[TheForge] didymium glasses?

[Bruce Freeman]

UV is the bad actor, and no forge produces significant UV.  Sunlight is much, much worse.  

IR is heat radiation, so there's plenty of that from a forge, but any glass lens, and many plastic lenses, will filter that out just fine.  It's hard to find transparent material that will PASS IR.

Much of the glare from a forge may be sodium glare.  Didymium glasses work to filter that out.

Bruce
NJ

>>> sunironworks at yahoo.com 2/1/2006 9:53:21 PM >>>
Folks,
   
  I asked this question on the knife list (I apologize for the spam, those of you who are on both) but I'm curious to see what y'all think. Everybody knows you always need to wear your safety glasses, but I wonder about the intense light....Here's the q:
   
  Folks,
   
  I've been doing a little forge welding recently and I'm wondering about the green flare I get after looking at the steel in the fire. It's annoying not to be able to see right away and I understand it leads to catarcts in time. Hrisoulas suggests didymium glasses and Centaur carries them but I understand they're really about sodium flare that comes with glass blowing. Seems that iron and coal (or the inside of a gas forge at temp) would be mostly UV or IR. I obviously need to be able to accurately judge color but I'm in no hurry to get a nice shiny set of cataracts. Question is, are a set of these necessary for good long-term eye care or is there some other better radiation protection, or do you just need to not look into the fire too much? They're not cheap but they're a lot cheaper than blindness.
   
  Thanks,
   
  JRF
   
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