If you are new to the world of Starlingear, it can be a bit overwhelming (especially as it pertains to the rings and sizing). First, there are all the ‘in house’ terms, lingo, etc that are used. Secondly, because Starlingear only makes hand crafted goods with many of those being larger than you may be used to ordering, understanding sizing can be an issue.

In this article, we will try to distill it all down for ya with a nice bow on top to take some of that confusion out of ordering your Starlingear goodness!

First, we need to look in the (not so distant) past to understand the way things were and where some of these terms come from and talk about the size of the ring’s design. Now, we are talking about the size of the actual ring’s design and not about the ‘finger size’ of the ring. Also, when talking about sizing here, we are only talking about what we will call ‘the head rings’ which is to say rings based on the ‘heads’ like Slickster, Kamikaze, etc. There are the bands, and other one off designs that were not produced in multiple sizes.

The signature Starlingear ring (and for that matter signature Starlingear product) is what is known as the Puncher. The Puncher size is bold and large. The Puncher is the size that Ryk typically works in when carving a new design and the other versions (we’ll get to those in a minute) are based off it. Realizing that not everybody can wear a Puncher size all the time, smaller versions of certain designs were produced. A medium which was known as the Advisor, and a small, known as The Styler.

So, we USED to have:

Puncher – The largest

Advisor – Medium

Styler – Small

Now, just to make things a bit more confusing, realize that not every ring was produced in three sizes. This is where things can get a bit murky as for instance if a ring was only produced in Puncher and a smaller size, is that smaller size an Advisor or Styler? Well for the MOST part, the smaller size of the two would be a Styler. There were not nearly as many rings produced that had a medium ‘Advisor’ size as there were Styler.

OK, that’s the way things WERE. With the realization that in many cases the Advisor and Styler were pretty close in size, and that having three size choices was a pain to keep in production, and not to mention, kind of confusing, last year Ryk dropped the third size. NOW, rings are available as a Puncher or what is now called the Styler II (Styler 2). Two sizes. Simple.

Both sizes kind of have their purpose. Out on the weekend, or at a show, I roll a Puncher size. Want to tone it down a bit, go Styler II. Also, Styler II size make good pinky rings if you have a Puncher on one of your other fingers. Also, the Styler II are also favored by the female types as kind of their Puncher size as they are proportionally Puncher sized on many female fingers.

Now, what size ring do you wear? HA! Trick question! Depends on what kind of ring! The biggest mistake we see people make is “well my wedding band is a 10.5, send me a 10.5” or they get the ring sizer bundle, slip on a 10.5 and call that good. That’s fine for a typical band ring. HOWEVER, when we are talking Starlingear, we are talking much thicker shanks than on a typical ring. The thicker shank will feel smaller as it is covering more of your finger and that flesh has no place to go. So while your wedding band, or ring sizer says you wear a 10.5, you will actually need a larger size for a thicker shank ring like a Starlingear.

Some Starlingear rings also wear different than each other. People think of ring sizes as an absolute diameter, however for many reasons, this is not the case. Think a pair of jeans. If you wear a 34 x 30 you can get the same “size” in different cuts that will feel drastically different in how they wear. Same with rings. If you compare the way say a Slickster Puncher feels on the finger compared to the exact same size in say a Hog Puncher, the Slickster will feel tighter. With that being said, we generally advise ordering a half size up from your normal ring size for most Starlingear rings and a full size for ones with thicker shanks.

The other thing that happens is that people get their Starlingear rings and have them dropped on a ring sizing mandrell and call that the size. Again, this is fine for smaller bands or mass produced ‘cookie cutter’ makers, but every single Starlingear piece is hand crafted, and hand sized in the wax. Being more of an organic process, often Starlingear rings are not perfectly round inside. This means a ring can slide on a ring mandrell and read out as say a size 11, but if you took the whole internal volume, would actually feel more like an 11.5 or even 12. We have had guys call and argue with us that their ring was the ‘wrong size’ after putting it on a mandrel even when the interior volume was at the stated size. Again, go on how your ring FEELS and don’t get as hung up on the number.

The other bit of good news is that other than titanium, the other rings (silver, copper, etc) can easily be resized. If you need an extra quarter to half a size, almost any competent jeweler can use a sizer to “stretch” the ring up a bit. Going smaller involves a little bit more effort, but again, not a big deal to a jeweler. And because Starlingear stands behind their gear forever, you can also arrange to send it back and depending on the amount of resizing needed, can be done at the shop for a nominal fee + shipping.

Hope this cleared some of the confusion! Drop us an email if you have any other questions!