Are you Left or Right Handed?

[Tankstand]

Howdy all.

After reading this thread

Left Handed Tools (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?threadid=6750)

I was curious to find out the results.

Proudly a Lefty :D

[Robert WA]

I am one of those strange people who can swap hands. I was probably born left handed but was made to write right handed and ended up confused.
My best trick was to play table tennis with two bats and hit everything forehand.

[glenn k]

Good on you Mark I was thinking of doing this but had no idea how. Will be interesting
Glenn

[DanP]

Lefty,

I am a righty. I think the reason you (and I) are spastics with the wrong hand (or is that the right one) is that we never use the other one. I have found that the more you use you're off hand the less spaz it becomes. As a part of my job I use firearms, mostly .38 Cal. revolvers. Part of the training is to shoot left handed in case you're right is taken out of action. At first I couldn't hit the side of a barn. After several years of training every six months I can shoot left handed almost as well as the right, without feeling unnatural. This is how sports people become coordinated on their 'unnatural' side. If you commit to always using your off hand for a given task, you will soon become more proficient in using said hand for that task. Eventually you will feel as comfortable with either hand. Just be careful in the mean time or you will have to get used to using your off hand for everything.:D

Dan

[Iain]

None of the above:D , actually right but when I am fly fishing I am able to cast using either arm, bit like DanP, standing in overhang and have to cast with either arm to get the trout.
Took a while but I got there and works well to my advantage.
All my tools are RH and I use them RH and despite being able to do some thing LH cannot write this way.

[Shane Watson]

I am right handed, but eat left handed...go figure...

[gatiep]

I guess in reality I am right handed, as I normally write with my right hand, but I can write left handed and the handwriting is only slightly worse than my right handed efforts, which are illegible ( mostly) anyway.
With handguns I am ambidextrous. In my previous life in previous country I did serious target practice every Saterday arvo, for about 15 years. Like Dan we had to practice with both hands. We did some combat practice and I often used to switch hands if it was easier and I would be less exposed if I used my left hand.
At the lathe I turn eiter left or right handed.Use spanners left or right handed.
Naturally when it comes to power tools that are designed to be used righthanded, then I find that instinctively I am righthanded.

[Shane Watson]

Yeah actually the more I think about it I use both regularly as well, not just for eating..hahah..Again with the whole shooting thing. Maybe it is a shooting thing! :D

[spbookie]

Funny how left handers are way over represented in the top levels of sport and the arts and most other areas of human endeavour. Oh and also in the accidental death stats as well.


I have to spend a lot of time thinking about how I can safely use power tools - mostly before I start them up ......


Charles

[AlexS]

I'm a rightie in just about everything except
1. eating...because i used to sit opposite the old man when i was a little feller, and hold the knife & fork mirror imaged

2. rifle shooting...but the army taught me to shoot right handed, and

3. using a hand drill...always turn it with my left hand.

[Sturdee]

I never knew the problems you lefties face in the workshop, makes me glad that I am righthanded.
However when I was growing up ( in a rough neighbourhood ) I learnt that a swift kick with my left foot could quickly settle a dispute.

Peter.

[Termite]

Using one hand I'm right handed ( eg. tennis). As soon as I have to use two hands I have to switch to left handed (eg. golf)
Regards
Termite

[silentC]

When I use a knife and fork, the fork is in my left hand but when I put the knife down, the fork swaps to the right hand. Didn't even know I was doing it until someone pointed it out.

When I play golf or cricket, I have to play cack-handed. I think this is because I used to play a lot of tennis and it's more natural for me to lead with my right elbow.

I used to have a totem-tennis set (the pole with a string and a tennis ball attached) when I was a kid. When nobody else wanted to play, I used to play with a bat in each hand and have a competition with myself to see which would win: left or right. Right nearly always won but left was starting to catch up.

I wont even mention my father in law and my dad, who are both theoretically left handed but all I can say is life for them seems very confusing!

