Blackfin titanium: a fit guide to the build, the sizes and how they run

Blackfin comes from Agordo, which the brand's own site calls a little town in the heart of the Italian Alps. The site dates the workshop to 1971, when Maria Pramaor opened her own frame-making business after nine years as an employee in the trade. It dates the move into titanium to 1991, when Pramaor and her husband Primo Del Din started working with the metal to make something different from their competitors. The site says everything the brand creates is conceived and produced in Italy, and that the titanium itself is bought in Japan. Our own listings put it the same way: design and production both stay in Agordo, in the Dolomites.

That is the history. What you notice on the face is the metal.

All fourteen Blackfin frames we hold are metal, and every one of them is described in its listing as titanium. All fourteen are recorded as new and sealed, with demo lenses still in the rims. All fourteen carry the Made in Italy tag.

Titanium changes the arithmetic of a frame. Blackfin's site says the metal is as tough as steel but weighs 40% less, and is twice as strong as aluminium. The practical consequence is that a rim can be thin and still hold a lens square. Our listings say the same thing in plainer words — thin, light, and rigid enough to hold its shape — and that is the honest description of what these look like in the hand. A 53mm eye in a thick front is a presence. A 53mm eye in Blackfin titanium, like the Skagen in alpine green and hunter green, is a line.

Colour is the other thing. Blackfin names most of these in pairs or triples rather than single tones: tropical blue and shadow dark blue, forest green and anodized yellow, byzantine purple with virtual pink and olympic blue. Eight of the fourteen carry a blue in the colour name. Only two are named with a single colour — the Rye in army green and the Esbjerg in antique dark blue.

Every Blackfin carries three labels, and once you can read them the catalogue stops being a wall.

First a name, which is a place. Our fourteen run Rye, Brookwood, Sitka, Esbjerg, Samoa, Ellis Beach, Edgartown, Catalina, Madeline, Bayfront and Skagen — eleven models across fourteen frames. Second a BF number, which belongs to the model and not to the colour. Third a four-digit colour number.

Three of our models appear in two colours each, which is the clearest way to see the system working. Rye is BF1006, and we have it as colour 1300, army green, and colour 1536, reflex blue and gunmetal gray. Catalina is BF1034, as 1642 in plum purple and shiny oxide purple and 1641 in forest green and anodized yellow. Madeline is BF1068, as 1743 in ultramarine green and polar light blue and 1679 in dahlia purple and pearl pink. Same shape, the same front measurements — 44–22–145 on both Rye, 51–20–140 on both Catalina, 52–18–145 on both Madeline — different finish, different number; only the lens height moves, 42mm on the army green Rye against 40mm on the reflex blue.

The BF numbers are a running catalogue series. The lowest we hold is BF811, the Esbjerg, then BF863 for the Bayfront, BF986 for the Ellis Beach and BF994 for the Edgartown, and on up through BF1004, BF1006, BF1034, BF1047, BF1050 and BF1051 to BF1068, the Madeline. They do not encode size or shape: BF811 is a 45mm eye and BF1068 is a 52mm. Read them as references and nothing more.

Blackfin's own product pages put all three parts together in one string. The reflex blue Rye is coded 5PR1006S44C1536 / BF1006-RYE — the model number, the 44mm size, and the 1536 colour. If you have seen a frame somewhere and remember only a number, that is the number worth searching.

One consequence for buying. Because the BF number is the model and the four digits are the finish, two frames can share every measurement and look nothing alike. Both Catalina in plum purple and shiny oxide purple and its forest green twin are 51–20–140. The table below lists all fourteen of ours by eye size, smallest first, with the rest of the measurements beside them.

Blackfin does not run one width. Across our fourteen the eye size goes from 44mm to 55mm, which is most of the useful range inside a single brand.

The counts: two at 44mm, one at 45mm, one at 48mm, one at 49mm, one at 50mm, two at 51mm, three at 52mm, two at 53mm and one at 55mm. Nine of the fourteen are 50mm or wider. Five are under 50mm.

The narrow end first, because narrow fronts are the hard ones to find. Both Rye frames are 44mm across the eye — the army green one and the reflex blue and gunmetal gray one — and the Esbjerg is 45mm. All three pair that small eye with a 22mm bridge, the widest bridges in our Blackfin stock. Measured across the front, which is the eye size twice plus the bridge, the Rye comes to about 110mm and the Esbjerg to about 112mm.

