CraftOptics

Hey, t I've probably had t I didn't want to review it right off the bat. I wanted to have some time to use it, see what I thought about it, compare it to what I was using before, and then give an honest review and tell you what I t And so the product is, are these glasses, made by Kraft Optics, they're magnifying glasses. And I've been using them, Bought these to replace these Optivisors. So for most of you that make slip joints and knives I think it was Luke Swinson said on his video, and I'm not sure where heard it from, but he said, And I totally agree with that because having magnification is going to help you so much in building your knives. And then also as we get older and our eyesight gets worse, then, So a little 5s. And my focal range was pretty close. So And I'm going to move the camera around and do some, But with t So what I found was that when I was using machines that were, So I started looking for options that would give me a longer magnified focal range. And that's when I came across Kraft Optics. And so I'm going to move the camera over here to the bench and let you see these closer up and point out a few t And then we'll move the camera around the shop and I'll demonstrate these versus the Optivisors as far as focal points. And I'll talk about the pros and cons to each. All right, t And so for all practical purpose, they look They're bifocal glasses. And then they have the magnifier that will flip up or down depending on, Now you have different, I guess, frame color, different options I went with the black. Also, one t Now these are, my Optivisors were 1. 5 magnification and these are two magnifications. So when I flip t It just makes t But when these are flipped up, w And so I don't wear bifocals normally. I do have some reading glasses. I never needed glasses till I got in my mid 40s and just, And so I use reading glasses when I'm reading and when I'm doing the computer and stuff And then also just, I noticed that I can see the bench fine. But if I was holding something up, What's nice about t So what I got was a really light magnification in the bottom. And then in the top part, I got a medi And they can do that. They'll take your prescription, you get your prescription from your optometrist and send it to them. And then they'll make the glasses to your specs. But when I was talking to one of the people who worked there and explained in what I was doing and how I needed these different, you know, the distance to the different things I would be looking at, she suggested that I put my close up magnification in the bottom and a medi Now what that means is that I can't look across the room through the top and t I basically just kind of take the glasses off and let them hang around my neck. But if I'm looking at something arms length, If I'm looking at somet And then these right here, you can turn t But these are adjustable in or out so that when you're looking through them, All right, I'm over here at my drill press and I figured t All right, so using these glasses, if I put them on, and usually Now, without these, then just because of my age and stuff, that's out of focus. So just So t Now, if I want to look at something And so as I mentioned, my top focal distance or my top ones are kind of a medi They're not So if I'm looking at my wall over there through the top, And even at the view screen on the camera, it's a little bit blurry. If I'm looking at the wall, it's really blurry. But if I'm standing right here and looking at it, everything's clear because I have this medi Now, if I look through the bottom, it's blurry, all right? But right here, and the reason I did that is because I figured a lot of mac But for looking through the bottom, So if I'm coming down, I know that sounds terrible, I need to put some oil on it, but coming down right there, it's in focus. Now, if I want to go to my two times magnification, w So for me, right here is in focus. So if I'm trying to drill a real precise hole, I can get about t Now, I want to show you the difference, I'm going to try to stay in the exact same place. So in focus right here, the difference between t So when I put the optimizers on, I have to get about right here. So that may not seem And for working at t So here's optimizers, that's in focus right there at the one, two, three block. With these, I'm in focus right about here. So I have a longer focal distance, there's three different options, there's one for up close. So I guess if you're doing real close work, maybe cross stitc But I wanted the longest one, w And I'm not quite getting 18 inches distance on them. Now, here's another thing about the company, they're so great to work with, that I called them and was talking to them about the focal distance, just to make sure that I got the right ones, which I didn't even notice, but there's But she was saying that they could change out the prescription in the bottom and adjust it so that these two together would give me an 18 inch, two times size at that distance. However, I said, I really didn't wanna change the bottoms just to gain another inch or two, maybe up top. Now, everything about these craft optic glasses I like, and if I were making a list of pros and cons to the craft optic glasses versus the optivizers, everything would be in the pro col With the