Left-Handed Shop Tools

Circular Saws

• A left-handed circular saw makes precision woodwork easier for the left-handed carpenter. The blade is positioned on the right hand side of most saws. A left-handed circular saw has the blade on the left side of the body. This makes it easy to cut from the left hand side of the body, and puts the controls and access to the emergency shut off within easy reach. A left-handed saw will have the power cord angled so that it is guided away from the body. The sawdust is blown to the left on a left-handed saw, away from the user. If a left-handed person used a right-handed saw, the dust would blow directly at them.

  There are several makers of circular saws which offer a left-oriented blade. These saws allow left-handed users increased control and safer conditions.

Tool Belts

• A right-handed tool belt is awkward for a left-handed worker. This type of belt will place their tools across their body. This is a position which is not easy to reach when you need access to a tool quickly. Left-handed tool belts have the primary tools available to left-handed workers on the dominant side of their body. Essentially, pouch position is reversed.

Ambidextrous Tools

• Left-handed versions have not been created for many types of tools. However, there are models which are user friendly to workers who favor either hand. Some tool makers make products where the controls are on the middle or on the rear of the unit. This makes them equally accessible to left- and right-handed users.

  Cordless products are often designed to be accessible to users who are left or right-handed. The removal of the cord ensures that it is not going to be a hindrance to any worker. Cordless drills and cordless jigsaws both exist which are marketed as 'ambidextrous' tools. For example, an ambidextrous jigsaw places the lock-on switch in the center of the tool where it can be easily locked on with either hand.

Hand Tools

• Most hand tools like screwdrivers and pliers fall into the category of ambidextrous tools, and are equally usable with either hand. There are a few exceptions to this, for which left-handed versions of the tools must be created.

  Many left-handed people use right-handed tape measures, but there are also left-handed versions. On a left-handed tape measure, the numbers read from right to left instead of left to right. The belt hook is also on the opposite side of the tape measure to accommodate a left-handed tool belt configuration.

  Another tool with a left-handed variant is scissors. On a left-handed pair of scissors, the top blade is on the left, rather than on the right. This allows a left-handed cutter to see what they are doing and cut with the same precision as a right-handed person with right-handed scissors.