The middle is where most of the stock sits. The Sitka is 48mm and the Bayfront 49mm, and both come to about 115mm across. The Samoa is 50mm, about 119mm across. Both Catalina are 51mm and both Madeline 52mm, and all four land at about 122mm. The Ellis Beach is 53mm, about 123mm. The Brookwood at 52mm and the Skagen at 53mm both come to about 124mm.

The wide end is one frame. The Edgartown is 55mm with a 16mm bridge, about 126mm across the front.

That is a spread of roughly 16mm from the narrowest Blackfin we stock to the widest — about the width of a thumb. Frame sizes sound dramatic and measure small. If you already own a pair that fits, the number to carry over is the one across the front rather than the eye size on its own. A 52mm eye with an 18mm bridge and a 51mm eye with a 20mm bridge land in the same place, which is exactly why both Madeline and both Catalina come to about 122mm despite being a millimetre apart on the label.

Blackfin's site is specific about the metal, and the specifics are worth reading, because they explain the frames.

The titanium is bought in Japan: the site says the brand journeys to Japan to buy what it calls the world's purest titanium. It says titanium is as tough as steel but weighs 40% less, and that it is twice as strong as aluminium. It says pure titanium and beta-titanium are nontoxic and biocompatible, and contain no residues of nickel.

Then the part that matters most for fit. The site says the temples and bridge of each frame are cut from a sheet of beta-titanium only five tenths of a millimetre thick, and describes beta-titanium as more highly prized and more flexible than pure titanium. Half a millimetre. That is the whole temple.

Two things follow. One is weight, or the absence of it. The other is that a temple that thin has give in it: it flexes against the side of the head rather than gripping. Our listings do not record a weight in grams for any of the fourteen, so we will not quote one. What they do record is the material, and all fourteen are metal.

Construction varies by collection on Blackfin's side. The site describes one collection's front as made from a single sheet of pure titanium and another as crafted from a solid block of titanium, the point of both being that a front worked from one piece has fewer joins to fail. Our listings do not record which collection each of our fourteen belongs to, so we will not assign them.

What our listings do say, repeatedly, is the practical consequence: metal keeps the rim thin, so the frame takes up less of the face than its size suggests. The Esbjerg listing adds the thing an optician cares about — metal holds an adjustment, and it holds its shape at a thickness acetate could not. A metal pad arm can be moved. A moulded saddle bridge cannot.

On pads, one note for accuracy. Blackfin announced a silicone nose pad called LitePads in October 2024, and its site says they feature on all models in the Fall/Winter 24 collection and will be added progressively to existing models. Our listings do not record which of our fourteen carry them, so ask, or look at the frame in the shop.

Five shapes across fourteen frames, and they are not evenly spread.

Round, five frames. Both Rye at 44mm, the Esbjerg at 45mm, and both Catalina at 51mm. A round metal rim is the quietest thing a frame can do: it adds no corners to a face that already has them, which is why it tends to suit a squarer jaw and a straighter brow. The two sizes read as different frames entirely. At 44mm and 45mm, with lens heights of 42mm, 40mm and 38mm, the Rye and Esbjerg are small circles sitting close to the eye. At 51mm with a 38mm lens, the Catalina in forest green and anodized yellow is a proper round and covers more of the cheek.

Square, three frames. The Brookwood at 52mm, the Ellis Beach and the Skagen at 53mm. All three are described in their listings as softly squared rather than hard-cornered. A square gives a rounder or fuller face a line to work against. Their lens heights are 41mm on the Brookwood, 39mm on the Ellis Beach and 41mm on the Skagen, which is what keeps a soft square from reading as a letterbox.

Cat-eye, three frames. Both Madeline at 52mm and the Bayfront at 49mm. The Madeline pair carry the shallowest lenses we hold, 32mm, and that is what makes a cat-eye read as a cat-eye: the lift is at the outer corner and there is little below it. The dahlia purple and pearl pink one and the ultramarine green and polar light blue one are the same frame in two tempers. The Bayfront, at 49mm with a 36mm lens, is the softer design of the two.

Geometric, two frames. The Sitka at 48mm and the Samoa at 50mm, both described in their listings as faceted. These are the frames here that look designed rather than inherited. The Samoa's 35mm lens height is the second shallowest in the stock.

Rectangular, one frame. The Edgartown at 55mm, the widest front we have, on a 36mm lens. Long and low. It is the most conventional shape of the fourteen and the largest, which makes it the obvious first Blackfin for someone who wants the metal without the statement.

Eye size is the number people quote. These three are the numbers that decide whether a frame is comfortable.

