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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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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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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I’m a Lefty who has grown used to “right-handed” scissors. I noticed the difference (other than sometimes the handles being sculpted to one hand or the other) is that the top blade is open towards the other hand. Or, put another way, the top blade is towards the back of the hand so you get a better view of the line you are cutting.
I’m a Lefty who has grown used to “right-handed” scissors. I noticed the difference (other than sometimes the handles being sculpted to one hand or the other) is that the top blade is open towards the other hand. Or, put another way, the top blade is towards the back of the hand so you get a better view of the line you are cutting.
I’m a Lefty who has grown used to “right-handed” scissors. I noticed the difference (other than sometimes the handles being sculpted to one hand or the other) is that the top blade is open towards the other hand. Or, put another way, the top blade is towards the back of the hand so you get a better view of the line you are cutting.
Imagine a pair of tongs. They work well because they are lined up and can apply equal force on each side. If you had misaligned tongs you wouldn’t be picking up anything, things would get flipped. Your hand is applying this to scissors subconsciously on a smaller scale and scissors are designed to account for that misalignment to counter your hand. Often times the right hand, with the right you are closing the gap in alignment. With the left hand you are widening the gap
Imagine a pair of tongs. They work well because they are lined up and can apply equal force on each side. If you had misaligned tongs you wouldn’t be picking up anything, things would get flipped. Your hand is applying this to scissors subconsciously on a smaller scale and scissors are designed to account for that misalignment to counter your hand. Often times the right hand, with the right you are closing the gap in alignment. With the left hand you are widening the gap
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