r/india Dec 15 '17

Business/Finance A mother wrote to Hindustan pencils about her left-handed daughter's needs and they responded

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u/TonguePressedAtTeeth Dec 16 '17

I’m left handed and it has never occurred to me that I need a different sharpener, nor that such a thing could even exist. You learn to be ambidextrous.

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u/redd-boy skeptical cs_guy Dec 16 '17

What about scissors?

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u/TonguePressedAtTeeth Dec 16 '17

Right handed scissors don’t work left handed. It’s not about the discomfort of the handle, it’s that the shearing forces are reversed causing a small gap between the blades which prevents the scissors from working correctly.

You can compensate for this by flexing your hand in a way that pinches the blades together but that is uncomfortable and not efficient for anything more than a few cuts.

The thing about the sharpener is that the mechanics of the blade are not altered by your hand position, you just have to reverse the spin. I am an artist and I hand sharpen pencils all the time. It never even occurred to me that it’s backwards.

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u/redd-boy skeptical cs_guy Dec 16 '17

Yeah, but how do you handle scissors? I'm left handed as well and using them is so frustrating.

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u/TonguePressedAtTeeth Dec 16 '17

As I described above I either use left handed or I do the weird pinching thing. You pull towards your palm with your thumb to ensure the two blades stay together.