The History of Cutlery

The Cutlers Craft

Why did the Sheffield industry die and Solingen continue?

The Sheffield Cutlery Industry

Knives, Forks & Spoons

Information about Sharpening

How do scissors cut?

Left hand information

The History of Cutlery

We seem to often get asked about the history of cutlery, maybe because it is the trade that is as old as man, or because many of the names and terms used seem strange.

Many marketing or sales companies now supply cutlery items from China etc and few real cutlery people and Companies seem to remain, and the marketing people tend to mislead and misdirect or bend the truth to gain sales.

Although we can not in a few pages, explain the history of cutlery in full, we will try and answer a few of the questions we get asked.

For those that want detailed information, we suggest the book ‘THE STORY OF CUTLERY ‘Written by J.B Himsworth as a starting place.

There is a series of books written by Camille Page a French cutlery historian who produced six volumes published in France between 1986-1904; he was a member of a family in France that produced master Cutlers from the 16th Century onwards.

As we said the History of Cutlery is as old as mankind!

There are a great many web sites in the USA with a lot of details on hunting and sporting knives, as well as there History, and a great many knife collectors in the USA happy to share there knowledge of particular factories.

The Elsener family produced a very informative book on the history of the knife to celebrate the Victorinox centenary in 1984.

The Prehistoric Age

It is generally accepted that Asia and Northern India was the cradle of the human race and start of civilisation as such, as these areas produced profound philosophies and religious systems that travelled westwards by way of Southern Russia, and the Danube, on a track followed across Western Europe by early inhabitants of Asia.

Early tools can be found followed along this track, these earliest tools appear to have been shaped from hard materials accept a few made from bone and horn.

These eoliths (tools of the dawn) show few suggestions of being a knife or chisel edge for cutting, but rather for sticking, piercing, pulling and pulling, suggesting primitive man used his teeth and nails as cutting tools.

The earliest tools with a cutting edge probably came to mans attention in the form of flints or obsidian, a Volcanic glass, which is exceptional sharp, around 500,000 BC in central Europe in the early Stone Age.

Pygmy Flints are often found artefacts, interesting for there small size and the fact they have been found almost World wide.

They often show very precise workmanship and precision in there production, so a great deal of skill has gone into there production.

In the Palaeolithic age came blades and scrapers of different shapes and sizes, and in the Neolithic age knife blades that could be recognised as similar to those we use today.

Often axe heads and knife blades with a tang to apply a wood or bone handle as well.

Flint is regarded as the main material for cutting materials in the stone age, maybe as it lasts so well, and other material would have degraded, slate knives that look very much like a table knife we would use today, have been found in Harlan bay Cornwall, and reputed to be from 500 BC.

Flint tools stayed in use not only in Palaeolithic & Neolithic times but found well into the Bronze Age, particularly in areas where metals and hard materials were scarce.

In some countries the transition from Stone Age to Bronze Age was never made like Australia, where Aborigines still used to make flint tools.

The Bronze Age

It is certain Iron was known before Bronze, but it was scarce and bronze was easy to work.

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, about 90% copper 10% tin, but this varied a great deal.

The oldest code of law in the World is that of Hammurabi who lived around 2100 BC in Babylonia and who makes mention of metal knives used for surgery.

It would seem the Bronze Age started in some parts of the World around 2000 BC; Egypt had well established copper mines by 1000BC.

The Bronze Age arrives in the UK around 1300 BC, probably due to the distance separating the UK from the recognised centres of culture around the Mediterranean, and the Glacial conditions of the North of the UK.

Funny as it may seem Bronze tools have good cutting properties, bronze scissors being in great demand during World War 2 in Munitions factories to avoid sparking associated with ferrous tools!

We have even been asked to supply some a few years ago for use on oil rigs for the same reason.

The Iron Age

Evidence suggests that following the Aryan race in its travels from Asia across Europe will show how the use of iron originally spread.

The beginnings of metal working in Iron are believed to have started around the Black sea in Asia Minor around 1400 BC, although it was know earlier in Egypt and other areas it was not considered an important material for metal work use.

The Etruscans had working Iron ore mines on Elba in 600BC and seem to have supplied and introduced it to the Greeks and then been the main suppliers to the Romans.

The Romans became experts in iron cutlery and produced scissors by 1AD that would be recognised as such today. Earlier scissors dating from around 250BC have been found in France and Germany and are of the sheep shear type.

Iron is produced from Iron ore, through smelting, which dissolves the out of the non ferrous elements of the iron ore.

