# Tool History - Left-handed tools.



## Cheshirechappie (4 Mar 2013)

Over the last few months, I've been trying to fill some gaps in the toolkit following a growing interest in vintage tools and wooden planes. Now, I'm right-handed, so don't have any difficulty finding tools that suit my way of working, but how did the south-paws of old go on? I know there are some left-handed modern tools (Veritas rebate plane, for example), and some examples of 'handed' tools such as side rebates, snipe bills and the like, but has anybody ever come across a left-handed wooden plough, or moving fillester, or skew rebate?

No cracks about left-handed hammers, please!


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## richarnold (4 Mar 2013)

As a lefty, and a lover of vintage tools, this has been a constant struggle over the years, but basically I have just learnt to adapt and use moulding planes and anything handed in the convetional manner with my right hand. The early bench planes had an offset handle and I made a big mistake a year or so ago when I made some copies of an early 18th century design. I forgot to reverse the offset!!. I just couldn't use them at all. I ended up selling them to an American tool dealer.





When I get more time I will make some more with the offset to the left this time!! I have often wondered wether handles became central to accommodate left handed workers. This transition happened around 1800, but I'm not sure if this coincides with it becoming acceptable to be a left handed woodworker.


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## János (4 Mar 2013)

Hello,

Craft, and the standard system of apprenticeship was not especially flexible. In many of hand crafts "handedness" is not a real issue: in embroidery, shoemaking, fleece making, silversmithing etc. work could be done either way. Some works, like blacksmithing, joinery and cabinetmaking, tailoring and sewing are more sensitive, and lefthanders could run into difficulties, as the common tools and infrastructure are intended for majority righthanders: I have never seen lefthanded sewing machines, only occasionally a few lefthanded tailors' scissors, and at a price premium, and never seen a commercially made cabinetmaker's bench for lefthanders. In the time of widespread qualified handwork, the workforce changed frequently, journeymen travelled far and wide, and carried their own basic toolsets, but larger and more specialised tools and equipment was provided by the employer. One such piece of equipment was/is the workbench. On a righthanded workbench a lefhander should adopt, and use the standard equipment. 
The side rebate planes, skewed rebate planes, and a few other tools (some moulding planes etc.) were/are offered in pairs to cope with accessibility problems and other similar issues.

The approach of tool manufacturers is the same even today: lefthanded circular handsaws and belt sanders are a rarity, handheld power tools with lefthanded or universal switch locking buttons too. Lefthanders are a minority, amounting for a few percent of the full population, serving their needs is not economically viable. 

I am a lefthander, and not really happy about this situation: I do work on a standard righthanded wood lathe, but after a few years of practice I still feel myself quite uncomfortably.

And Th-th-th-that's all folks!

János


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## RB61 (5 Mar 2013)

Cheshirechappie said:


> Over the last few months, I've been trying to fill some gaps in the toolkit following a growing interest in vintage tools and wooden planes. Now, I'm right-handed, so don't have any difficulty finding tools that suit my way of working, but how did the south-paws of old go on? I know there are some left-handed modern tools (Veritas rebate plane, for example), and some examples of 'handed' tools such as side rebates, snipe bills and the like, but has anybody ever come across a left-handed wooden plough, or moving fillester, or skew rebate?
> 
> No cracks about left-handed hammers, please![/quote
> 
> GLEN DRAKE offers left handed chisel hammers


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## bugbear (5 Mar 2013)

RB61":1i8ovxkz said:


> No cracks about left-handed hammers, please!



If the handle has sufficient shaping, even a hammer can be handled.

c.f. a longbow isn't "handed" but a modern target bow is.

I have a Preston jack plane which on first glance is symmetric, but where the handle is ever so slightly assymetric, in a way that is beneficial to a right hander.

BugBear


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## Corneel (5 Mar 2013)

Richard, I really like the planes you made! They are beautifull. What model did you copy, old English ones? They have something Dutch, with the sloping topdeck, but also something French in the handle design.

And did you use beech? How did you get that beautifyull color?

My wife is lefthanded, and even in the 1960's she was seriously discouraged on school to write lefthanded. I guess a lefthanded carpenter in the 19th century had no other choice then to pretend he was righthanded.


