Leftie Poll: What sorts of For-Lefties items would baffle you?

[elfkin477]

I was thinking about this while opening cans of dog food: They make leftie can openers, but I don't think I'd be able to adjust to using them. Since they make them I'm sure that a lot of lefties do have difficulty with them, but I'm not sure why. Holding it with my left hand and turning it with my right is a natural instinct for me. And then there's the computer mouse- I learned how to use one with right hand, and I'm 100% more successful using it with my right hand than attempting to use it with my left. There are a lot of for leftie things I think would be great- measuring cups, scissors, and rulers for example, that I'd love to have (well, I have the scissors) but some products I can't fathom using.

So, fellow lefties, what products made for lefties would you never use, even if the costs were the same as the standard products?
Oh, and please don't answer this if you consider yourself only a "techical" leftie, because you do everything but write with your right hand. It's not that your views aren't interesting, but you probably wouldn't use anything made for lefties at all.

[Ethilrist]

I imagine a computer keyboard with all the keys swapped left for right would not be one of the top sellers. Likewise a great many musical instruments (pianos, for instance) wouldn't sell too well.

the temptation to jump in here with "hammers" or "garden hoses" was almost overwhelming...

[Munch]

A standard transmission car would screw me up. How would you get in?

A lefty measuring cup is an interesting idea - I think I'd buy one of those.

Lefty can openers confuse me. I've adjusted to a righty by using it righty. Lefty would just be awkward.

Did you hear about the new liquid pencil they came out with? There's a lefty version! (The writing is reversed, so they can market to us without making us turn it upside down.)

[pendgwen]

The one lefty item I would never use is the one that's easiest to find: scissors. I read somewhere that while 10 percent of people are left-handed to some degree, only 2 percent are strongly left-handed. I'm in the two percent. The only things I do right handed are use a computer mouse, scissors, and manual can opener. And the only reason I use a mouse or can opener right-handed is because I've never had access to leftie versions. I'd probably buy any other lefty gizmos out there.

As an aside - have you ever tried talking to righties about rightie/leftie designed things? Seems like every time I have one of these conversations someone asks how a knife can be right-handed.

[Ferrous]

'Scuse me, sinister ones, but a left-handed measuring cup? I didn't know measuring cups were "handed". All the ones I've seen have been symmetrical.

[Ferrous]

Heh. I didn't read pendgwen's post very carefully. Guess I'm one of the typical right-supremacists.:)

But seriously, how can a knife be right-handed?

[photopat]

No question that left handed scissors were among the best things I ever bought. I'm very left handed, I use the mouse left, I have trouble with measuring cups because I have to look through them to fill them properly rather than being able to look right at the numbers.
I've never tried a left handed can opener so I don't know if I'd be comfortable with it or not, but a knife can be right handed if it's one that's sharpened to an angle on one side but the other side is straight.

Power tools can be a problem if they have a guard shield built in.

I loved it in college when there were left handed desks in a room. (the desks with the very small built in desktop. Usually they're hooked on to the right side so lefties have to contort to use them.)

[plain_jane]

Another lefty here. Over time, I've adapted to most things being made for righties--I don't use left-handed anything! If it requires precision (like writing or drawing, even applying makeup) I use my left hand, but for everything else, I just use my right hand. Even for a computer mouse, although I can use it just as well with my left.

I remember those desks in school--what a relief when there was one available with the desk on the left-hand side!

So the idea of most specifically left-handed items would leave me baffled because I'm so used to just using my right.

The measuring cup thing never occured to me because I simply set the measuring cup on the counter top so that it's completely level and I get a more accurate measurement. Never thought of it being made for righties.

[RTFirefly]

I'm lefthanded, leftfooted, and my dominant eye is my left eye. IOW, I'm lefty all the way.

But I've pretty much adapted to using righthanded everything: desks, scissors, circular saws, you name it.

In school, I assiduously avoided lefthanded desks once they were available: by then, I was used to having that (literal) extra elbow room on the left. And I can't see bothering with a lefty scissors or measuring cup.

OTOH, I did talk my office into buying me a lefty 'puter keyboard, and it's great. The calculator-style number pad that's normally on the right is on the left, where I actually make use of it, and the insert, delete, etc. keys are also to the left of the QWERTY part of the keyboard. As a result, I no longer go into overwrite mode when I'm reaching for the backspace key, ending my biggest single annoyance with computer keyboards.

And if I found lefty circular saws, and they were comparably priced with righty models, I'd definitely try one. It would probably be much safer, once I adjusted.