optivizers, because of the width of the lenses, you have a wider field of vision than you do with the craft optics. So for instance, if I put these on, and I'm looking down here, and again, So I guess these would be about six inches. I have about, Now, the flip side is on these craft optics. If I put these on, because of the way that these are rounded and really focused into basically what I'm looking at as a circle. So where this, I'm looking at T So I have basically a one, two, three block, maybe a half inch extra on each side, but I'm talking about maybe four inches as opposed to probably eight inches. So I have about half of the field of vision with the craft optics glasses, then I do with the optimizers. But to me, the pros far outweigh these. Now I'll still put these on sometime. Really the only time I use these anymore is if I'm pinning the knife together because where I'm doing it, I do want a little bit wider field of vision. But outside of that, I wear these all the time. So let me move the camera somewhere else and we'll just, we'll see how I'll talk about it there as well. All right, so I'm over here where I would do some hand sanding. Now usually I do hand sanding. I put t I know you can't see t But t So I just have t But anyway, my point is right here, Also, if I need to really see the scratches, I flip through my top, it's perfect right there as well. So this is a great distance for both the bottoms and the tops, I mean, I might get over it And even working with something in the vise, Right here, I'm stooping just a little bit, but not so much with the glass. I know my posture's terrible So I was just trying to do something to help me because I was getting And it's helped, it has helped a little bit, but that's just another example of what I'm seeing. And It was a little adjustment at first, having to kind of look around more than with the optimizers, but you get used to it. Now that I've used these t So it's been almost a year. I don't even t And I just, I really come to rely on these t I use them for fly time as well. So I tie some flies for fly time. I'm usually just using the bottoms until I'm ready to tie off and put the glue on where I really want to get that precise. I'll flip these down and my vice is about this far in front of me, So it works great for that. And just really pretty much anyt So I'll show you one more t All right, one other t So I was really impressed just from, as soon as it came in the mail, so it came in just a really nice box. So it's craft optics. And then has t And at first I was keeping them in the case, T I'll be taking these to blade show with me in case I need to do some cleanup on some knives w I'll definitely be putting them in the case and packing them in my backpack. But yeah, the whole t All right, a couple of final words about craft optics and their glasses. So they do have, now I opted for just the glasses because I have a lot of lighting in t I have lights over my machines and all that stuff, but they also have add-on, they call it the wow package that comes with the glasses and So that's an option also, I did not go with that just because I feel like I had adequate lighting and I didn't want to have a, If you were stationary, probably wouldn't be as bad, but just moving around the shop, I mean, I guess you could clip it on you or put it in your pocket or somet And then also having to, I'm not sure I should have looked into that, but They're not cheap, I can tell you that, but they're definitely worth it. So I was looking at maybe getting some different optimizers or just some different glasses. You can get on Amazon, you can find all kinds of, you can find things similar to this, that, But what's really nice about these are that they are prescription, So that's one point. Another point is they're always running a sale. So check their website, usually it's listed at the top, 20% off, 25% off, it just depends on what it is. Check them out because you won't have to pay full price. If you don't see anyt And, but I did want just the glasses. So when I was talking to them, I asked them, did they have a promotion going on for just the glasses as well because they didn't see it on their website. And they said, yeah. And so I forgot, maybe it's I can't remember, it was a long time ago. But check with them on that. Also, I would go to their website and read what you can, learn about the glasses, look at testimonials, whatever. And when you decide to get them, don't order them directly from the website. I mean, you can order them from their website, but call them and talk to them because they're so helpful. Tell them what you're doing, what you want it, And they will be so helpful that, So you'really gonna cheat yourself. If you just, if you decide that you're gonna buy some and you just go to the website, upload your prescription and then, So I'd say reach out to them and talk to them. I found them to be very helpful in getting me a configuration. And then there's also They'll replace them for free until you're happy with them. Another thing is also And there's definitely a charge for it, but it's not So that's really nice as well. So I'm just kind of spreading the word. They've been very useful to me and maybe they'll help some people that might be in the same situation I was. So thanks for looking.