BORELLI CONSULTING: Tactical Equipment Reviews

Revision SAWFLY Protective Eyewear
By: Frank Borelli, 25 April 2005

A couple months back I had occasion to see and handle a pair of Revision Military Eyewear SAWFLY glasses. As I've been wearing glasses most of my life, and now enjoy contacts with sunglasses, I'm forever interested in any type of protective eyewear that can either 1) double as daily-wear sunglasses, or 2) make me look cooler. Since #2 is about a hopeless endeavor, #1 gets more priority. Still, no matter how serviceable a pair of glasses is for daily dampening of light and UV rays, what is of ultimate importance is how well they protect your eyes from dangerous, and often times unexpected, projectiles.

As cops and soldiers we take it for granted that we need to protect our eyes. Whether it's from projectiles (pellets / shot), shrapnel, or even chemical sprays (I'd rather get OC Spray on the outside of my glasses than in my eye) we recognize that eye and vision protection is a necessity. Something I believe is often overlooked is the need for protective eyewear in the hobby environment as well. People who do a lot of woodwork, agricultural work, or even fishing... all of those activities have a risk-level for eye / vision injury. Protective eyewear has a place there as well. That said, let's check out the Revision SAWFLY glasses.

Revision's promotional material boasts that it, "...develops and delivers innovative ballistic eyewear that is purpose-built to meet tough military assignments." My first thought is that if this company specifically developed this protecitve eyewear for the combat environment they started out going in the right direction. Unlike some companies that started out manufacturing sunglasses and then grew into "protective eyewear" by modifying some of their previously existing designs. I'm not sure that upgraded sunglasses are what I want on my face when shotgun pellets or explosve shrapnel are/is flying.

So, the subjective stuff first: are they comfortable? Yes. They provide better coverage than your average pair of "Joe Cool" sunglasses, though they look just as stylish. If you're an active person who enjoys biking, running, boating, etc, then you'll also appreciate the retention strap that comes with each pair. Not only to the Sawflys fit snuggly (and they even come in different sizes to help with that), but add the rentention strap and they don't come off (even when you turn around to look backward on your boat going 35 mph - yeah, I tried that one). Further, due to their extended coverage design, it's near impossible to find a position to put your head in that allows light to get into your eyes unless it's coming through the lenses. Good fit; good function. What else?

How about that protection they're designed to provide? The picture (right) shows what these glasses look like after they've been shot with a shotgun. Using a Remington Model 1187 (28 inch barrel) shooting Federal heavy load 1/25 ounces #6 lead shot rounds, the picture shows 22 impacts with no penetrations. Shooting distance? 16 feet. 5 yards. Definitely within urban combat distances commonly experienced by military and law enforcement personnel alike. Shot velocity? 1,300 feet per second, give or take 30 fps. That's pretty darned good.

Each deluxe package of Sawfly eyewear comes with three lenses: smoke for sunlight use, yellow for overcast conditions, and clear for night / low-light use. Changing the lenses is quite easy - even I managed to do it without breaking anything. Took me about a minute. The lenses themselves are manufactured from "optical grade polycarbonate" and provide 100% UV protection. The promotional material I have says there is a scratch-resistant coating on both sides of the lenses. You know me: I had to try to scratch them. It can be done, but it isn't easy.

Overall? Excellent protective eyewear. One caution: they cannot be worn skydiving. BCI's Chuck Bennett tried this and found there to be entirely too much airflow around and behind them for such use. Aside from that (and they weren't designed for that anyway), outstanding eye/vision protection.

Finally, for those of you who would like to purchase your protective eyewear based on something more scientific / extensive than my own evaluation and review, you should know that the Revision Sawfly Protective Eyewear has recently been approved by the United States Army FORSCOM. Having completed testing and gaining approvel, the Sawfly received two National Stocking Numbers (NSN):

4240-01-527-4051 is the NSN for Regular size, and

4240-01-527-4018 is the NSN for the Large size.

To find out more visit Revision Eyewear online.

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