How humidity affects different woods and what to do about it.

July 15, 2016 2 Comments

Looking after a pair of sunglasses can be harder than you think, especially wooden sunglasses. Just the other day a friend of mine who shall remain nameless broke his pair by putting them in his shorts pocket without the case, needless to say they snapped like a twig of balsa wood! I had to remind him that unlike plastic sunglasses his wooden ones don't have the natural "give" that plastic ones do and that he should have used the Kraft paper case provided to protect them.

But that isn't the only way to look after your wood sunglasses. Because wood is a hygroscopic material is reacts differently in different humidity and as such can expand and retract depending on the weather conditions in its surroundings, increasing the likelihood of it drying out and for cracks to appear. Given that our glasses are made up of six very thin layers amounting to a 2.7mm thickness, the front layer has the potential to suffer from small hairline cracks if not properly taken care of.

Of our woods Ebony suffers most from the impacts of humidity but that's not to say that it is a weak wood, far from it, but it has more air pockets running through it as opposed to say our Rosewood sunglasses which means that it looses moisture at a faster rate.

Organic Beeswax

One way to counter this is to use a balm to add moisture to the wood to counteract the loss of natural fluids. That is why we are working on a 100% organic beeswax balm to use on all of our shades. Every ingredient is organic from the triple filtered beeswax to the olive oil. We will soon be finished with our first batch and will be sending these out to everyone who has bought a pair of our wooden sunglasses for free, and from then onward will be including a 15 ml tub with every purchase.

When its nice and sunny outside we want to have our shades on all the time but there comes a time when all of us have to find some shade.That's when its time to break out the case as this not only protects them from being broken but also keeps them at a level temperature ensuring minimal fluctuation in humidity.

Long story short take care of your wooden eyewear and it will take care of you!

2 Responses

Susan Robins

September 02, 2016

I forgot to mention that I have purchased 3 pairs
of your glasses! I like the style and weight. Also doing my bit for the environment. Living in California I need to wear sunglasses all of the time!