Remove silk-screening from sunglasses?

November 29, 2008 12:05 PM

How can I remove silk-screened printing from one lens of my new polarized sunglasses without ruining them?

My wife, who is an an optician, bought me a decent pair of Ray Ban sunglasses as a present. I'm really happy with them -- they are the first pair of > $20 sunglasses that I've owned in my 37 years.

There is one thing about them that annoys me, though. On the upper corner of one of the lenses, there is a white, silk-screened "Ray Ban P" label. I think this looks pretentious and I want to get rid of it. Does the hive mind have any tried and true ideas for removing this without ruining my glasses? TIA.

posted by SteveTheRed to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

I did this in high school. Either a fingernail or hard plastic edge should do it. If not, carefully use a single-edge razor blade.
posted by rhizome at 12:31 PM on November 29, 2008

I'm not sure if this is the same concept (someone will correct me, I'm sure), but I just removed the anti-reflective coating from my glasses using Armor Etch, which is hydrofluoric acid. The glasses have to be plastic - in my case, a hi-index polycarbonate. The general idea is that the acid only reacts to glass (silicates), and doesn't affect the plastic at all, so if you have some kind of coating on the lens, it "lifts" it and allows it to come right off. If you Google "a-r coating" and "Armor Etch" you'll get better explanations.
posted by HopperFan at 12:44 PM on November 29, 2008

Gah, by "glasses" I meant "lenses."
posted by HopperFan at 12:45 PM on November 29, 2008

I think you should have your optician send them in to whatever lab they use and they can do it safely.
posted by lee at 12:49 PM on November 29, 2008

Have your wife take them to work with her. She can then take the label/markings off with the same liquid she uses to remove the markings left by the labs when they make multi-focal lenses.
posted by amyms at 7:36 PM on November 29, 2008

These dudes seem to think a penny will work, but I'd be careful.
posted by IvyMike at 7:38 PM on November 29, 2008

I've removed logos from plastic electronics by rubbing them with a sugarcube. I don't know if that would damage your glasses though.
posted by Iteki at 8:31 AM on November 30, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for your answers. I've decided to just leave them the way that they are rather than risk damaging them.
posted by SteveTheRed at 10:15 AM on December 30, 2008