Revealed : Real Reason Left Handers Can’t Cut With Right Handed Scissors

(KMDL-FM) When the topic of "what's your dominant hand" comes up in conversation, there is an almost guaranteed certainty that the subject of scissors will be brought up in just a few moments. Scissors, how to throw a ball, and can you use a motorized string trimmer without being covered in grass trimmings are all a part of the "Are you right-handed or left-handed discussion".

If you are blessed with even minimal critical thinking skills, you have probably figured out that I, the author of this narrative, am one of God's special people known as a left-hander or southpaw or, as my older brothers called me, a freak of nature.

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I once had someone ask me, "What causes someone to be left-handed?". As far as I know, there is no specific reason that an individual uses their left hand as their dominant hand, and because I am snarky, there is also no known cure for being left-handed.

The scissors are truly a sore subject for just about every left-handed male that I know. The female people that I know who are left-handed they've just adapted and moved on. It's we hard-headed left-handed men that keep this debate smoldering in the pits of society. But still, the burning question remains.

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What Is It About Scissors That Makes Them Right Handed or Left Handed?

Evidently, there is science and design that we lefties did not consider when conjuring up this query. If you compare the structure and blade placement of the blades on a pair of scissors versus the "left-handed" scissors, you will notice a difference in blade alignment.

On "right-handed" scissors, when the user uses them, the ergonomic forces created by the blade alignment and structure of the hands force the blades of the scissors to be pressed together. This creates a very tight "cutting area" that the material being processed can't slip through.

When a lefty uses those same scissors, the strength and structure of the left hand tend to pull the blades apart. This creates a small gap between the blades. This gap allows the material being processed to have "wiggle room," which is why left-handed cuts with right-handed scissors look like someone made the cut with a table edge.

Since most of us Lefties are visual learners, here's what that mumbo jumbo means:

As a left-hander, I might not have those fine motor skills you right-handers have. I might also never have the same selection of golf clubs, baseball gloves, corkscrews, weed trimmers, and other hand-specific tools that you have. But allegedly, I am more creative, spontaneous, emotional, and likely to die about seven years sooner than you.

At least I have that going for me.

How Come Sewing Scissors Work No Matter What Your Dominant Hand Is?

But I do have one more scissor-related question. I struggle to cut paper with right-handed scissors. Yet, when I was a kid, if I "borrowed" my mom's sewing scissors, I could cut anything with them. I also got my ass whipped because there is something about "sacred scissors" that every person who sews seems to know about.

I think the reason I could use those "sacred scissors" was that they were better crafted. Perhaps if "Big Scissor" wanted to stop putting the left-hander down, they'd just make better scissors all the way around instead of making me buy some degraded version of a tool that everyone should have access to. It's just righty keeping lefty down.

No, this soapbox I am on is not dominant hand specific.