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## Scouse (5 Mar 2013)

Saws can be handed too; I was looking over the handle of my Disston D8 thumbhole rip saw a week or two ago thinking what a great piece of design the handle is, almost sculptural in the early versions. It is very right handed though, excuse the rubbish pre-cleaning picture


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## Vann (5 Mar 2013)

Liogier make left-handed rasps.




Cheshirechappie":1wqarbus said:


> No cracks about left-handed hammers, please!


It was the left-handed screwdriver I was thinking of. I suppose I can't mention the long weight, or striped paint either? :mrgreen: 

Cheers, Vann.


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## richarnold (5 Mar 2013)

Corneel":273y7xtc said:


> Richard, I really like the planes you made! They are beautifull. What model did you copy, old English ones? They have something Dutch, with the sloping topdeck, but also something French in the handle design.
> 
> And did you use beech? How did you get that beautifyull color?
> 
> My wife is lefthanded, and even in the 1960's she was seriously discouraged on school to write lefthanded. I guess a lefthanded carpenter in the 19th century had no other choice then to pretend he was righthanded.



Hi there. The planes were based on the examples that appear on a trade card by John Jennion which dates from around 1730, but the image was proberbly taken from the shop sign of "the three planes" which had been used by Robert Wooding, and Thomas Granford. So the planes pictured are proberbly more in the style of the 1680's.




I'm sure english planes of this period would have been heavily influenced by continental styles. The planes were fumed with nitric acid, then neutralized with ammonia. Linseed oil was then applied, and at the same time earth pigments were rubbed in with the oil.
Cheers, and thanks for the interest, Richard


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## Cheshirechappie (5 Mar 2013)

Thanks for the replies, chaps!

Richard - interesting to hear how a 'lefty' is affected. Many years ago (before computers were all-pervasive), I worked alongside a young engineer writing commissioning documentation on a large chemical plant - under huge programme pressure. He broke his (dominant) right arm, but after about two weeks practice, his writing was nearly as fast with his left hand as he normally was with his right. It was almost legible, as well. Adaption is possible, but not comfortable.

Those planes are gorgeous. The one upside of the mistake first time round is that the mark 2 versions will be even better, and it will be a fascinating thread when you describe the lessons you've learned in using them - genuine historical research. The making of the new pair would make a cracking WIP, too.(Hint! Hint!) 

Janos - I'd completely forgotten about hand-held power tools and machines, but you're right! There are no left-handed lathes! I did know about left-handed scissors - when we cleared my grandmother's possessions after she died, we found a pair of left-handers. Why she had them, Lord knows - she was right-handed! However, in trying to use them, I did start to appreciate how uncomfortable using 'wrong-hand' tools can be, so I do have considerable sympathy with lefties.

RB61 - I don't suppose he makes left-handed chisels to go with it?

BB - That rather fits in with Richard's comments. Perhaps some craftsmen altered (or made) simpler tools to suit themselves?

Corneel - it's not that long ago in the UK that schoolchildren where 'actively discouraged' from writing left-handed, to the point of being beaten if they were found doing so. Fortunately, we're a little more enlightened, now. However, it does follow that if in the 19th and early 20th century, children were forced to be right-handed, the attitudes of toolmakers, employers and craft masters would follow suit. One wonders how many potential craftsmen were hindered for life by not being as fluent in their craft as they could have been had they been allowed to use their naturally dominant hand.

Scouse - good point! I'd assumed saws were 'neutral' - I'd forgotten the thumbhole rip!

Vann - Good point about the rasps - I wonder when they introduced left-handers? Are they a fairly recent innovation? I suppose a ratchet screwdriver can be both right and left handed - a universal ambidextrous screwdriver! No you can't mention the striped paint - but there is the young apprentice sent off to the stores by his craftsman for a box of 1/2" holes!


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## Vann (5 Mar 2013)

Cheshirechappie":3goigoyt said:


> No you can't mention the striped paint - but there is the young apprentice sent off to the stores by his craftsman for a box of 1/2" holes!


Ahh. I remember being told by a tradesman that we needed to clean up a job, and being sent to get a tin of "vacuum". I got half way to the store before the penny dropped (well, in my defence "vacuum cleaner" had a certain familiarity to it... )   

Cheers, Vann.


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## Corneel (6 Mar 2013)

Thanks for the information Richard. I had heard about that "Sign of the three plains" but never seen it before.