[Rocker]

Darren,

You would do well in the US :) American etiquette demands that you eat as you do, with the fork in the right hand, once you have cut the food up into bite-sized pieces. When I lived there, Americans looked askance at me for eating in the British/Australian fashion, with the fork in the left hand at all times. The yanks even had the audacity to assert that I had a British accent, whereas I know that I have NO accent :)

Rocker

[DaveInOz]

Yes

[glenn k]

Rocker its not only British / Australian using knife and fork like us its the rest of europe aswell. Maybe every where else in the world that they use knife and forks except the yanks. But they like to be different, make up their own gallon, will not go metric so the world flys in feet.

[GC]

My children are both ambidexterous (spelling).
One writes Left the other Right handed and the opposite for kicking a footy and opposite again for swinging a bat and so on.
The only thing they both do the same is cutlery.

go figure!

GC

[jackiew]

I'm right handed but taught myself to write left handed when I was a kid - reason why escapes me now but it comes in useful when I'm on the phone as I have a long neck and therefore can't seem to wedge the phone between my shoulder and ear like other people can.

I must be left footed though .. as I found out the hard way when we learned how to hurdle at school. Ditto with high jumping - spectacular crashes when I approached from the "right hand" side and the occasional success when I approached from the "left hand" side.

I agree that other handedness improves with practise. I play lacrosse and we have to practise throwing with our stick in our "other" hand in training ( theoretically this means we can swap hands in the game but in my case it doesn't seem to have "taken" yet). You do get better although it is always ( in my case anyway ) a relief to swap the stick back into my major hand.

Piano playing I have two left hands:D My teacher could be heard shouting at me "the other left hand".

[woodymarts]

I am defanaly right handed and proud of it.:cool:
woodymarts:)

[LineLefty]

Needless to say I'm a lefty.

I've searched for a left handed Circular Saw with no luck.

There are some that are more friendly (i.e position of dust thrower, trigger lock etc). In the end you just have to use it RH.

Being a lefty is an advantage when playing sport though. In my brief but dim volleyball career It wasa great help being a lefty. The blockers always leave the line for you to hit...hence Linelefty!

[Iain]

And I found a bloke in Melb who sells only left handed guitars!

[GregLee]

I'm totally confused by this discussion. I always thought I was right handed. However, when playing football I'm predominately left footed. I bat left or right handed at Cricket. I play golf right handed now. Though I can quite happily play full iron shots and drive left handed.

I can even use screw drivers left handed once I've thought about the thread direction.

What does this mean? My left handed writing is crap though. I suppose I need some practise.

[Bob Willson]

I'm completely ambivalent.

[forunna]

Its right for me. although I have made myself go left on some things, tabe tennis, totem tennis(both mentioned before), and at work I use my mouse left handed becasue I use the number pad a lot and got sick of swapping all the time. took about two weeks to get used to it.

[vsquizz]

Play pool (snooker, billiards) left or right handed, doesn't seem to matter. Used to use a rifle left or right until started using automatics which pelt your right arm up with hot shells when shooting lefty (military service).

If I have to put one hand in front of the other (shovel) its normally left handed except for fishing reels and cricket.

The kids are still out the back looking for a left handed screwdriver....

[DanP]

Squizz,

When you say fishing reels, do you wind with your left or right hand?

Dan

[Kris.Parker1]

Ambidextrous for me. It annoys the hell out of the guys who have to bowl the cricket balls at me. I change from left to right to left again all in the one over.

[Kris.Parker1]

On the topic of weird and wonderful tools, included is the left handed hammer, left handed wheel nut remover etc...

Hows about a can of camouflage paint, checkered paint, rainbow paint etc.

What about the guy who collects all the donut holes?

[Douglas Fir]

As my brother use to taunt me...

We are all born right handed , the intelligent ones over come it. :)

D

[Jon]

I am very right handed, but
I eat with my fork in my right because I learnt sitting opposite my father. I believe this makes more sense because that is the hand that has the most control and that is the hand that is taking the fork near my mouth.
I can ten pin bowel equally well (or poorly) with either hand.
I skateboard/water ski right foot forward which makes me goofy.

