Wooden Goggles

[Kepis]

Made myself a pair of wooden snow/sand goggles from a skanky offcut, all good exercise for hands, legs and mind, ive been wanting to make a pair of these for ages ever since i saw them in the RM Outdoor Survival book i think it was, today was the day.

Cut the rough shape out witht the saw, i used my bandsaw, but a coping saw would do the same job, or do it the way you would in the bush and carve it out

20180122_153328 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

axe out the curves on the sides

20180122_153616 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

hollow out the back

20180122_153255 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

sand it all smooth and mark out the position for the eye slits

20180122_160820 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

20180122_160803 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

20180122_160740 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

carve in the eye slits, i first drilled series of small holes and then linked them together to carve the slits out, which ended up up a little too deep, live and learn

20180122_164340 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

find suitable model to wear them

20180122_164604 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

I need to deepen the nose arch so they sit lower on my face, simple & fun project.

 

[Mesquite]

Nice work Mark

 

[Robson Valley]

They ain't perfect but they will save your sight. You did a good job.
Don't be tempted to make the slits any bigger. Less is more.
Next time, look for some bone, femur or scapula, for your next pair.

 

[Janne]

Makes you look very interesting!
I think they would work well. Wood is nice against the skin in sub zero temperatures too.

 

[Robson Valley]

Ancient history to the Inuit. They travel with their mouths shut to avoid sunburn.

 

[Robson Valley]

Kepis: Google UBC/MOA and get into the Online collection (approx 45,000 artifacts.)
Select 'Goggles' to see and study 11 examples of Inuit snow goggles.
Yours are very much like one example.
Just recall that the Inuit have no wood other than driftwood. Bone is far more probable.

 

[Janne]

The Same used wood, but they lined the edges with fur.
The Etnographical museum in Stockholm have those.

 

[Robson Valley]

True, Same have wood. Some conifer and otherwise birch?
Inuit don't except for drift wood. Tundra is tundra.

Sure would be nice if more and more museums made their collections available on line.
I'd spend days, drifting through those.
One part of UBC/MOA has a 25m ceiling, it's a room for the totem poles.
They let me bring a folding chair and their lunch foods are very good.

Snow-blind. Oddly enough, it happens to possums and wombats when you get up onto
the Bogong High Plains in the winter. Never got up Kosciusko in winter.

 

[Fraxinus]

Nice one Mark, didn't RM make a pair from cardboard in one of his programmes and call them Ray Bans
@Robson Valley that link is great I can see me searching through a lot of their exhibits for inspiration, thanks.

Rob.

 

[Kepis]

Nice one Mark, didn't RM make a pair from cardboard in one of his programmes and call them Ray Bans


Rob.

I believe he did, was the Sahara?desert survial episode i believe.

 

[Dreadhead]

nice one! keep meaning to make something like this in leather or bark

 

[Muddypaws]

Those are brilliant! You say the slits are a bit too deep, how big are they and what would be an ideal size?

 

[Kepis]

Those are brilliant! You say the slits are a bit too deep, how big are they and what would be an ideal size?

The slits needed to be a bit narrower to limit the amount of light that comes in, they work as they are, but in bright reflective conditions (not likely in Sussex at the moment), a narrower aperture would work better.

 

[Fraxinus]

Looking at some of the examples in RobsonValley's link it looks as though some of the articles were carved from the inner face (eye side) out.
This makes sense as the outer slit is controllably smaller, one just keeps carving a V groove until the light passes through.
Another example gave me the sense of one of those old picture viewer things that was a "must have" at school in the 70's.
Never had one so can't remember their name
Rob.

 

[crosslandkelly]

That's different, nicely done.

 

[Robson Valley]

The difference for the Inuit is that they live on the polar desert.
Not much snow but not much melting, either, so it stays white.
Not much snow & clear skies with a very low angle sun for reflection.
I guess -40C and blinding sunshine is more like it.

Even as far south as where I live at 53N, a sunny day in winter is too bright for bare eyes.

UBC/MOA: you really need 2 days to have a good look around.
The Rose Garden parkade is across the street so car travel is really convenient.
The food in their cafeteria is excellent.
My sole interest is the Pacific Northwest collection.
But, there's a large and diverse collection from the entire Pacific Rim.