I had a plane with a tote a little bit like that, much newer though. The body of the plane was mostly worm eaten, but I have saved the tote somewhere.


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## Sgian Dubh (6 Mar 2013)

richarnold":16yjehk2 said:


> Hi there. The planes were based on the examples that appear on a trade card by John Jennion...


Is that a bevel edged chisel I see near the top right hand side of that trade card? If it is, perhaps it's of relevance to the recent thread on that subject. Slainte.


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## Tony Spear (6 Mar 2013)

Cheshirechappie":2dq3iv2k said:


> Corneel - it's not that long ago in the UK that schoolchildren where 'actively discouraged' from writing left-handed, to the point of being beaten if they were found doing so. Fortunately, we're a little more enlightened, now.



In fact left-handedness was regarded as an abnormality and that attitude carried on pretty much up to the Second World War - hence the fact that my Father was pretty much ambidextrous.


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## Phil Pascoe (6 Mar 2013)

Yes, it was all very sinister!


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## heimlaga (6 Mar 2013)

I have seen a few old left handed workbenches and also a few old left handed wooden planes but it seems like most lefthanders had to learn using right handed tools. It's a shame that this still continues in the tools of our time.


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## imageel (6 Mar 2013)

I too am a lefty and at school was admonished for not writing right handedly, and we were forced to use fountain pens which with the old style sloping writing desks - the type that have the seat connected to the desk via miniature rail track, meant you had to hook your hand at an infeasible angle to prevent your palm smudging what you had just written... -or as I resorted to, sloping the writing book so you wrote vertically downwards!
I now have got used to using hand tools in either hand with almost equal dexterity - a distinct advantage e.g. when rough planing and one arm gets tired  , however there are a few things that still present difficulties - scissors are probably the worse followed by can openers. Power tools too present difficulties more-so from the locking buttons on the on/off switch rather than the actual operation of the tool itself.
I now find being almost ambidextrous an advantage however it has led to me adopting some strange habits, not least relating to ironing (daytime job is office bound IT so have to wear smart 'uniform'  ) in that I iron from the side a right handed person would, but preferentially use my left hand to control the iron. This used to drive my sister nuts!


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## János (6 Mar 2013)

Hello,

Forcing a lefthander to use his/her right is not sinister, just very, very stupid thing. But understandable... There are widespread and still living taboos about the use of hands. These taboos are rooted/based on religious superstitions. 

Just enter "taboos about the left hand" into a search engine, and will see a long list of all kinds of taboos, mostly from Asia and Africa. And Europe has been just as bad till the middle of the XIXth century. Then rationality has began to take over :wink: 

Have a nice day,

János


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## Tony Spear (6 Mar 2013)

János":2snu7vtd said:


> Hello,
> Forcing a lefthander to use his/her right is not sinister, just very, very stupid thing. János



Janos, as you're not a native English speaker, you can be forgiven for missing the joke! :wink: 

One of the main definitions of "sinister" in English, apart from the more usual uses is "left sided"!


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## Cheshirechappie (6 Mar 2013)

Sgian Dubh":1u0oyjha said:


> richarnold":1u0oyjha said:
> 
> 
> > Hi there. The planes were based on the examples that appear on a trade card by John Jennion...
> ...




Well, it may be. On the other hand, the little object just below it is either a spokeshave iron with the blade in the same plane as the tangs, or a herb-chopper with no handles, and the 'three plains' in the middle of the engraving are clearly shown with quite aggressively skewed irons; maybe the engraver used a little licence here and there, and the details should not be interpreted too literally!


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## Phil Pascoe (6 Mar 2013)

Janos, I'm sorry. My post was not meant to be insulting or derogatory. Sinister and dexter is Latin for left and right - it was thought that you were possessed by the devil if you were left handed, which was why convents in particular were hard on left handers. If you are ambidextrous, it means literally that you use both hands as a right hand.

I know people who learned to write with their left hand tied behind their back to stop them using it, and my father had a hard time at school because he was artificially left handed - he had a near useless right hand as a result of polio as a child.


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## János (6 Mar 2013)

Dear Tony,

I have got the "message", as I know that "sinister" means "left" in Latin. One of the boons of our age is the right for quality education :wink: 

The blades are not skewed, what you see is the once common style of rendering in a faulty perspective for the sake of better visibility: in a standard side elevation a hand plane is quite a boring sight for mentally sound people.

