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Left-handed Modelling.


Ray Von
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To be fair that appears just to be a theory, like many others that precede it.

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While i can't say it's ever held me back, the occasional jibe about being a 'lefty' or 'cacky' are a fact of life. I am fortunate to have never been bullied by my teachers into 'conforming' although maybe primary teachers were a bit more enlightened in the 1980's.

 

While i write and generally lead with my left hand, my right is far from being a useless appendage. I shy away from using 'specialist' left handed things such as scissors instead i adapt to my environment.

 

The only bugbear i have is when using shared appuratus such as the control desk at work as lefties and righties tend to prefer the desk arranged in different ways which leads to the occasional whinge from the less tolerant members of the team.

 

It has never affected my modelling hobby at all. In other pursuits i bowl left, bat right, racquet left, box southpaw and catch poorly with either hand.

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Another 'Corrie Fister' here. I am the only one in my family, my parents, sister and children are right handed. I was at school in the 1960s and there was never any attempt to get me to be right handed. At that time it was fountain pens so unless you adopted some odd ways of writing it was messy and I still tend to turn the page 90 degrees, arch my wrist, and write vertically down; word processors and printers are marvellous things! I use a knife and fork the right way [though as a child I had to swap them over], but still change my spoons and glass over [can cause arguments in pubs if your not carefull!]. I think most left handers become at least partly ambidextrous simply through living in a right handed world. Being left handed actually came in useful at work as I could reach and undo nuts and bolts the other engineers couldn't. One of the biggest dangers I found was the trigger lock on power tools, because your hand covers it you tend to press it in just by holding the tool.

 

If you've left-handed kids in the family, the implications for their education and confidence can be serious - see this post (in 2018 not 2108 ;) ) from Left n Write;
 
https://www.leftshoponline.co.uk/this-child-is-left-handed-and-last-year-during-school-nursery-the-keyperson-tried-to-get-them-to-switch-hands-for-writing/
 
Guidance from the Left n Write shop is available, since there's no statutory obligation to support handwriting for left handed kids

  
Regarding the article referenced above and one child having a speech impediment. I sailed with a Captain who stammered. This was attributed to him having been a left hander who had been forced into becoming right handed at school. Strange thing was while he stammered in personal conversation he didn't when talking on the radio to other ships etc.

Edited by JeremyC
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Because the hand follows the pen for left handers, there's a danger that the ink may be smudged. Which I guess is why I've seen left handers write with a wide/high elbow and curled wrist looping around the fresh ink - which looks so uncomfortable.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Even with writing using a fountain pen, I have never had problems with having my handwriting smudge. My hand remains well below the line of writing; I'm presuming that it's how one has been taught to hold the pen, or has developed a technique that works :)

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[quote name="47137" post="3396484"

 

Nowadays the only tool I really curse is the vernier caliper. The micrometer is easier because I need to use both hands and it's easy to use with the right hand; but the vernier somehow begs to be used with the dominant hand

 

- Richard.

 

You could get a left-handed digital one https://www.machine-dro.co.uk/left-handed-digital-calipers-150mm-6.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAo8jgBRAVEiwAJUXKqOYwWTLn25A3FO_NAmxlxjcXpQE2e04-Kx3jA7Stvmv-xSjF0aoxpBoCe9kQAvD_BwE

It makes life much easier

 

martin

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The problem with most scissors (for me) isn't so much that the blades are handed, it's that the handles are 'profiled' to fit the right hand only, like this:

 

fiskars-multi-purpose-office-and-warehou

 

Which just makes them uncomfortable. In reality I just find 'flat' scissors, or deal with the fact they're a bit uncomfortable!

 

I'm the same as many in having my cutlery the 'right' way around, but if I only have a single implement (be it knife, fork or spoon) I still have it in my left, which is the opposite to right handers, which is weird IMO! Why do you have a fork in your left hand if you have a knife as well, yet if you only have a fork hold it in the right hand!? I have my drink on my left, but use my computer mouse right handed.

 

For writing I personally turn the paper through 90 degrees, so I'm effectively writing perpendicular to the edge of the desk. Deals with the smudging and is a bit less awkward than doing the 'claw' thing where you write from above. Still tend to avoid using fountain pens just in case though!

 

At uni there were fixed desks with a small fixed table on the RH armrest which was a massive pain. Cake forks are always right handed - the wide tine is set up for right handed use. I've seen a few lists of "things that left-handers find difficult" and honestly most have never occured to me (taps and door handles go the wrong way apparently), you just learn one way. I imagine those who change from being right handed may well find things a bit more awkward. I still enjoy joking with mrs njee20 that I'm disabled by society though!

