Any good online sources for didymium glasses? Use to be able to find them on anvilfire but they dont seem to be on there anymore.




Sean

Blacksmiths Depot

Centaur Forge

Pieh Tool Company

Glass blowing and glass fusing suppliers carry them also.

My question would be "does anybody use them, that has them?"

I have a pair and have only used them a few times in the past three years.

I have a couple pair and they're not much use at the forge. Didymium filters out sodium yellow and not much else. There's very little yellow color in a forge fire close enough for them to catch.

They're wonderful for glass blowing but no better than lightly shaded sunglasses at the forge.

Frosty

And they seem to be really expensive if they don't do you a whole lot of good.

Gas welding glasses are designed for UV IR protection AND they are shaded which is nice. Check your local welding supplier.

The other ones i was looking for were the dark grey shade welding glasses( ive used didymium with dark clips before) but they seem to have dropped off the face of the earth.


Sean

I have a pair that I do use quite a bit. They are rated safety glasses(ansi rating something something), which is a must. Plus, my eyes are VERY sensitive to glare, which they do a nice job of cutting. An added bonus I found was that they filter the flare from the flux when I gas weld aluminum.
Now on the flip side, I do find myself lifting them up or peeking over the tops when I am watching for welding heat sometimes.
Hey, there is no such thing for a free lunch,

I've always used shade 3 protection for smithing; it's dark enough to be easy on the eyes, but you can still see what you're doing with ambient light.

Something like this has the nice side-effect of having a regular faceshield underneath so that you can still be protected if you need a closer look.

I have not used didymium glasses, but routinely use the flip-up #5 GREEN welding clip-ons I bought from Centaur Forge about 10 years ago. The 1/2 width is perfect. You can watch the fire during forge-welding without any eyestrain and when you bring the pieces out to the anvil you can see to work from the bottom half of the lenses. They are NOT what Centaur is selling now. They were Fend-all clip-ons. A search of the internet gave me this site:

Visionary Supplies - Product Catalog

Specifically, I think these are the closest to what I use:

Visionary Supplies

I routinely use them for torch-welding and cutting as well. Just clip them on a pair of safety glasses and adjust them as needed.

I can forge-weld fine without them, but I don't like to. They have easily paid for themselves in saved eyestrain.