Have a nice day,

János


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## János (6 Mar 2013)

Dear Phil,

I am ambisinistrous then.

Have a nice day,

János


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## Phil Pascoe (6 Mar 2013)

Good one!


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## arnoldmason8 (6 Mar 2013)

Hi All ------ I too am a lefty. To use wooden fillister/plough planes and moulding planes I have devised a sticking board to put in the vice and I then work left handed from the far side of the component. This ensurers that any fence on the plane does not foul the bench. Would be very awkward with a very wide board tho'. I have also made a saw handle with a thumb hole for left handed working. 

Pre WW2 I am pretty sure left handed workers would have developed enough strength in their right side to overcome any problems.

Cheers--------Arnold


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## bugbear (7 Mar 2013)

heimlaga":1wmq9rxn said:


> I have seen a few old left handed workbenches and also a few old left handed wooden planes but it seems like most lefthanders had to learn using right handed tools. It's a shame that this still continues in the tools of our time.



Adding left/right variants to the (already oevrloaded) stock list of current small scale specialist tool manufacturers is probably impractical.

Left handers will have to continue to show their superiority by being able to use r/h tools as well as l/h.

BugBear


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## Racers (7 Mar 2013)

János":26z3609f said:


> Dear Phil,
> 
> I am ambisinistrous then.
> 
> ...


I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous ;-)

Pete


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## AndyT (7 Mar 2013)

The only left handed wooden ploughs I've seen have been on ebay and were just examples of ignorant sellers reassembling them the wrong way round, having thoroughly brassoed the tips and depth stop, to make them extra attractive as pub ornaments ;-)

One thing that might be useful for a left-hander is that whereas ordinary English rules number their inches from left to right, American ones work the other way, or at least used to. But I guess the number of left-handed woodworkers who also prefer to use a wooden rule and work in inches is not going to be that great!


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## Sgian Dubh (7 Mar 2013)

Cheshirechappie":2wlyntbg said:


> ... maybe the engraver used a little licence here and there, and the details should not be interpreted too literally!


That's as maybe, but perhaps the engraver wasn't invoking artistic licence in depicting the chisel, and it is meant to be what it looks like, something that bears more than a passing resemblance to a bevel edged chisel. Slainte.


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## GazPal (8 Mar 2013)

bugbear":117snfy7 said:


> heimlaga":117snfy7 said:
> 
> 
> > I have seen a few old left handed workbenches and also a few old left handed wooden planes but it seems like most lefthanders had to learn using right handed tools. It's a shame that this still continues in the tools of our time.
> ...



For goodness sake, I'd best not let my youngest daughter read your last sentence!!  She's sinister enough to begin with. :lol: 

The funny thing is she's left handed (Her mother was), but insists - whenever I teach her something - on switching to right handed so she can copy how I do things. This includes drawing, woodworking, sculpting and playing guitar.


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## Cheshirechappie (8 Mar 2013)

Sgian Dubh":1tb38xw9 said:


> Cheshirechappie":1tb38xw9 said:
> 
> 
> > ... maybe the engraver used a little licence here and there, and the details should not be interpreted too literally!
> ...



Maybe aye, maybe no. Let's assume that you're right, and it is an accurate representation of a bevel-edged chisel. Can you point us to actual examples of such chisels, in museums perhaps, or collections, or whatever, roughly contemporaneous with the Jennion trade-card? So far, we have the Nova Zembla chisel of 1596, then - despite a promising sniff or two - seemingly nothing until the turn of the 19th/20th century or thereabouts. Documentary evidence between those two dates also suggests that they were either unknown or at least uncommon - and we now have such documentary evidence from both UK and Europe. If they were about, and you know where they are, please put us out of our misery and post on the b/e chisel thread where we can see one!

They may well have been in existence, and constant use, during the whole time-span between Nova Zembla and their sudden apparent surge in popularity about a century ago, but they are so far mighty elusive!


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## Sgian Dubh (9 Mar 2013)

Cheshirechappie":2yr331mg said:


> Maybe aye, maybe no. Let's assume that you're right, and it is an accurate representation of a bevel-edged chisel. Can you point us to actual examples of such chisels, in museums perhaps, or collections, or whatever, roughly contemporaneous with the Jennion trade-card?


