We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bruce Boone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bruce below.

Bruce, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always known that I wanted to be an inventor. After working in the nuclear industry for a few years and getting financially ahead, I bought myself a CNC milling machine for the basement. That’s a large computer-controlled machine like a router for metal. It allowed me to make some oversized chainrings and cogs for bicycles, another interest of mine. I saw that titanium was an up-and-coming metal that was ideal for the bicycle market. I made some titanium cogs (the back sprockets) and they had a simple design. Someone told me to make them more unique looking, so I changed the look of them. They were then the lightest cogs in the world and they also looked cool. After showing for the first time at the Interbike show, we got Best in Show. I had to get employees and the business blew up in a big way. I made different types of bike parts including spindles, cranks, and chainrings. The spindles were made from 1″ diameter titanium bar, and I would have pieces left over that weren’t long enough to make a spindle. I realized that I could make wedding rings from the material. I was one of the first making titanium rings, and this completely took over the bike parts. I have since made tens of thousands of wedding rings including tension sets, ones with inlays of wood, precious metals, and using other metals as well. Every week, I would have several people still asking for bike parts after 25 years, so I started making them again as well.

Bruce, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Titanium works well in a wedding ring, as it is strong, lightweight, and hypoallergenic. Normal jewelers don’t work with it much because it takes special machines and tools to be able to effectively cut it. It is not normally cast, as getting titanium hot enough to melt turns it into fireworks in the presence of oxygen, so needs special vacuum furnaces to do that. I have lasers to be able to engrave it, laser cut it, or laser weld it. I also have anodizing equipment, which can turn titanium colors by controlling the voltage of anodes in a conducting fluid. I have made a lot of different ring designs that are made from laser cut plates and laser welded together. I made one called The Man Ring that has different tools such as a blade, comb, saw, and others that all fit within the ring and can be folded out like a Swiss Army Knife. I did my first one somewhat as a joke, (how much stuff can I cram into a ring?) but it went viral and was seen by hundreds of bloggers and magazines all over the world. It even was featured on the Discovery Channel on a program called Invent This. I’ve made many variations on the theme.

Another thing that titanium does well for is tension set rings. These are rings that use the strength and springy nature of the titanium to hold onto a stone without the need for separate prongs. I have made several thousand of those, each custom made for a specific ring size and stone.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My biggest pivot was from making titanium bike parts to titanium rings. The bike parts were a lot more labor intensive and less profitable than the wedding rings. While the rings have to be made one at a time rather than in batches due to differing size, width, and style, I have managed to hone the process down, so I normally have a turnaround time of just a day or two, including custom designs. My CNC lathes have books of coordinates that calculate the input needed for any size and width ring. My laser scenes and custom artwork rings follow a similar process.

Only after gaining a lot of efficiency in the ring making, I was able to accept some bike part work again in a limited scope.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Around the time of Covid, many manufacturers were hit hard when the economy shut down. We were no exception and had to let employees go. I learned to be more efficient and handle all the manufacturing myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.BooneRings.com
• Instagram: BooneRings, BooneTechnologies
• Facebook: Boone Titanium Rings, Boone Technologies