Bridge. Ours run from 16mm to 22mm. The pattern across the stock is consistent and useful: the three narrowest fronts carry the three widest bridges. Both Rye and the Esbjerg take 22mm, so a 44mm or 45mm eye still sits with the lenses properly spaced either side of the nose. At the other end, the Edgartown's 55mm eye takes a 16mm bridge. A wide bridge on a wide eye would push the lens out past the temple; a narrow bridge on a narrow eye would crowd the nose. The pairing is the design, not an accident.

Temple. Ten of the fourteen are 145mm, which is the standard length and the reason most people never think about it. Two are shorter, both Catalina at 140mm. One is shorter still, the Bayfront at 135mm, the shortest temple in our Blackfin stock. One is longer, the Sitka at 150mm. If you have ever worn a frame whose arms ran out before the ear, or pressed behind it, this is the number that was wrong. On a metal temple that thin an optician has room to reset the bend, but overall length is fixed at manufacture.

Lens height. This is the depth of the lens, top of the rim to the bottom, and across the fourteen it runs from 32mm to 42mm. A 10mm spread is a lot. The shallowest are both Madeline at 32mm, including the ultramarine green and polar light blue, then the Samoa at 35mm. The deepest is the army green Rye at 42mm, then the Brookwood and the Skagen at 41mm each.

Two frames of the same width can be very different frames. The Brookwood and both Madeline are all 52mm across the eye. The Brookwood's lens is 41mm deep and the Madeline's is 32mm — nine millimetres of difference in how much cheek the frame covers, at an identical eye size. If you are choosing from a table of numbers, read the height column as carefully as the width.

We sell frames. We do not sell prescription lenses online. All fourteen of these arrive new and sealed with demo lenses in the rims — plain blanks with no power in them — and those come out when your lenses go in. Lens fitting happens in our Arlington or Dumfries shops, or at your own optician. Either is fine, and nothing about a Blackfin makes it awkward for another practice to glaze.

Three things to take to whoever does it.

The lens height. Progressive and varifocal designs need a minimum depth to fit the corridor in, and different designs need different minimums. Our range is 32mm to 42mm, wide enough that the answer will not be the same for every frame here. Both Madeline at 32mm and the Samoa at 35mm are shallow. The army green Rye at 42mm and the Brookwood and Skagen at 41mm are deep. Your optician will tell you which side of the line your lens design falls on; we will not guess it for you.

The eye size. For a strong prescription, a smaller eye generally means less lens to thin at the edge, because there is less distance from the optical centre out to the rim. That is why the 44mm Rye and the 45mm Esbjerg come up in conversations about higher powers. It is a generalisation rather than a rule, and your optician will weigh it against your own numbers.

The rim. All fourteen are metal, and their listings describe a rim that carries the lens all the way round, which is the straightforward case for glazing. None of the fourteen is rimless or semi-rimless.

One practical point beyond the three. If you already wear glasses you like, measure them. The quickest way to buy a frame at a distance is to match the width across the front. Ours run from about 110mm to about 126mm, and the table above gives you every one of them.

Prices here are simple. Twelve of the fourteen are $448. Two are $488, and both of those are the Catalina — the plum purple and shiny oxide purple, and the forest green and anodized yellow, a 51mm round in each case. None of the fourteen carries a reduced price at the moment.

Condition is simple too. All fourteen are recorded as new and sealed, with demo lenses in place.

What is not simple is that there is one of each. These are single frames in single colourways. When one sells it is gone, which is true of every frame in the shop and worth saying plainly rather than dressing up. If you are torn between two, that is the only consideration — not a countdown, just arithmetic.

If the table is too much at once, narrow it by width first. Under about 112mm across the front, you are looking at the two Rye and the Esbjerg. At about 115mm, the Sitka and the Bayfront. Between about 119mm and 124mm sits the bulk of the stock: the Samoa, both Catalina, both Madeline, the Ellis Beach, the Brookwood and the Skagen. Above that, the Edgartown at about 126mm, on its own.

Then shape, then colour, in that order. A frame that fits in a shape you dislike is a frame you will not wear. A frame you love in the wrong width will annoy you every day, and no adjustment fixes a front that is too wide for the face it sits on. The bend in the temple and the position of the pads can be reset. Front width cannot.

We ship frames. Lenses are fitted afterwards — here in Arlington or Dumfries, or wherever you usually go. Every measurement quoted in this guide is on the product page of the frame it belongs to, so if you want a second opinion on width before you order, measure the pair you are wearing now and read it against ours.