• If Only@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      When you squeeze the handles the blades press together. Using the wrong hand for most scissors it produces a small gap that prevents them from cutting the paper. It’ll just pinch it.

      Try it, then try cutting again with the correct hand for your scissors. Odds are your scissors are not ambidextrous but you just never had a reason to discover this.

      • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        wouldn’t a more rigid and tighter pivot pin prevent this?

        if so, I guess I don’t have a pair of scissors shitty enough for this to be a problem. I first tried one of my good scissors with both hands to see how it went, no discernible difference with left or right hand despite the scissors being ergonomically molded for right hand use. so I tried my pair of $2 scissors that have a noticeably loose pin and no handed molding on the grips, and I’m struggling to decide if the offhand use was actually worse by a couple percent or if it’s just placebo lol

        • PlantJam@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          You know how you can kind of pull the handles a certain way to make bad scissors work? Using them in the wrong hand is like the opposite of that. As you observed it’s less of an issue with decent scissors.

          • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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            7 hours ago

            I needed to cut some rags today out of old t-shirts, so I did some more testing

            it was definitely noticeable with the cheap scissors in the wrong hand if not compensated for, and even aside from actual performance, I can clearly see the blades spread apart when closing with regular form in the off hand. with compensation to push the blades together, they cut fine, but yeah that would be annoying to have to do all the time

            with the decent fiskars scissors though, no difference at all

            I am surprised by how the paper and envelope cutting tests I did yesterday showed no difference, though. I guess the paper is rigid enough to hold the blades together before they actually cut or something, whereas the fabric clear tries to get between and spread them

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Hold them left-handed and you can’t see the point where the blades are cutting paper. You have to guess. Makes it harder to do a neat job.

    • ebc@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      They’re crossed the other way around. Ambidextrous scissors do not exist

        • ebc@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          These are still right-handed. The blades need to be crossed the other way for left-handed scissors. Making an ambidextrous scissor is physically impossible.

        • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          any product examples that aren’t Amazon crap?

          Amazon product descriptions matching the actual function of the product is kind of rare

    • autriyo@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      Bigger ones have shaped thumb holes, they dont work for lefties. And the ergo handles do help with fatigue if you are cutting a lot.

      • EtherWhack@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        There’s also the issue of the cut material on the left being fed against your fingers/hand (vs. under) as you cut longer pieces causing your cut to be crooked.