[Rhum Runner]

Lefty here. Will someone please explain to me what a lefty measuring cup is?

[hazel-rah]

A lefty measuring cup in America is one that has the measurements printed on the cup such that when you are holding it up with your left hand, you see the side with English measurements.

I want one. Every time I hold up my damn measuring cup to see how many ounces are in there, I see some crazy metric gibberish because it's a right handed measuring cup.

-fh

[Rhum Runner]

Thanks Hazel. I guess I never saw the need for one of those, then again I don't cook much. Maybe I can get a lefty George Forman Grill? :D

[Lorenzo]

Like many of those who have already posted, I imagine, very few "lefty" devices were even available while we growing up, so we learned to use righty scissors, desks, can openers and later pc mice. I remember trying "lefty" scissors for the first time in the fifth grade--unusable.

So, I do not use "lefty" anything.

Any left hander who has ever worked fast food for any length of time has learned the joy of scooping fries with a right handed fry scoop.

I actually have found top-bound spiral bound notebooks to be useful, but having to write in a left-bound spiral notebook to be particularly cruel. Yes, one can always flip it over but then one is writing on the back of each page first which always made any assignment look weird.

I've even heard of left handed wrist watches, or lefty folks wearing a conventional watch on their right wrist, although the logic always escaped me.

One "lefty" issue that recently occured to me while looking at a picture of the interior of a British automobile equipped with standard (manual) transmission: the driver sits in the right front seat and the gear shift is situated to the driver's left. Ergo, British and Japanese drivers shift with their left hands. Even as a "lefty," that would feel very strange to me.

[elfkin477]

Originally posted by Lorenzo
I've even heard of left handed wrist watches, or lefty folks wearing a conventional watch on their right wrist, although the logic always escaped me.

While I wouldn't buy a watch made for a leftie because I don't see the point- who sets their watch while wearing it?- I do wear my watch on my right wrist. Most righties I know wear them on their left wrists, so I can't be the only person who doesn't like them on the hand/wrist used for writing. I can't explain why it's distacting, it just is. I also restring all my necklaces that have charms as soon as I get them so the clasp is on the right, though I'm not sure why it's easier that way. You would think the fine motor control of opening it would be something you do with your dominant hand, but yet again righties apparently don't, either, so...

[chula]

When I hear "lefties" I think politics, so I was wondering what this thread was referring to exactly. I'm a lefty on both counts. I've adapted to all the right-handed products, though I can't get used to George W. controlling this country.

[Jervoise]

Originally posted by Lorenzo
One "lefty" issue that recently occured to me while looking at a picture of the interior of a British automobile equipped with standard (manual) transmission: the driver sits in the right front seat and the gear shift is situated to the driver's left. Ergo, British and Japanese drivers shift with their left hands. Even as a "lefty," that would feel very strange to me. I'm an Australian lefty with a manual transmission car. It's doesn't feel strange at all. It's just like how right-handers in the US or Europe shift with their preferred hand.

I don't use any left-handed items, even scissors (I just turn them upside down). My mouse is the normal version but I move it to the left side of the keyboard.

I would never use left-handed golf clubs. I swing like a right-hander, the legacy of playing (field) hockey and cricket.

RTFirefly's lefty keyboard sounds interesting though. I've been trained to use the number pad with my right hand so I guess I'd have to adjust again if I got one.

One interesting area where I expectedly encountered a LH/RH difference is in splicing ropes (for sailing). As a left-hander, I have to check myself and reverse the natural direction in which I twist rope. Rope is twisted in a certain direction when it is manufactured, which of course doesn't suit cackhanders.

[MisterThyristor]

I am a lefty who was married to a lefty. The one thing that neither of us used was lefty scissors. I just used the regular scissors in my right hand. She, however, used regular scissors in her left hand by holding them upside-down and using reverse pressure on them -- if you put the normal pressure on them in your left hand you are forcing the blades apart and they don't cut well. I never did figure out exactly how she did it, but it seemed to work for her.

In college, I got pretty militant about having a lefty desk, because my left arm would get really tired taking notes while suspended in air. So I would even go search nearby classrooms and drag a lefty desk from another room if I needed to.

Also, my ex was a potter, so I re-wired her potter's wheel to rotate in the opposite direction for her.

In answer to the question from Ferrous about how a knife can be left-handed, the most obvious example is one with an offset -- a butter knife is the one that I encounter most often.

One of my pet peeves is when ladles don't have a lip on both sides. How much harder is that to make?