My father was naturally left but had it caned out of him at school so he ended up ampidextrous ( and a better speller than me but that is another story)

My wife is left handed, one son is right, the other left, with one on the way, I wonder what he will be?

At our wedding, when we went to sign the register, out of the five of us, priest, bride, groom, bridesmaid and best man, I was the only righty.

but typing I am ampidextrous, I can use one finger from each hand.

Jon

[bitingmidge]

And I found a bloke in Melb who sells only left handed guitars!
Now there's the crux of it. A right handed person should find it extemely difficult to play a stringed instrument using the left hand to form all the notes.. heaven knows I do!!

So really isn't a left handed guitar for right handed people? And therefore haven't all we right handers learnt to play instruments the "other" way. Which explains why there area disproportionate number of Cack Handers excelling in the arts, they are doing it their way!!
:D :D :D

My old man was and brother is a lefty, and apart from writing, both used tools right handed, and I also try to do everything possible with each hand.

Not arguing that there is a favoured hand, nor that everyone should use the same one, but most things we do are learnt behaviours..... if you don't believe me, why can left handers type on a "right handers" keyboard??

Why do we find it difficult to change gear with our right hands when we drive left hand drive cars?? That's something that all right handed people manage in this country quite well, so what's the difference between that, and learning to hold a saw in the other hand?

Cheers,

P
:cool: :cool: :cool:

[DavidG]

My daughter (9) can use either hand for anything but seems to prefere the left for writing.

The really odd thing is to watch her colouring in a picture with a coloured pencil in each hand (different colours) working in two different sections of the drawing at the same time. :eek:

[Ashore]

I'm right handed
but a lot of my tools are left handed , screwdrivers, hammers, hand saws. planes, files, chisels, pens, pencils , even my coffee mug and as I dont have a problem using them does this make me Ambidextrous




Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.

[Gingermick]

when I'm on the phone as I have a long neck and therefore can't seem to wedge the phone between my shoulder and ear like other people can.QUOTE]



[QUOTE=jackiew]
I must be left footed though ...I'm left footed too.

I fell on my head a few years ago and lost the hearing in my right ear. Now I can only hold the phone with my left hand to left ear.
Being deaf in one ear is useful with young kids tho. Good ear on pillow sleep like a log.

I can also use either hand for anything.
Just not very well

[knucklehead]

very right handed.

Infact about the only use for my left hand is to stop my watch sliding off my arm. If I try and pick my nose with the left hand I'm just as likely to stick a finger in my eye.http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon11.gif

[E. maculata]

1 in 7 I'm led to believe, Granma was a true ambidextrous, Mum is pretty well ambi, I'm ambi, but if forced will lead with my left, pay tennis, squash, and cricket equally as bad either way, SWMBO is a true lefty, Mini swmbo is also a true lefty and the odd man out is my son, he seems to a 6/7 type a righty.....oh well he can't be perfect like some of us :D .

[johnc]

I'm mainly left handed but right handed for odd things. With knife and fork its right, with spoon and fork its left, which seems odd. I can write with the right hand but badly and only because I injured a couple of fingers many years ago and was forced to use the right for a few weeks, I ended up almost legible. With tools its left hand, but shovel both ways equally well, same with spanners, and on it goes. Sounds as though most others are the same not quite consistant with the favoured hand.

JohnC

[Harry72]

I remember at school my cricket team had a ambidextrous batsman, the bowler would be running up and he'd change stance while they approach and confuse the hell out of them... until the ump's banned him from doing it!

[julianx]

I work with a left handed builder somtimes I can't watch him use a power saw, scares me too much. I'm always waiting for it to kick back and cut him in half. My son is a molly duker I think I'll teach him to use power saws right handed when he's old enough to use one.

[julianx]

I read somwhere that societies that have/had larger than average numbers of left handed people tended to be more violent societies