The saw cut rings marked with an * are made using a bright anodizing process. The result is a very consistent and dud free color batch that is shiny. The ends of these rings are not anodized as they are cut after anodizing.
The machine cut rings and some of the saw cut (no *) are bulk anodized after the rings are made. The colors for this process are not as shiny as you can see in the images. The ends are anodized. These rings will have touchmarks and some duds as this process is not as consistent. This is normal.
Anodized aluminum coating is fairly hard but can be scratched with steel. Use pliers without teeth.
We use a hard temper aluminum which is stronger than colored copper. Note that aluminum is 3.4 times lighter than copper - this makes it much cheaper per ring than enameled copper rings.
Colors may vary from what is pictured and from batch to batch. We minimize this as much as possible, but it still happens.
If you are making a project where the color must not change slightly, order the full amount of rings for the colored area in one batch.
Please Note: A lot of the bulk anodized colors changed shade in the last shipment from our anodizer (Fall 2012) anything that is significant enough will have an ! by it and a note.
Some variation in anodized batch color is normal - that is why we recommend you buy all the rings for a project like a banner or shirt at once. Gold color varies a lot batch to batch for example and this is normal. The ones with an ! are ones where the difference is more than normal. We did not request a change - they used the same dye - the rings just came out different... We've been using this company for 10+ years and this is the first time we've seen these colors. We will be working with them to prevent this in our next shipment.
Please consider this note your notice. These will not be considered defective. If you need a color match please email to have us check the bin.