I never noticed that fork thing! - it's true!

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Not necessarily functionally like that, but all mugs are usually right handed - any writing is positioned to be legible by the user when held in the right hand.

Edited by njee20
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This looks ideal. I have one on order, this will be a Christmas present from my partner to me.

 

- Richard.

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Not necessarily functionally like that, but all mugs are usually right handed - any writing is positioned to be legible by the user when held in the right hand.

 

Pens and pencils are generally the same, but Staedtler pens we used in school (40 years ago) were designed for left handed reading.

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       In my family myself and my two elder sisters are all LEFT-handed to a degree.

  At the end of WW2. my Mother remarried - my youngest sister is a normal and RIGHT-handed person.

 

  When I went to boarding school, just before my 6th. birthday, the HM's. wife told me: 'Either you eat right-handed or you don't eat.'.  Being English we compromised:  when using two items I eat right handed but when using a single item I used my left hand.

  Hand-writing began in the olde days of nib-pen, ink and blotting paper.  Fortunately I was not compelled to write right handed;  to prevent smudging and getting ink all over the paper and myself I learnt to rotate the paper clockwise so that I could write adequately well and without smudge marks.

  When I was serving afloat there was a young lass who wrote left-handed;  she wrote from Right to Left and upside-down - ie. anyone sitting opposite her could read directly what she was writing.  We attributed that to the fact that she hailed from a land 'Down under.'.

  It is well-known that the late king, GVI., used to stutter quite badly if he had to give a speech;  many people attributed that to the fact that his mother, Queen Mary, compelled him, a natural left-hander,  to use his hands as though he were a right-handed person..

  In games requiring two hands I was RH.; but if using only one hand then I reverted to being a 'Southpaw.'.

  In the Army I had no difficulty in handling a musket, either at drill or on the firing ranges.

  However it was different for sword-drill - but eventually I got the hang of things.

  Fencing with either foils or sabres I was LH.- but using a rifle & bayonet I was RH..

 

  As an aside in a well-designed &  medieval castle  all spiral staircases  circled clockwise when viewed from above, ie. the centre column that supported the individual steps was on one's right as one ascended.  The purpose of that was that defenders retreated gradually to higher floors in the towers, so being forced to retreat upstairs they needed the greater freedom of space to give a good foot-space and to use their right hands that held their weapons; the right handed attackers would be on narrower steps and their sword-arms would be in a more confined space against the central column - but that's when those left-handed attackers came into their own!

 

:locomotive:

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As an aside in a well-designed & medieval castle all spiral staircases circled clockwise when viewed from above, ie. the centre column that supported the individual steps was on one's right as one ascended. The purpose of that was that defenders retreated gradually to higher floors in the towers, so being forced to retreat upstairs they needed the greater freedom of space to give a good foot-space and to use their right hands that held their weapons; the right handed attackers would be on narrower steps and their sword-arms would be in a more confined space against the central column - but that's when those left-handed attackers came into their own!

 

:locomotive:

There was a family in the Scottish Boarders, the Kerrs, who were reputedly predominately left handed and because of that the spiral staircases in their castle circled anti-clockwise when viewed from above.

http://clanjames.com/kerr.htm

Edited by JeremyC
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I'm predominantly left handed and footed. Born in 1955 and never had any problem learning to write left handed. Cutlery is always held in the 'correct' hands, mouse is on the right, modelling is predominantly left handed.

 

I went to play badminton and a gentleman there couldn't see that I was holding my racket correctly in my left hand, so showed me how to hold it in my right hand. I then had no backhand - serve with the right hand, smack the return back with the left!

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My sister got told off at school for playing tennis with no backhand - she'd just change hands and play forehand.

 

Most of the posts above seem to bear out my own theory - those who are right handed, are right-handed. Those who are left handed are far more likely to use both / either / the most appropriate hand in any situation. 

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My sister got told off at school for playing tennis with no backhand - she'd just change hands and play forehand.

 

Where in the rules of tennis does it state you have to be single handed? Typical school, telling off for no reason.

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Left handed for single handed games but right handed for two handed games, also right eye dominant which makes me useless at single handed games like darts, squash, etc but a bit better at snooker, archery, cricket, etc.

