I’ve found big, industrial strength shears with the lefty set-up, but
have had no luck finding the more delicate, scissor-type. My husband
is running a pretty close race with me on metalworking skills, but
watching him trying to cut things from sheet metal is just silly.
Any sympathetic lefties have a source? Thanks for your help.
Dana Carlson
Dana, There used to be a store here that was called just that
"lefties". It catered all kinds of things for “south-paws”. I bought
my daughter’s school supplies there. Left handed scissors, notebooks,
all kinds of things. You might do a search on the net for
it…Char
My husband is running a pretty close race with me on metalworking
skills, but watching him trying to cut things from sheet metal is just
silly. Any sympathetic lefties have a source? Thanks for your help.
Sympathetic? Of course, but having grown up in a right handed world,
I became ambidextrous. We didn’t have specialized anything for us,
when we were kids. When scissors don’t cut with your correct hand,
you just the same hand all the rest of the backwards world uses!
Really, all it takes is concentrated practice. Curtis
Dana:
I’m a leftie and have never considered myself ambidextrous, but a few
things (golf, cutting with scissors) I have learned to do right
handed. Cutting with the right hand, it is natural for the thumb to
push the bottom blade towards the top blade (the thumb pushes a
little horizontally towards your left hand if your scissors is held
out straight) while the fingers pull in toward the palm and push the
top blade towards the bottom one. Thus pushing the two blades
together. This is what kids have so much trouble doing, so they
can’t cut if the scissors has play in it and the screw doesn’t keep
the blades tight enough to produce the pressure. If a leftie is
going to cut with the left hand using right handed scissors, he/she
just needs to learn to pull in towards the palm with the thumb and do
the opposite with the fingers. I guess as a kid I learned to do this,
because I can use either right or left hand. The movement with the
right hand is more natural for the hand, and the grips on some modern
scissors are molded so that using them left handed is less
comfortable, but it can be done. I don’t do that much metal cutting,
so I can’t say how it would go using a RH shears with the left hand.
My old shears are metal and symmetrical, so no problem with molded
handle discomfort. My guess would be that a lot of cutting this way
with heavy gage metal might get tiring, but some light gage cutting
would probably go easily enough if you learned the skill (could
practice with paper). Your husband might try this, if he hasn’t.
Surely, he, as a lefty growing up in a righty world, learned what I
did as a kid, no?? I was draggd out of the house by my girlfriend’s
football mad thirteen year old last weekend, and after my
once-dislocated fifty-two year old left shoulder wouldn’t throw any
more, I found out I could actually throw a football righthanded a
bit. your husband might find he is more ambidextrous than he thought
if he tries. One of these strategies ought to work and he wouldn’t
be stuck later if he couldn’t find his left handed shears — I just
know I would lose mine. Sorry if this is too obvious or “more than you
ever wanted to know about left handed cutting”.
Regards,
Roy
Dana, Iam a lefty and I have a pair of light shears that are both
right or left.They have a spring in the middle nad are blue with a
yellow strap to keep them together on the end of the handle.I believe
Rio Grande sells them. I would be interested in hearing how your
husband does using heart burrs when setting stones with prongs if he
is to that stag in his metalworking skills.Or any other lefties out
there?
J Morley
I would be interested in hearing how your husband does using heart burrs when setting stones with prongs if he is to that stag in his metalworking skills.Or any other lefties out there?
Well, J, I don’t know about her husband, but I have always used my
flexshaft with my correct (left) hand. (Must have been a right
handed person that came up with left and right!) I’ve never had any
problems with any burrs or other accessories. One great advantage is
that all debris is spun away from the operator! It makes bench
cleaning a bit more necessary, but at least I don’t look as though
I’ve been out digging in the garden! Curtis