Eli5: Why is it almost impossible to use scissors with your less dexterous hand, especially for cutting items such as plastics and rubber?
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It’s not nearly impossible at all, really, you just have to apply pressure to the handles to keep the blades in friction & depending on the type of scissors (i.e. left vs right -handed design) you need to adjust accordingly… most people are right handed and are familiar with scissors designed for the right hand, so the effort often feels intuitive or natural – you just squeeze. Left handed people are likely used to things designed for righties, and therefore are used to pushing the handles away from each other while closing them to make a clean cut with common, righty-designed, scissors.
Hope that helps.
Just jumping in to say: my sister is a lefty, in our part of Ireland that’s called a “ciotóg”. Pronounced like “kith-oh-gh”… well, that’s my best approximation of it.
It’s a fantastic sounding word in Irish. In our parish, a ciotóg baby was considered good luck. I was a little jealous of the attention she got.
My sister still bitches about scissors tho.
As a leftie here, and used to being ambidextrous to a certain extent in a right handed world , sometimes my mind does get confused which hand to use at times with example,nut crackers , and having to work against yourself with a soup ladle with spouts in a left hand when the spout is always on the right side. And no amount of manoeuvring do i get anything except a messy pour .
Do others get confused too?
As a lefty, this aspect of life torments me every single time I attempt to cut something, give up and ask someone else 🤡
I dont understand. I can use scissors in either hand?
Handedness requires practice. When you were a kid, you didn’t cut things with precision right off the bat. It took time. It would take time to learn with your other hand even though you’re older now. I taught myself to write with my non dominant hand. Took years of practice to get the penmanship good, just like it took years the first time. I can play guitar. If I decided to learn to play with the other hand, it’s going back to day one. My brain knows how to play, but my hands need to be trained from the beginning. If you use scissors with your non dominant hand often enough, you will develop the skill to do it.
scissor are just 2 mediocrity sharp knives with the blades pressed together
if the scissors aren’t designed for the angle of force you apply to them they will separate instead of rub on each other
as an ambidextrous person i have learned how to ‘force’ the blades together on wrong handed snipers and scissors… it can cause cramps if done long enough but it works.
The same reason why Flanders opened up the Leftitorium shop for left handed people in the simpsons.
Tin and leather cutting tools are sold in left and right hand varieties. I haven’t checked until this moment but left handed scissors are a thing that is sold.
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