Aging eyes and tying?

[skiltonian]

Going to be 50 in a week and already wearing bifocals. Just started tying again and can’t see anything. I have a magnification glass with 2x and LED with 200 lumens and not wear my glasses. Better but still not great and I have to lean in close so posture is compromised. Any input to improve my eye sight when tying is appreciated! Brighter light? What readers glasses would you recommend? I’m due for an eye appointment, anything a doc can help with? BTW, I stopped tying about 8 years ago and have the experience but not the practice, so got some work to do. The flies are not worthy for the box, yet. Seeing will help. TIA.

 

[JackM]

Eat more carrots and get magnifying glasses.

 

[nfrechet]

talk to your eye doctor FIRST and let him know the distance of your eye to the vise. then follow his recommendations

non doctors here on the forum cant diagnose what you may need for glasses

go to your local department store and try on different glasses and pick one that will work for the distance youll need

 

[falcon]

Target shooters have corrective glasses focaled to their sights. Not much different for vice work.

 

[dryflyguy]

My eye doc gave me an extra strong bifocal, than she would have normally given me.
It works

I also bought one of the newer LED Ott lights.
Big difference from the old Incancesance bulb light

 

[salmo]

Going to be 50 in a week and already wearing bifocals. Just started tying again and can’t see anything. I have a magnification glass with 2x and LED with 200 lumens and not wear my glasses. Better but still not great and I have to lean in close so posture is compromised. Any input to improve my eye sight when tying is appreciated! Brighter light? What readers glasses would you recommend? I’m due for an eye appointment, anything a doc can help with? BTW, I stopped tying about 8 years ago and have the experience but not the practice, so got some work to do. The flies are not worthy for the box, yet. Seeing will help. TIA.

I wear bifocal lenses in my daily glasses and sunglasses. I did ask my eye doctor to strengthen the bifocal lenses part to help with fly tying and putting he #!^+ tiny tippets in the tinier fly eye.

 

[Bamboozle]

First get your eyes checked (I go twice a year) and get your prescription checked...

Then when seated comfortably, measure how far away your head is from your vice. Then buy a head loop for that working distance like the OptiVISOR I have been using for decades for all close work like fly tying.

There is a reason jewelers of all ages use head loops... Had I known how much easier tying would be and how much BETTER my flies would look by using a head loop, I would have bought one when I was 18 and just starting to tie flies.

BTW - I tried desk top/light magnifiers but they got in the way when doing certain tasks.

FWIW - I keep a pair of cheap readers down my nose to see stuff better on the desktop and save the prescription glasses for important stuff like driving. If I use the readers in conjunction with the head loop, it changes the working distance which is a plus for smaller flies.

Because I regularly tie & fish flies smaller than a 24, I also have a second head loop with a higher magnification for tying those minuscule patterns. It REALLY makes a difference when tying stuff that small and I am sitting closer to the vise anyway.

 

[Ordanic]

I had to deal with the same thing when I got back into tying after a long break. A bright, adjustable light is definitely a game-changer—something like a clip-on magnifying lamp can really help with both light and magnification. I also found that switching to readers with a higher magnification (like +2.5 or +3) made a big difference, especially when I didn’t want to lean in so much. Definitely worth checking in with your eye doc too, they might recommend something like progressives or a prescription specifically for close-up work.