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At SHOT Show, RF schmoozed Edge Eyewear into a pair of its Sharp Edge sunglasses from its Tactical line, then passed them my way to review. They seemed like great specs, so I set them out at 15 yards and shot them with a CZ 712 Practical 12 gauge shotgun. . .

Naturally, in my infinite genius I did the whole shooting-the-glasses thing before taking the “before” pictures. Thankfully, RF had snapped the following pic at of me wearing them at Media Day.

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And Edge provided a few stock photos.

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The Sharp Edge is available in three lens options: G-15, Tiger’s Eye (copper color), and clear. The first two optimize the light spectrum hitting your eyes to maximize sharpness, depth perception, and color contrast.

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All lenses are safety rated to the highest levels of ANSI and Military MCEPS standards. 12 gauge in the woods? We’ll get to that shortly.SSE611-TT

I must admit, I was conflicted about doing the “torture test” as I liked the Sharp Edge shades and would have gladly continued using them. They made great shooting glasses, because…

  • The “thin temple frame” fits easily and comfortably under earmuffs. I rarely wear earmuffs, strongly preferring plugs whenever possible, due about equally to this usual source of discomfort as well as cheek weld issues on long guns.
  • The lenses really are quite nice. Unlike on many glasses, where you can tell you have lenses on due to distortion around the edges, glare, or other issues, these were sharp,flawless, and distortion free. The shaded lenses block enough light without blocking so much that it detracts from your vision, and color clarity and tone looked really good.
  • They were comfortable, lightweight, and fit well. The spring tension on the temples plus the rubber nose piece kept them securely in place.

As that’s about all I have to say about a pair of sunglasses, fleshing the review out with a little torture testing seemed like a great idea. A box of Federal Game Load 7 1/2 birdshot, the Sharp Edges, a pair of $5 Remington shooting glasses, a pair of free sunglasses I got at a car show, and two cantaloupes accompanied me to the woods.

From 22 yards, the lenses of the Remington and car show glasses cracked and the car show ones deformed. The shot only dented them — didn’t actually penetrate, at least on the parts of the pieces I recovered — but it did cause cracks. At 15 yards, the one Remington lens I was able to find had broken into at least two pieces, so shot definitely penetrated. The frames of these glasses didn’t fare so well either, with the car show ones fracturing into a dozen pieces and the Remington ones breaking in multiple places as well.

At 22 yards, the Sharp Edges looked much better. The left lens came out of the frame — most Edge designs have much more frame-lens contact, for what it’s worth — but neither was distorted at all and the dents from the shot were shallower and less stretched and opaqued, plus the frame had dents but was structurally fine (all pics here are after the 15-yard shot also).

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The lens popped back into the frame. Mr. Cantaloupe was clean behind the glasses, peppered with shot everywhere else.

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Before moving up to 15 yards, which had completely demolished the Remingtons, I thought we’d give the Sharp Edges a shot at shrugging off a .22 LR from the 22 yard distance. A bare lead round nose Federal was chambered in my pistol. This load does ~1,100 fps out of it. My second shot hit the left lens, and. . .

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it penetrated. It looks like it struggled a bit to get through, but it made it through the lens and the cantaloupe behind it. In the video I said that both channels through the cantaloupe — the shot that missed the glasses and the shot that went through them — looked the same, but watching the video again it actually looks like the glasses one is smaller. Regardless, yeah, it went through. Stopping a bullet may not be a fair expectation.

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With that out of the way, I stepped up to 15 yards and plugged the Edge shades dead-on center with the densest part of the shot pattern. The frame cracked in half at the bridge, but both temples stayed attached — not the case with the other glasses — and still pivot fine. The lenses still did great. More dents, but no cracks, no distortion, no penetration.

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Not too shabby.

Ratings (out of five stars):

Quality * * * * *
All plastic and rubber, they aren’t built like a fancy pair of high-end shades. Of course, at an MSRP of $29.95 they’re pretty spot-on and they’re nicer than a handful of more expensive glasses of similar frame build that I’ve had. They’re symmetrical, clear, durable, and well thought out. Lenses seem pretty excellent in clarity and color, and they’re supposed to be anti-fog and anti-scratch treated although I didn’t specifically test these things. The five-star quality rating is in relation to glasses in a similar price range.

Comfort * * * * 
The thin temples make for a comfortable pair of glasses when wearing earmuffs, and the nose pad is nice. I actually have a fairly big head, though, so after wearing the Sharp Edges for a few hours straight I did find that the spring tension of the temples on the sides of my head began to bother me. At this point, the thinness that makes them so great under ear pro became a trade-off for long-term comfort.