The first furnaces being known as Renn or Bloomery , basically a pit filled with iron ore and charcoal.

In the early days, natural draft systems where improved to force air into the furnaces , and then brick shafts like Chimneys’ added, and air forced through with the use of bellows, hand powered and then driven by water wheels. This would look not too different from a black smiths forge.

It was around the 13th Century that the furnaces got enlarged to what where called lump furnaces, and around the 16th Century improved to the flux furnaces.

The 18th Century saw the Blast furnace come into being. The 16th Century Flux furnace produced around 1,500 Kg of pig iron a day and consumed around 3,700 Kg of Charcoal.

You need to remember it took around 400kg of dry wood to make 100kg of charcoal.

So a lot of wood land was used to make 10 tons of iron around 2.5 acres.

PIG IRON – contains around 3-5% carbon, and to make steel fit to be hardened the carbon needs reducing to 0.3-1.7% and side elements like sulphur and phosphorous need burning off at around 2000C

Blades are hardened by heating to around 800C then quenching them quickly in water or oil.

The Cutlers Craft

As can be seen from the time of flint cutting items, skill and crafts man ship went into producing items with a cutting edge.

But it was around the 10th and 11th Century as steel production started to develop and advance in Germany and England that the cutlery trade as we understand today started to develop.

It has to be remembered that these early craftsmen, had to make everything from scissors, razors, pocket knives, daggers, swords, sheep shears, and there own tools like hammers, files and tongs.

In the early days, most Capital cities and major towns had some sort of cutlery production.

The Most famous towns for cutlery production being in France, Germany, Spain & England.

Sheffield was perhaps the foremost for the quality of blades, as this is the area they concentrated on rather than decoration to handles and blades.

Geography plays a major part in the development of Sheffield and the other Important Cutlery Cities as they developed.

Sheffield has seven rivers which provided water power, high quality coal is found near, and grindstones where quarried locally.

Benjamin Huntsmen invented Crucible steel around 1742 in Sheffield, and this is still the basis for steel production World wide and revolutionised steel production, at the time, with blades from the new material being exported in great quantity world wide from Argentina, to the famous razor makers in Hamburg Germany.

Stainless steel was first introduced in 1914, following work by Harry Brearley in Sheffield, although it met much resistance from the craftsmen who had been making cutlery for generations in the same way, as the new material could not be forged by hand, it was self hardening, and it was not so easy to grind.

In some strange way this was the start of the fall of the Sheffield Industry, as when demand started to rise for this new cutlery and pressure was applied to the manufactures to bring prices down in line with that of the old style cutlery, the craftsmen had to reduce the manual skill and quality began to decline.

The engineers of the 20th century began to introduce machines for mass production and in many ways the time honoured skill of the craftsmen began to pass.

In 1896 England’s exports of knives was more than the rest of the Worlds combined.

With England having around 50%, Germany 30% France 10% the USA 3%, around half the German exports being to Europe and the other half to the USA, while England did the bulk of exports to the USA, they did nearly all to Asia , Oceania, and Africa.

Today Sheffield manufacture is close to nothing, in real terms of volume

France

France was an important cutlery making country from the middle ages until recent times, they produced great quantities of cutlery with decorative features second to none, but they did not develop a great export trade.

Books could and have been written about the great manufacturing towns in France, and we may try and add a few pages about them in due course.

The numbers of workers in the trade in France around 1900 was around the same as Sheffield, and Germany at about 17,000.

France today still has a cutlery industry mainly in the Thiers area and the rivers that flow through the villages near by. Once again the geography paying an important role in the development as a cutlery centre.

Germany

Knives and cutlery products where being produced in central Europe in ancient times, influenced by visitors from many peoples, Latin, Roman, Egyptian, Nordic Gaelic, etc.

The Romans and there invading armies, are often given credit for introducing good quality craftsman ship to the area, as there knife and dagger makers followed the invading armies.

In this way numerous towns, like Toledo, Madrid, Seville, in Spain, numerous towns in Holland, Belgium, France, established reputations in the art of general metal work in medieval days. The ancient cutlery centres of Italy, Florence, Rome and Milan as well as other Italian towns all competed with the craftsmen of Germany’s old cutlery centres.

Hamburg was once renowned for its high quality razors, and Sheffield Companies at one time exported blades to be ground there, the Hamburg Companies importing Sheffield steel at the same time as they found it superior for there blades.

