Heat Treating: Eye Protection?

Mitchell Knives

Mitchell Knives

Knifemaker
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From what I understand, heat treat ovens emit UV and IR rays. Would a welding helmet be sufficient eye protection? (I don't weld, but have an old helmet laying around, and thought it would probably be more effective than simple safety glasses). If a welding helmet isn't appropriate, what should I use? Thanks!
 
Didymium lenses remove the "sodium flare" from glassworking, and do not filter IR radiation, which is the damaging radiation from forges. Virtually any eyeglasses will shield from UV.

www.auralens.net/PDF/ebg.pdf will give you a discussion of the various protective lenses. The Auralens 99 shade 2 is suitable for forge work, and will protect your eyes from IR and still allow color judgement.

( I wear it in tri-focals)

John
 
Last edited:
Sorry for any confusion. What I meant was that if he searched 'didymium' in BF, he would find the topic covered in several threads.
-Mark
 
The auralens site is good.

I think some of the confusion is that you can get the dydimium glasses with a UV coating from some opticians. Mine were custom made this way. I have some platinum welding glasses that do well ,too.
Stacy
 
Whoa Back. The original question was about a heat treating kiln. Now I understand the concept of eye protection when you are spending lots of time staring into the forge, judging color etc - but a heat treat kiln?

You are scaring me here.

I wear a full face shield - mostly to keep my eyebrows - but it is clear. I'm looking at max 30 seconds exposure. Should I be considering special lenses?

I know that UV does poorly at penetrating glass or plastic - but I'm not well informed on IR. Knowledgable guidance appreciated.

Rob!
 
OK, that'll teach me to read more closely!

I can claim that since I heat-treated out of a forge for so long, I just pictured looking into one to judge the color, but...for those of us forging and heat-treating out of gas forges, IR eye protection is a serious matter,however,the amount of IR exposure from a 30 second look into an electric heat treating kiln should be too small to consider.

Just don't pull out the popcorn and beer, and you'll be alright.

John
 
Sorry for the confusion, I was refering to a heat treat kiln. My only exposure would be the 5 to 10 seconds it takes to remove a blade from the oven. I imagine that this isn't enough to worry about.
 
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