[kferr]

When I was a kid I wore my watch on my right arm since whenever I threw anything left handed (baseball, football, rocks, etc) I'd wind up launching the watch along with the ball. I had to take it off to wind it, but that was no big deal. I had lefty scissors as a kid, but get along with righty ones now. I've also owned both left and right hand drive cars and haven't had any problems with the manual transmissions.

[Frank #2]

The keyboard with eh the number pad on the left does sound like a good idea. Things I couldn't use would be a lefty mouse & a left-handed guitar. After so many years and becoming adjusted to the backwards way it would be hard to switch to a nomral lefty way of doing certian things.

[Frank #2]

The keyboard with the number pad on the left does sound like a good idea. Things I couldn't use would be a lefty mouse & a left-handed guitar. After so many years and becoming adjusted to the backwards way it would be hard to switch to a nomral lefty way of doing certian things.

[dwc1970]

Originally posted by Lorenzo
Any left hander who has ever worked fast food for any length of time has learned the joy of scooping fries with a right handed fry scoop.


I dealt with this situation once when I was in fast food, though my situation was the opposite. As a rightie, there are very few things I can do at all with my left hand. We had a right-handed fry scoop and a left-handed scoop. One day the right-handed scoop turned up missing and was believed to have been dropped into the trash accidentally. In any case, all we had was the left-handed scoop. After about ten minutes of fighting with it, trying to get fries into the cartons they are served in and getting customers mad because they had to wait longer to get their orders because of this, we resorted to using tongs to put the fries in the containers. We didn't have any lefties on staff that day to handle the fries until someone left to get a right-handed scoop from another store.

[Spit]

In grade school, we had right & left hand scissors. The only diference I saw was the left had a green rubber grip, while the right didn't. I always used the left (in my right hand) because it was more comfortable.

Semi-interesting story:

My mother swears I was left handed at birth...I used my left hand for everything. However my grandmother (who watched me during the day) thought lefties were wrong, and "trained" me to use my right hand.

As a result, my handwriting is horrible, I could never throw a ball with much accuracy, and I can't get my golf score below 110.

When I was playing little league baseball, my batting average was .045 (if that). One day I said "screw it", went up to the plate and took a leftie stance. The coach screamed like hell...........I hit a double. Thinking it was luck, I went up as a leftie the next at bat, and hit another double. (This from a kid who thought a foul tip was a small miracle) My batting average for that season ended up at just under .800.

[japatlgt]

Southpaw here! Scissors, no. Golf clubs, no. Mouse, no. Keypad, no. Spiral notebook, maddening. Measuring cup, why yes come to think of it, lets give that a try. Wears watch on right wrist. <end of rant>

[pendgwen]

Originally posted by Ferrous
But seriously, how can a knife be right-handed?

As others have said, knives are typically beveled on the right side of the blade. When you use the knife with your right hand the direction of the force you exert makes the knife cut straight down. If you use it with your left hand the direction of the pressure is wrong and the knife twists and you make a diagonal cut. This isn't such a problem with something thin like carrots. but if you're cutting, say, bread for toast the bottom of the slice is much thinner than the top and you have to choose between having the bottom of your toast burned or the top untoasted.

[KarlGrenze]

hmm...thanks for explaining about the knives and the cuts...I'm right-handed but use the knife with my left hand...

[KarlGrenze]

hmm...thanks for explaining about the knives and the cuts...I'm right-handed but use the knife with my left hand...

[Nightsong]

Acutally, there isn't much in the way of 'lefty' products that would baffle me: somewhere there will always be someone who thinks it's a great idea, even if I don't see much of a point. (I wear my watch on the left wrist, for instance.)

I would be concerned though, with left-handed knives: I would think you'd want to avoid mixing those up with a right-handed one... the results of expecting one to act like the other could be messy. :eek:

___
<< Windows: just another pane in the glass. >>

[sirtonyh]

Originally posted by plain_jane
If it requires precision (like writing or drawing, even applying makeup) I use my left hand, but for everything else, I just use my right hand. Even for a computer mouse, although I can use it just as well with my left.


Another lefty here. I just cannot get the hang of using a mouse with my left hand. I've tried several times and absolutely cannot figure out how to do it.

I don't use anything specifically designed for lefties but I have sent apprentices to the storeroom to get me a left handed screwdriver a few times (along with striped paint and a couple of other things) :D

[Ethilrist]

My wife prefers to use fingernail scissors rather than clippers. The place she buys them at stocks equipment for manicurists. Every once in a while she buys a pair of right-handed scissors and then gripes about how she can't figure out why her right-hand fingernails end up all chewed-looking...