Safety Factor * * * * *
They meet or exceed all of the important safety ratings, including the Dick Cheney test.

Overall * * * * *
Great shooting glasses at a fair price. No, I didn’t mention or rate “style” as it’s just way too subjective. Edge offers a dozen designs in its Tactical line and even more than that in the normal Edge Eyewear line, all with the same safety rated lenses, so there’s probably something to suit most fancies.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. My son who works in methane well service biz had a bad year and gave me a pair of his issue safety glasses for Christmas so I could “look cool like him”. Didn’t know the brand before now. I’ve been shooting with them for two years and like them. Hit once with bounce back, not a scratch. Now I know where to get replacement if I need. Good review.

  2. I won’t buy any glasses that don’t allow for an RX insert.
    It is too bad these companies ignore nearly 50% of the over 40 market.
    I use a $60 pair of changeable lens cycling glasses with bifocal RX inserts. If RX Changes I don’t have to pay $500 for new RX safety/shooting/sun glasses. 🙂
    Amber lens is great for cloudy overcast days, not just range days.

    • I got lasik a few years ago so no glasses for me anymore. However, I used to hate those damn inserts haha. I purchased a pair of Gargoyles back in the day specifically to have nice, prescription sunglasses that were safety rated and didn’t have inserts. I have no idea how expensive Edge’s prescription glasses are, though. I’ll shoot ’em an e-mail and ask. Otherwise you have to fill out a little quote form on the website to input the options you want. BTW, just looking at the site, as I hadn’t actually thought about prescription stuff before the comments from you and John L. here, they do offer a pair of goggles w/ a prescription insert: http://edgeeyewear.com/site_us/rx.php

    • In the vast majority of their frames, yes, there’s the option of polarized lenses. On the sites you can filter results so you only see glasses with that option. If you’re in the market, I’d probably suggest checking out both the standard Edge Eyewear site and the Edge Tactical site. For better or for worse, the products are separated out and you can’t search all of them in one place, and considering they’re all rated for the same safety level there isn’t necessarily anything particularly unique about the “Tactical” ones over the other ones. Just different shapes and styles. As far as I can tell.

  3. I have noticed that several of you have a lot of questions about our Edge Eyewear so I have added a link below that had all of our catalogs on it. If you are interested in our RX program you can check out our RX Catalog and if you would like more pricing information please e-mail your questions to [email protected]. She is our RX Specialist and she can answer any questions you may have. Also, our general customer service number is 866-953-7325 and I do Inside Sales for the Tactical line so if you have any questions that I can answer for you please feel free to contact me at 801-444-9396 Ext 122 or e-mail me at [email protected].
    http://issuu.com/edgeeyewear

    Thank you again Jeremy!

  4. Bah old news. gargoyles did this in the 80’s. I guess the phrase “I’ll be back” applies here.

    *** BUT it is a great idea to wear something when shooting, and not just to look cool *** Protect your eyes!

    I wear the wiley X brand GI issue.

    • I saw it done in Alaska in ~1994. It was the reason I eventually purchased a pair of Gargoyles. I make no claims of originality. Although I think cantaloupe was a unique choice. I’m just really not a watermelon fan, so cantaloupe mist tastes better 😉

  5. I was happy to see so many eye pro and ear pro vendors this year at Shot Show, I think it highlighted the responsible nature of much of the industry and shooters. I also thought it was about time. Good review, and as someone who spends a lot of time doing load development for all sorts of guns, good eye pro is a priority. I’ve got eye pro in all my range bags, my truck, tool box, hanging out all over. I scratch them a lot, and so I change them out a lot. A $30 pair that works well is an easy decision. Has anyone figured out a way to test for flash burn protection?
    JWT

  6. I’ve been shooting more steel over the last few years, and as a result have been wanting to upgrade from the Z87 rated glasses to something more substantial. But the prices have usually been off putting, combined with poor labeling of what is actually MIL-PRF31013 (which is now MCEPS GL-PD 10-12?) rated, so I’ve been reluctant to buy anything.

    Then along comes a review like this, which demonstrates the product’s performance, the company clearly labels the level of protection, and best of all the prices are awesome! THIS is why companies should give out products to trustworthy reviewers, at a minimum I’m going to buy one or two, and likely several more beyond that for extended family.

  7. BTW shout-out to Edge Eyewear. I linked them to the review here and they asked me for my address to send me a new pair of Sharp Edges. I requested this set in the Tiger’s Eye copper lens and they showed up last week. I’ll try not to shoot them this time!!! Thanks 🙂

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