I can't. I have to admit that my passions in woodworking don't really stretch to the research of and knowledge about old and antique hand tools, or even old woodworking machinery. I do of course have a passing interest in seeing what woodworkers used decades ago, and even millenia ago, but I'm much more driven by the actual designing and making of furniture, both from a historical perspective and in contemporary design work. Whilst I'm fully aware that, to some extent, how wood was worked in the past was affected and maybe even defined by the technology (tools, etc) available at the time, it's not really something I've ever found to be interesting enough for me that I want to study it in real depth. Slainte.


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## GazPal (9 Mar 2013)

Sgian Dubh":3p2vk78w said:


> Cheshirechappie":3p2vk78w said:
> 
> 
> > ... maybe the engraver used a little licence here and there, and the details should not be interpreted too literally!
> ...



On seeing the picture in question my initial thought was "There's a bevel edged chisel". :idea: 

I know it's debatable whether or not it's a bevel edged chisel, but the above was and is my gut feeling.


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## twothumbs (9 Mar 2013)

I have heard of LH and RH axes where they were chisel shaped ie one face straight. Now I wonder why the shaft wasnt turned around...perhaps they were. Do joiners till carry an axe for getting door and window frames to size. Always a give away that either frame or brickwork was probably wrong. On the recent thread on wooden plugs for skirtings the axe would be used for that. Best wishes.


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## Phil Pascoe (9 Mar 2013)

LH and RH axes only fit one way because the eye tends to be tapered - it would fly apart if fitted wrongly.


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## jimi43 (9 Mar 2013)

I spent ages looking for a left handed single bevel axe...just to try out some green woodwork and they are not that common.

In the end I just went right handed and practiced and practiced and I still can't get it perfectly...even though i can play guitar right handed (I was forced to by my classical teacher).

I will still try....but I fear I will just have to wait until a lefty comes along this year. Ward & Payne of course!! Unless anyone fancies swapping this beauty for a lefty of similar vintage?







:mrgreen: 

Jimi


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## twothumbs (11 Mar 2013)

phil.p You are quite right. RH or LH is funny as I discovered I could gas weld with my left even though it is pretty useless for anything else. To weld into the 'other' corner can be very useful. Best wsihes.


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## Phil Pascoe (11 Mar 2013)

My son is left handed, and deals cards right handed. Everyone else in my family is right handed, and deals left handed. Strange.
It's well worth practising using turning tools in your other hand - it can get you out of a jam. +1 for ambidextrous welding, very useful.


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## bugbear (11 Mar 2013)

jimi43":3kdxfaz6 said:


> I spent ages looking for a left handed single bevel axe...just to try out some green woodwork and they are not that common.
> 
> In the end I just went right handed and practiced and practiced and I still can't get it perfectly...even though i can play guitar right handed (I was forced to by my classical teacher).
> 
> ...



Kent pattern heads are symmetrical enough that you can just mount it on the haft the other way up, and you're done.

BugBear


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## jimi43 (11 Mar 2013)

I thought the same BB but there appears to be quite a gradient in the apertures...you can see the bias in the metal at the top especially. I don't really want to disturb such a beautiful and probably old if not original handle and then find I can't reseat it back the other way around.

What do you suggest?

Jim


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## Phil Pascoe (11 Mar 2013)

Find a smith to make one? it shouldn't be that difficult?.....I don't know about the cost, though.


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## bugbear (11 Mar 2013)

jimi43":26xwpbo5 said:


> I thought the same BB but there appears to be quite a gradient in the apertures...you can see the bias in the metal at the top especially. I don't really want to disturb such a beautiful and probably old if not original handle and then find I can't reseat it back the other way around.
> 
> What do you suggest?
> 
> Jim



The hole in the head is tapered out towards both ends, with narrow waist (unlike, say, a mattock head).

Hence a handle can be fitted either way. The symmetry won't be good enough to reuse the old handle though, you'll need to make a new one.

BugBear


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## jimi43 (11 Mar 2013)

I think half the fun Phil is the use of vintage tools which have been used by masters long dead...it's part of the mojo.

Which is one reason why I don't really want to disturb the handle if I can't reuse it BB...it really is a beaut and part of the character of the whole axe. It would be such a shame to disturb it.

I think I will see what this season's bootfair brings...you never know!

Cheers for the info!

Jimi


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