Tool History - Left-handed tools.

[Phil Pascoe]

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.

 

[János]

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

 

[János]

Dear Phil,

I am ambisinistrous then.

Have a nice day,

János

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Good one!

 

[arnoldmason8]

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

 

[bugbear]

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

 

[Racers]

Dear Phil,

I am ambisinistrous then.

Have a nice day,

János

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

Pete

 

[AndyT]

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!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

... 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.

 

[GazPal]

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

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.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

... 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.

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!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

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.

 

[GazPal]

... 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.

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.

 

[twothumbs]

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.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

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

 

[jimi43]

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

 

[twothumbs]

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.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

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.

 

[bugbear]

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

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

BugBear

 

[jimi43]

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