[Labdad]

Lefty here -

I use the mouse with my left hand at work and with my right hand at home, since the home computer is also used by a rightie. Using the left hand is much more comfortable.

I use scissors wiith my right hand, and cannot cut worth a damn with left-handed scissors.

I throw, bat, write and eat left-handed. But I throw a Frisbee with my right hand. I also hold a ping pong paddle in my right hand. :confused:

I play golf with right-handed (I learned with right-handed clubs) and using left-handed clubs feels just plain weird.

I play the guitar right-handed.

Since my left eye is dominant, I use a left-handed shotgun (ejects shells on the left side, shoulder it on the left). Any lefty shooters out there? Ever seen a left-handed rifle? I haven't.

[MindWanderer]

Heh. Left-handed guns.

I'm left handed and my dad used to own a gun shop and was lots into guns (he lives in Michigan) so I went through Gun training school.


The last day we had to try using several different kinds at the gun club and they wanted me to use a Musket rifle (or something like that, haven't touched a gun since)

Well that musket is REALLY designed for right handers, it was hard to use at all being left-handed, and my left hand got scorched from that gun because of how I held it. (A long streak up my left hand. Must have been the powder.)

Wasn't very pleasant.

[MindWanderer]

My dad is a gun fan and he always wanted to teach me when I was younger. When I was 12 I did a gun training class (probably NRA sponsored, this was Michigan after all), and on the last day they had us using different guns.

Well I am left handed and they wanted me to try this Musket rifle (i think it was that, some sort of musket)

Well the musket rifle is definitely right handed and a streak of something went up my hand and scorched it (had a long streak of a scar for quite a while) when I fired the gun. Scared the bejesus out of me.

So I can see why you'd want the left-handed gun for that.

I haven't touched guns since I was 13 so I barely know anything about them. But the people who wanted me to use that right-handed musket for the training program were pretty inane. I avoid guns like the plague, even back when my dad was teaching me I was nervous about them.

[ratzingersreactionary]

I'm a lefty. I have the same problem with my handgun. I'm always getting hot brass burns.

I use a lefty- spiral notebook, and not much else.

[photopat]

Originally posted by Narrad


I don't use any left-handed items, even scissors (I just turn them upside down). My mouse is the normal version but I move it to the left side of the keyboard.

RTFirefly's lefty keyboard sounds interesting though. I've been trained to use the number pad with my right hand so I guess I'd have to adjust again if I got one.

One interesting area where I expectedly encountered a LH/RH difference is in splicing ropes (for sailing). As a left-hander, I have to check myself and reverse the natural direction in which I twist rope. Rope is twisted in a certain direction when it is manufactured, which of course doesn't suit cackhanders.

"Cackhanders?" Never heard that one before. I like it. What's the origin?

As to scissors, I take it you're talking about the ones with molded handles and differently shaped blades? Because otherwise, turning them upside down wouldn't make any difference.

[elfkin477]

Originally posted by chula
When I hear "lefties" I think politics, so I was wondering what this thread was referring to exactly. I'm a lefty on both counts. I've adapted to all the right-handed products, though I can't get used to George W. controlling this country.

Really?? That's the first thing that came to mind? I've heard the term "leftist" for a liberal, but never leftie.

[Cervaise]

Originally posted by MisterThyristor
One of my pet peeves is when ladles don't have a lip on both sides.:eek:

I initially read "ladles" as "ladies." That sure would have been a new twist to the left-handedness issue.

[Walloon]

When we took the PSAT in high school (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, for the college bound), we were in a room that had only right-handed desks. After a few miserable minutes trying to write the essay portion with my left arm floating in the air, I raised my hand and whispered my problem to the proctor. He looked around and saw that no left-handed desks were available, thought a moment, and then led me to the broad table on a podium at the front of the room where he sat, and let me finish the exam seated by him.

That would have been OK, but I overhead one classmate whisper, "Why is he sitting up there?" and another reply, "He must have been cheating."

[Jervoise]

Originally posted by photopat
"Cackhanders?" Never heard that one before. I like it. What's the origin?:o

"Cack" means poop. "Cackhanders" is used to describe lefthanders because the left hand is associated with wiping your bottom. The word is now used to mean clumsy or gauche.

[Kegg]

I am a right handed person, and I have always had trouble using my measureing cup. I just reasized, It' a lefty !!!

[Kegg]

I am a right handed person, and I have always had trouble using my measureing cup. I just reasized, It's a lefty !!!