If you're like me and you enjoy going thrifting for vintage eyewear or if you purchase vintage cat eye glasses online from a shop on Etsy or eBay, you'll frequently come across frames that still have the original prescription lenses in them. This can be a bit a hassle as it's hard to see if the frame will look good on you. If it's a unusually strong prescription, it's a bigger problem as it will be very hard to see how the frames look on your face and it'll probably give you a headache too! This is something you can avoid if you only buy new old stock frames, since those frames have never been worn or had lenses put in place. But sometimes you find a pre-owned frame that just too pretty to pass up! So here are a few methods you can use to remove the lenses:
1. If your vintage eyewear is the kind that has a screw that will open the frame, just unscrew the screws and the lenses will come out smoothly. Most cheap eyeglasses kits you find at the store should work nicely with this. Though sometimes the screws are old and dirty and hard to turn. In those situations, I recommend taking a soft gentle brush (like an old toothbrush) and brushing around the screw to remove the debris. If that still doesn't work, try using a little bit of warm water and a gentle soap to clean around the screw, then try to remove the screws again.
2. Now most likely your vintage cat eye glasses are plastic and for those kinds of frames, there are two techniques that involve warming up the plastic in order to make it more flexible. You can heat the frames up by either submerging the frame in a bowl of hot water (do NOT use boiling water! it can melt the frame!) or heat the frames with a blow-dryer using the low heat setting. After warming the frame for one minute, hold the frame and gently push the lens out of the frame. Do not force it out as that may break the frame. If you're unable to remove the lens, try heating it another time for another minute. Don't get frustrated if it takes longer than a minute, some frames with extremely thick frames will require more time as the plastic will take longer to heat up.
3. If all else fails, take your vintage eyeglasses to a place like Walmart or LensCrafter. They'll do it for free, it also takes less time since they have the appropriate tools and it's way less nerve-racking. Just give them a heads up that the frames are vintage. I forgot to mention this to one guy and he had a rather difficult time removing the lenses because it required more heat than usual. Oops! Thankfully he wasn't mad about that and was rather excited about the fact that the frames had glass lenses and were over 40 years old.
Finally, if you’re interested in cat eye glasses, without having to worry about removing lenses please visit http://vintagecateyeglasses.org to see a great selection of unique vintage frames.
