The Armour Archive

My new glasses, they are a little over sized compared to originals but making them so allowed me to buy $15 glasses from zennioptical.com and swap the lenses right in. Frames are machined out of 3/16" thick basswood. So should I do a short production run of these?

Neat! I've always wondered if someone had tried to make these. Are the lenses a personal prescription or are they reading-like lenses?

While i'm sure they're perfectly safe, something inside me refuses to wear anything that can splinter so close to my eyes. Irrational, i know, but there it is.

prescription lenses, I'm thinking of trying some faux bone frames next. Leather frames didn't come into use tell after my persona (1380-1410) but where used.

Brian
Would real horn be easier to work than faux bone?
I was going to make the 1490 thread loop specs in the pic from brass, but just remembered a tortoise shell box lid we bought 45+ years ago & tucked away until we could find a use.
Ranif

Some years ago I made a pair of specs out of horn which I got from these guys. http://www.knifemaking.com/category_s/174.htm

Mac

WIN!

I'd be afraid to use basswood. Terrily brittle stuff. The horn, now - that'd be spiff. Jas townsend used to sell such frames and I use them.

My problem is that with astigmatism, the alignment of the lens is important. I'd need some kind of frame that would stay aligned . . .

Donal,

It's worse that that. If your cylindrical correction is significant, the lenses won't fit in frames that are fundamentally flat.

The good news is that if you just use the spherical correction, and ignore the rest of the prescription, you will be having an experience of the real middle ages! The only way it could get better than this is if you could try on a dozen pairs and find the one that worked best....sort of like the reading glasses at drug store. It's funny how these thing sometimes come back around.

Mac

Brian, I'll totally buy some (money permitting) if you do a run. My mundane specs, which I wear around camp sometimes in the early AM before I get my contacts in, are one of the last big stumbling blocks I have to a completely period appearance.

Klaus

My eyes have an astigmatism 68 in one eye, 118 in the other, and the 1.57 mid index lenses fit fine, different prescriptions might have thicker lenses which would only effect closing the frames. I marked the top of each lens, and then put the frames on and marked where the top is when they are fitted to my face. If the frames open enough to throw off the correction they've opened enough to be uncomfortable and get readjusted. Many of the paintings and drawings show them being held with one hand, though its possible to get them to clamp on to your nose for a bit, I'm going to drill couple fine holes and add some string to keep them on easier.

Jeff, I went with Bass wood as its one of the woods listed that originals where made from and its available at any hobby shop. I wanted a set of the frames JASTownsend use to have, by the time I got around to trying to order them they had sold the last pr 2weeks before.

Mac, I've looked at those horn blanks, still might try some, but wanted frames that would fit the lenses from Zenni Optical , which are little bigger than historical or what can be made from there horn blanks, need something a bit wider. Being able to pull lenses from $15 glasses (with my prescription in them) was a big incentive compared to the cost of having custom lenses through a local optometrist made.

Brian,

I am surprised that the prescription lenses would fit in flat frames. I guess I know less than I think I do about corrective lenses.

I see what you mean about the size. What you made are certainly larger than any of the surviving specs that I am aware of. On the other hand, specs that are that big do appear in paintings and woodcuts, so the overall effect is good.

Perhaps there is a source of larger horn plates, but it doesn't seem to be with the knife making suppliers. If not, perhaps you could try flattening some horn.

Mac