HERRLICHT: Handmade Wood Frames

This is a great video on handmade wooden eyeglasses from a German company called HERRLICHT.
They make it look so easy, but along with having the right tools for the job and years of experience it really shows in their finish product.
They take us back to a time when an Optician was considered a craft person, a highly skilled trades person that worked as an apprentice for a few years to earn the title Optician.
We've had amazing technological advances in material and machinery that allow us to get your eyeglasses ready much quicker, more frame designs using endless amount of colors and patterns, also the visual and cosmetic improvement of prescription and sun glass lenses.
It is great to see Herrlicht combining these improvements with handcrafting techniques to create works of art, the true essence of being an Optician.

Second Shape

This is the second shape that I made, as you can see this one is polished and this is one of the reasons why I love this material. It has an amazing shine, you can wear a buffalo horn frame for a long time and then have it polished once again and it will look like it has never been worn. Although this frame is black, it does not appear visibly heavy, soon I will have another color which is honey brown and maybe a cream almost white. Both of these two colors will be translucent and after polishing you can see more variation of patterns within the frame.

It's looking like a pair of eyeglasses

Still sanding, I carved all the curves on the frame because prescription lenses are curved and our faces are curved. Now you can see the frame has taken shape and looks like a pair of eyeglasses, you can see more stripes exposed and that is determined ahead of time. Looking at the plates before I do anything, I find where the stripes are located and that helps to decide on the shape, front from the back and which part should be the top.
The sanding process takes time to complete, I started with a very rough grit and gradually reduce the grit size until I reach to about a 600 grit. This is the time where I can look at the glasses and add the finishing touches, making sure it is as symmetrical as possible and finishing up any details that can enhance the look of this material and also the pattern.
You can leave it the way it is with this finish, it's a matte finish almost a charcoal feel to the touch and this is one of my favorite looks other than a colorful pair of glasses, but I will polish it to show how amazing the shine that you can have with this material.
All that is remaining is making the groove within the eye wire which holds the lenses in the frame. I have to add the hinges too connect the temple (arm) to the frame front and of course make the temples.

Handmade Buffalo Horn Eyeglasses

If you ever wanted to know how glasses are made, here is a preview of what I have been working on. The material I am using is buffalo horn. It is not a very hard material and I love the random colors or pattern that you can find after you remove the surface layers. It also has a very warm and soft feel to the touch.
I decided to take buffalo horn scales (plates) and started with cutting out the bridge (nose) and then use a marker and just draw by hand to create the lens design. Eventually I will make a template to work from, but for the time being I want to see what it's like to work with this material, and for myself, having an item that is handmade where you can see (slightly) that it is not symmetrical because everything is done by eye, you go back and forth from left to right making sure both sides match as much as possible.
As you can see in one of the photos the lens shape is different, I cut out the basic shape and then elaborated on the lens design, do I want it to be more square or curved.
After Deciding on the shape, I started sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding.