I’m left-handed and growing up, in school, there were never enough left handed scissors between myself and the maybe two other lefties in my class so I would often need to use right-handed scissors. But they would either not cut paper at all or kind of tear the paper, forcing me to switch to my right hand to get the scissors to cut smoothly.
Just yesterday I needed to trim a label and no matter how I angled the scissors, they would not cut the paper but they immediately did once I switched to my right hand. Thus, how do scissors “know” which hand you’re holding them in?
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Left or Right handed scissors have the blades on the other side of eachother for the viewing angle of the pinch point.
On Right handed scissors, when you put it in your right hand to use it, you will see that the blade on the left side(attached the the thumb) will open downwards and you will naturally be able to see the line that you’re going to be cutting as it gets cut.
Put that same pair of scissors in your left hand, and you’ll notice that the blade that opens upwards(attached the the hole the rest of your fingers go into) is going to block your view of that pinch/cut point and you’ll usually miss your cut by the width of the scissor blades.
Left handed scissors are the opposite in that the when holding them in your left hand you will be able to see that pinch/cut point.
You cant just flip Right handed scissors over because if you try, you’ll notice the “right blade” always opens upwards and blocks the view in your left hand. In left handed scissors the right blade opens downwards, and so they will let properly see it in your left hand
Pretty sure it’s about whether the cutting edges are facing you or away from you. If you hold it in the right hand you can see exactly where the cut is happening, but in the left hand it’s obscured.
Your left and right hands are mirror images of each other, so when they operate scissors they apply pressure slightly differently. Left and right handed scissors are designed to work with these differences.
It mainly applies to thicker material or sloppy scissors. As you cut into the material, it tries to force the blades apart, and you compensate by not only squeezing the loops together, but also pulling towards your palm with your fingers, and pushing away with your thumb, to force the blades together. You need the blades aligned on the other side of each other, if you use the other hand.
With practice you can probably learn to be effective with the “wrong” scissors, but it doesn’t come naturally
Your left and right hands are mirror images of each other, so when they operate scissors they apply pressure slightly differently. Left and right handed scissors are designed to work with these differences.
It mainly applies to thicker material or sloppy scissors. As you cut into the material, it tries to force the blades apart, and you compensate by not only squeezing the loops together, but also pulling towards your palm with your fingers, and pushing away with your thumb, to force the blades together. You need the blades aligned on the other side of each other, if you use the other hand.
With practice you can probably learn to be effective with the “wrong” scissors, but it doesn’t come naturally
Your left and right hands are mirror images of each other, so when they operate scissors they apply pressure slightly differently. Left and right handed scissors are designed to work with these differences.
It mainly applies to thicker material or sloppy scissors. As you cut into the material, it tries to force the blades apart, and you compensate by not only squeezing the loops together, but also pulling towards your palm with your fingers, and pushing away with your thumb, to force the blades together. You need the blades aligned on the other side of each other, if you use the other hand.
With practice you can probably learn to be effective with the “wrong” scissors, but it doesn’t come naturally
Left or Right handed scissors have the blades on the other side of eachother for the viewing angle of the pinch point.
On Right handed scissors, when you put it in your right hand to use it, you will see that the blade on the left side(attached the the thumb) will open downwards and you will naturally be able to see the line that you’re going to be cutting as it gets cut.
Put that same pair of scissors in your left hand, and you’ll notice that the blade that opens upwards(attached the the hole the rest of your fingers go into) is going to block your view of that pinch/cut point and you’ll usually miss your cut by the width of the scissor blades.
Left handed scissors are the opposite in that the when holding them in your left hand you will be able to see that pinch/cut point.
You cant just flip Right handed scissors over because if you try, you’ll notice the “right blade” always opens upwards and blocks the view in your left hand. In left handed scissors the right blade opens downwards, and so they will let properly see it in your left hand
Left or Right handed scissors have the blades on the other side of eachother for the viewing angle of the pinch point.
On Right handed scissors, when you put it in your right hand to use it, you will see that the blade on the left side(attached the the thumb) will open downwards and you will naturally be able to see the line that you’re going to be cutting as it gets cut.
Put that same pair of scissors in your left hand, and you’ll notice that the blade that opens upwards(attached the the hole the rest of your fingers go into) is going to block your view of that pinch/cut point and you’ll usually miss your cut by the width of the scissor blades.
Left handed scissors are the opposite in that the when holding them in your left hand you will be able to see that pinch/cut point.
You cant just flip Right handed scissors over because if you try, you’ll notice the “right blade” always opens upwards and blocks the view in your left hand. In left handed scissors the right blade opens downwards, and so they will let properly see it in your left hand
Pretty sure it’s about whether the cutting edges are facing you or away from you. If you hold it in the right hand you can see exactly where the cut is happening, but in the left hand it’s obscured.
Pretty sure it’s about whether the cutting edges are facing you or away from you. If you hold it in the right hand you can see exactly where the cut is happening, but in the left hand it’s obscured.
I grew up as a lefty using very poorly constructed right handed scissors at school which necessitated pulling your fingers slightly apart if you were left handed in order to force the blades closed. I used to have grooves at the base of my thumb and forefinger from doing this. Funny what you just accept – left handed scissors weren’t a mainstream “thing” at the time (80s) so it was just the way it was.
Then when left handed scissors came along, I couldn’t use them because the hand position I’d learned for using scissors forced the blades of these ones apart.
I also can’t use left handed heavy scissors/shears properly because, although these are engineered better and I don’t have the cutting problem, I automatically look at the wrong side of the blade to judge where I’m cutting so end up cutting off the line.
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