 

One theory about lefty women is they can think in 3-D i.e. visualise solid objects drawn in 2-D and they can read maps, probably due to the same genetic flaw. Lefty women generally make good engineers.

 

Rob

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  • 3 weeks later...

It turns out that the Missus is left-handed (and she says I never pay attention!)

 

And that got me to thinking, are there any challenges that the left-handed among you out there face when it comes to model-railing? Do you have your controls laid out opposite to a right-handed modeller? On a left to right layout, do you run your loco's right to left? Do you wish that there were certain tools or equipment available to suit your needs? Or do you just get on with it, resigned to a world governed by the selfish right-handed majority? (That last one was her suggestion...)

 

I'd be interested to know. Also, on a more serious note- has anyone faced a disability, injury or illness that has led them to modify there practice or innovative within the hobby?

 

Life is more challenging as a leftie (look at joysticks etc) but we learn to adapt which is an advantage. For example, as a soldier I could shoot left and right handed and much better than most. You tend to be taught by right-handers but naturally want to use your left. I could also bowl (cricket) and play tennis and badminton also with both hands. I fly computer flight sims a lot. When I first played I used a basic neutral stick and asked an RAF pilot what do they do it you're left handed. As it happens he is left handed and said if you want enough you will do it right handed. So I fly as a right hander. I also use my mouse on the left but retained the right-handers buttons.

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My natural inclination would be to put it at the left hand end as viewed from the operating side.

 

Having built my latest shunting plank quickly, without thinking it through enough, my very positive right-handedness meant I instinctively built it the opposite way round to that above. Now I'm thinking scenics, the other way round would have made better sense, but track position related to the back scene is impractical to change. Therefore my contention is that left/right handed thinking is deeply engrained and influences us far more than we would expect. It is backed up by looking at designs I've built, or planned before, from the veiwing side they have all featured entry from the right with buffers placed to the left.

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To be fair that appears just to be a theory, like many others that precede it.

Agree. However, a study recently published, suggested a variant in that birthing issues create left handism. It may be the usual b****cks but daughter one is a leftie and had a traumatic birth due to a cord issue. Daughter two didn't and is right handed!

Edited by john new
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Having built my latest shunting plank quickly, without thinking it through enough, my very positive right-handedness meant I instinctively built it the opposite way round to that above. Now I'm thinking scenics, the other way round would have made better sense, but track position related to the back scene is impractical to change. Therefore my contention is that left/right handed thinking is deeply engrained and influences us far more than we would expect. It is backed up by looking at designs I've built, or planned before, from the veiwing side they have all featured entry from the right with buffers placed to the left.

As a right hander too, I always sketch layouts plans left-right, and find the other way round hard to visualise - I guess that means that there is another variable in the equation?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't generally find too much problem using tools left or right handed, with one exception, and that's those Swann-Morton scalpels.  Try those in your left hand and the blades will fly off, so I adapt to that situation.  When I started school (1967), I picked up the pencil with the left hand and naturally smudged any writing, the teachers didn't get physical, they just said "if you write with your right hand that won't happen". All that meant was I became a painfully slow writer.  Drawing I can do with both hands, as with writing now, but not quickly.  Spatial awareness is useful to be able to visualise how things will fit in a space.

 

Agree. However, a study recently published, suggested a variant in that birthing issues create left handism. It may be the usual b****cks but daughter one is a leftie and had a traumatic birth due to a cord issue. Daughter two didn't and is right handed!

 

The whole thing is down to brain dominance and nothing to with birth issues, left brain dominance is RH, right brain dominance is LH generally.  It's the way your wired.  That said, my right eye is stronger and the sighting eye.  Right brain dominance means your likely to be more subjective, more responsive to pictures and more arty, that's me, I see the things in the picture tests that most people miss.  I also see colours and light in a different way, colours which a lot of people don't see.  Did I follow my desire to have a career in the arts, no, I followed adult advice at the time (the late 70s) and got stuck in a job which I hated.  Being able to read upside down is an advantage as I can see what's been written about me before the teacher/boss read it out, I could also fight back very quickly and catch them off guard!

I often wonder if handedness will even itself out in the modern world, now that we don't have the traditional views about "sinister" connotations, after all there's nothing evil about it, even animals display a preference to handedness (or should that be pawedness?).  The best bit is driving, we drive on the left apparently, because your right arm is your sword arm, but this means the clutch and all the gears and central controls in the car are on the left hand side for the driver.  Winner!

Edited by D820
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