Jake,

You are wise to take precautions to protect your eyes, and I suggest you also keep your hearing in mind, too. (I now need hearing aids from too many loud noises for too many years.)

On the safety glasses, I'll offer a few suggestions:

Unless you plan to do a LOT of forge welding using borax flux, you definitely don't need the didymium lenses. They are intended to filter out the wavelengths associated with the flare from burning compounds that contain sodium. If you're not burning a lot of borax flux, (sodium tetraborate), you shouldn't get any sodium flare from a forge or torch.

If you don't need expensive prescription lenses, I recommend that you get three pairs of regular side-shield or wrap-around safety glasses; one with green lenses for forge welding and torch heating, one with clear lenses for general shop wear, and one pair with neutral gray lenses for working outside in bright sunlight. Plano lenses - no correction - are very reasonably priced ( around ten to fifteen bucks) so there's no reason not to have several pairs.

If you need prescription lenses, talk to your opthalmologist or optometrist about getting prescription safety glasses. I wear bifocals for normal wear, but they're a pain in the neck for welding, so I have a set of single-vision lenses for welding. They're the same as my computer glasses, actually. The only difference is that they have detachable side-shields. You can also get "cheater" lenses to go in most welding helmets, and avoid the necessity of special glasses, as long as you don't need correction for astigmatism like I do. :-(

One really good thing I discovered a couple of years ago is a no-scratch coating for my glasses that actually works. This stuff is called "Crizal" and it not only makes the lenses much more resistant to scratching, they also seem to be almost immune to grinder swarf and welding smoke/slag. Previously, I couldn't wear plastic eyeglass lenses because they only lasted me a couple of months before they were too screwed up to see out of. The Crizal stuff has kept my current pair perfectly useable for well over two years now. It cost me an extra hundred bucks per pair, but it sure is worth it to me. Much cheaper than several pairs of new lenses!

Hope this of some use to you.

Thanks Rich and Jake

That is also something thats been on my mind for some time...and I'll try and find a local supplier for that Crizal coating. Sounds handy.....I wonder if it would also protect steel from rusting....

Peter

my optician has recommended infra red safety glasses. i have had cataracts removed recently...caused by forge welding....without flux.it's the ir rays that burn the lens of your eyes.