Saw with your stupid hand?

[Sam Stephens]

Can you saw w/ your stupid hand? After an earlier post on getting tired when sawing, I started wondering whether people can saw w/ either hand or just the dominant hand i.e. if you're right-handed only your right or can you "switch hit" w/a saw? What about other tools like hand planing?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Makes no difference to me, I routinely change hands when using a knife and fork or a pen for example.

It's not something I learned, I've just always done it from childhood.

best wishes

Dave

[Kees Heiden]

I wish I could. Also for example for sawing dovetails where one side is always easier then the other side. But I am hopelessly 100% right handed.

On long rips I change from stance several times. The classic stance bend over, or the french style, with saw vertical and hands on top of the handle. Then I switch from one hand on the handle to two. Usually all that dancing around gets me through the cut.

[Maurice Ungaro]

It's a skill that can be learned, much like shooting a pistol with your off hand. Try it sometime by only using your weak hand and focus on the target, or marked line, as it were.

[jamie shard]

Ironically, sometimes you can saw better with the dumb hand because you aren't rushing, aren't powering-through, and are paying more careful attention. That ends after your first "beginner's" cut, though. After that, it's your dumb hand again.

[David Barnett]

Can you saw w/ your stupid hand? After an earlier post on getting tired when sawing, I started wondering whether people can saw w/ either hand or just the dominant hand i.e. if you're right-handed only your right or can you "switch hit" w/a saw? What about other tools like hand planing?

One can, with practice, smarten up one's stupid hand for some tasks, which is often training the brain to 'see' for the stupid hand, such as learning to shoot with the weak hand when the dominant hand is compromised or from behind cover.

Planing left-handed in the same I plane right-handed is, at best, a poor burlesque, although I do switch hands when planing on the pull stroke.

I can but don't prefer to dovetail and cut smaller tenons with either hand but prefer my right, and for large strokes and coarser work must execute with my right only. Carving, though, is with both hands—something Nora Hall advocated strongly.

"Today, I have my students do certain cuts, many times over, just to get the hang of one movement with the tools. Many continue practicing cuts when they get home. Learning to carve right handed and left handed is also very important."

Beats the heck out of moving around the work or moving large work to suit one's carving position—often impossible for in-place architectural carving. Most can learn to do this and starting out this way makes it rather more natural. I spoke with Nora several times about chirality and carving in the '90s and we agreed that it seems to improve the carver's ability to see as relates to the craft, as well.

I also can pare with both hands and while I prefer mortising with the right, can do it better left-handed.

Outside of fusing and soldering with both hands, I'm much more right-handed at the jeweler's bench, especially when engraving, and when raising or forming vessels, hammering is purely right-handed—for prehension and accuracy. I sometimes used to switch hit on larger repousse, at least in the less precise forming and lining stages, where repositioning the work my be less convenient. Same when carving and lettering stone.

[glenn bradley]

The technology boom provided an unexpected benefit when it comes to improved "other-handedness". I spent years working in environments where one would often hold a laptop or other keyed device in one hand and enter data with the other as there was no room to sit. I found that this transferred to my desk work as I use a mouse with either hand, present at the whiteboard writing with either hand, etc. I just use the one that's convenient. I am far from ambidextrous and cannot handwrite with either hand (frankly my handwriting is poor with my "good" hand ) but, my approach to a hand plane, chisel, screwdriver etc. is pretty inconsequential and that, I find, to be the best unexpected benefit of the dot.com era.

[bob blakeborough]

I am by nature dominant with my right hand, but also by nature I was dealt a blind right eye at birth, so as I was growing up I had to learn to to do some things left handed like shooting a rifle or bow & arrow, as I could not properly sight otherwise. It was my friends dad who first noticed my troubles target practicing one day, and as he had to learn to shoot left after losing his right arm in an accident, he was able to help me overcome the issue. After learning that, I found I could switch out from right to left with other things fairly easily like swinging a baseball bat, fishing rod, etc., so when I picked up woodworking, I found I had to switch hands frequently while sawing as to line up my eye with the cut depending what side of the line I am sawing to...

It may not be natural to most of us, but it is something that can be learned and improved upon with practice...

[David Barnett]

It may not be natural to most of us, but it is something that can be learned and improved upon with practice.

Brain plasticity and neural adaptation is an amazing thing. Long ago I learned to switch hands from carpal tunnel in both wrists, one often becoming worse than the other, and later, when my diabetic eyes began to mismatch throughout the day, learned to adapt to that. I'm pretty adept at refocusing my microscopes—never a "set it and forget" proposition—to suit my ever-shifting vision challenges.

[Brian Ashton]

Can you saw w/ your stupid hand? After an earlier post on getting tired when sawing, I started wondering whether people can saw w/ either hand or just the dominant hand i.e. if you're right-handed only your right or can you "switch hit" w/a saw? What about other tools like hand planing?

Absolutely. You just have to train your brain to become proficient at it - just like you did with your strong hand all those years ago. It's awkward in the beginning but preserver. I plane, saw... with both hands. I find as I get older the strong hand/arm joints are more worn out and I need to switch it up so I don't strain things too much. I've been told it takes about 4 weeks to train your brain to switch things up - something to do with brain elasticity.

[David Barnett]

I've been told it takes about 4 weeks to train your brain to switch things up - something to do with brain elasticity.

That would be neuroplasticity, and is quite variable as to the task being rerouted or relearned. Individuals vary widely, too—some adapt far more rapidly or lag unpromisingly—with age and allostatic load affecting adaptation schedules.

[Tony Wilkins]

I was 'switched' as a child (i.e. was born left handed and had it beaten out of me until I only used the right) so I always felt like both my hands were 'dumb' hands. Good to know it didn't have to be that way - where was this thread thirty years ago

[David Barnett]

I was 'switched' as a child (i.e. was born left handed and had it beaten out of me until I only used the right) so I always felt like both my hands were 'dumb' hands.

If you've ever seen restraining devices for suppressing left-handedness, you'll know some could be downright medieval.

Here's a scholarly article on forced right-handedness and a less-challenging article on handedness and brains.

Is she moving left (counterclockwise) or right?

If mostly right, right-brain-dominant. If left, conversely.

You can learn to switch.

Fun with chirality, fun with brains.

[Mel Fulks]

Good info ,David .We had an earlier thread on this subject and I got a couple of rough and dismissive responses for saying same thing.

[David Barnett]

Good info ,David .We had an earlier thread on this subject and I got a couple of rough and dismissive responses for saying same thing.

Last February, right—I'm starting another Bouchet classical build. Well, anyone who poo-poos chirality issues in brain development and hand-eye-brain rehabilitation is welcome to differ.

A good read, by the way, on both neurophysiological and behavioral dimensions is Human Hand Function. Hand tools are about hands and brains, to me, anyway.