Brethren, I am a FC soon to receive my MM. I inherited my grandfathers MM ring. All of brothers at lodge don't mind if I wear it. The WM even told me "wear it, it's your grandfathers, if anyone ask just tell them it's your grandfathers ring and you are FC."
I also have his PHA ritual books.
What are your opinions on it?
Mason653,
I can only offer you the advice that was passed along to me after being initiated:
If you've got a masonic ring, then you probably want to hold off wearing it until you've been raised. Likewise with masonic stickers, license plates, pins, etc. We know you're proud to be a mason. That's not the issue. The issue is the potential problems it could cause. Let's say that you walk up to two Master Masons, and they're talking about something in the master's degree. They see your ring and assume that you're a master as well, and keep right on with their conversation. That could cause them to share some information with you that you're not meant to have yet, which would be an embarrassment to them when they find out. That knowledge could also potentially cheapen your experience when you're raised, and nobody wants that to happen.
Now I'll add a little something to what I was told. In addition to what you read above, wearing the symbol of a Master Mason when you aren't one (even though you do it to honor your grandfather's memory), could call into question your motives and your honesty, as you'd be inadvertently passing yourself off as something that you're not. Ours is an honorable organization, and honesty and honor are of the utmost value.
On the other side of that coin, let's say that you're wearing that ring, and someone who wants to become a mason sees it and starts asking you about masonry. You're a fellowcraft, not a master, and as such, probably won't have the answers to his questions. That isn't fair to him as a potential candidate, nor is it fair to your lodge, which will have been represented in a less than knowledgeable light. I was raised three years ago, and I'm not even close to having all of the answers. I doubt that I ever will. We owe it to the masons of tomorrow to be as knowledgeable as possible when those men come to us for answers. We also owe it to the fraternity to know which questions can and which cannot be answered to those outside the craft. To save face for yourself and the fraternity, don't walk around looking like something that you aren't yet.
Leave the ring at home for now. You've got the rest of your life to wear it once you've been raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason.