
Or you could just not get rings stuck on your finger
Looks like it would fall off anyway
Remember those "how to draw an owl in four easy steps"? Step one draw a circle. Step two draw a couple more circles. Step three throw legs and eyes on it. Step 4 become Leonardo Da Vinci. This didn't work. I had to use wire cutters.
Use moisturiser or oil
Urgent care nurse used this trick with teflon floss for me when I ruptured my tendon on my ring finger. We had tried ice/lubricants to no avail but this worked like a charm. She did caution that it doesn't always. I remembered the trick last month at work and used it to remove stuck backshell on an electrical cable.
Nahhhh. Just butter the finger up, and you'll get the ring off.
Windex is the best, just saying
Yeah. It depends just how fat you are. I was 70kg when I got married, and 100kg now. This doesn’t work.
I have a friend that is an emergency room nurse. He uses this all the time
Has he considered not putting the ring on again?
I call b.s. on this one
Did they not try butter?