Tuttlingen also had a high reputation for cutlery, though now is known for surgical items.

Styer in Austria was also an important cutlery town back in 1400 with about 1,000 workers, al though they never exported a great deal.

Of all these towns Solingen in Germany was the principal competitor to Sheffield.

It is said that workers of Damascus set it on its way back in the 12th Century.

By 1472 Solingen workers made top quality swords, and three separate guilds had been set up by 1472, to cover grinders, the finishers, and the knife makers.

Mechanical hammers driven by water wheels were used for forgings in Solingen during the 16th century.

Again geography playing an important part with water power from the rivers etc.

The use of water wheels for forging in Solingen was well before blades where made this way elsewhere.

Sheffield still used hand forging into the 20th Century, although power from water wheels was used at about the same time to operate grinding and converting iron into steel rods.

An attempt is supposed to have been made at the time in 1687 by the Solingen hand forgers to stop the production of these forgings known as ‘goffed ‘blades.

Steam power was introduced in Solingen around 1850 about 30 years after its introduction in Sheffield.

Many of the modern 20th century improvements in the Solingen industry were introduced under strict regulations, apprenticeship training schemes, and fixed price lists. Quality of production in both Solingen and Sheffield tends to have declined post Second World War, as high demand from a cutlery starved World and limited capacity, often resulted in hurried and careless work.

The same was true for the other reaming cutlery centres as well.

By the 1960’s Solingen quality had been improved again, and the Solingen manufacturers had invested in modern machinery and manufacturing methods, which began to give them a competitive edge over rivals in Sheffield.

Why did the Sheffield industry die and Solingen continue?

Why can't we make scissors, knives etc in Sheffield is a question that I get asked a lot!

There is no simple easy answer to this, the same question could be asked about car production, and many other products.

The start of stainless steel becoming very widely available and at lowers prices as developing nations laid down rolling mills etc during the 1960’s plays a part.

The improvements to plastics, making kitchen knives from flat stainless strip with moulded handles, not requiring skills as such, the development of scissors made this way, certainly played a part.

The need for UK companies to make profits for share holders, when Cutlery Companies in Solingen and France are often family concerns, and able to take the long term view and invest in new machinery etc, plays a part.

There have not been big profits to be made in Europe in Cutlery for many years, as it is a mature business.

Many of the Sheffield Companies being very old had large factory sites, near the centre of town and in the 1960’s found themselves targets for asset strippers, as the land values of the factory had much greater value than the business generated .

The cost of relocating, particularly things like there forge and drop hammers, meant they simply stopped trading and the factories got redeveloped.

Young people did not want to join the trade, many jobs where not clean, or in great working conditions and the pay an apprentice receives was very small relative to jobs in Nationalised industries.

So for many reason production declined.

In France there is a tradition for buying French cutlery and brands, some designs and shapes being more for there own taste.

The same is true for Germany with Germans taking pride in having Solingen cutlery.

We here in England tend to buy on price and do not care too much where some thing is made.

These are only personal observations, and comments, and of course there are exceptions.

Many Solingen Companies have gone out of business as well over the last 10 years, as production has moved to China and elsewhere, and many large retailers import direct and use there own brands on items.

The type of cutlery used has changed, at one time every man and boy carried a pocket knife in England, and now no one does or would in every day life.

Sheffield never really produced chef’s knives as they did not forge thick heavy blades, as the Germans have done and of course the increase in cooking as a hobby has increased so sales of relatively expensive professional chefs type knives has increased.

Some Solingen manufactures found a good niche market in high quality hairdressing scissors, again some thing Sheffield never really produced, all though this production has moved away from Germany a lot over recent years.

I have been privileged over the years to visit many cutlery centres and manufacturers,

In Japan, China, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, and of course Solingen. Even though we often did not speak the same language, I have all ways found that the real cutlery craftsmen understand each other, as if the grinding dust gets under your skin.

The way they hold, test and try products, and appreciate the quality.

Sadly they seem to be a dying breed replaced by sales and marketing people, who understand only price and not how and why the item is made.

The ability of people to copy something with no appreciation of how and why it was designed used and manufactured in the first place seems to be more the norm today.

On my first visit to China over 20 years ago, I ordered some nice scissors, and went to see the factory, who at the time were busy making Hurricane lamps, as this was all part of the National Light products, nationalised industry in China at the time.

They made what they got told to make!

They made the scissors though and the quality was ok.

I have met a few Factory owners in China over the last few years, which have the love of the product and strive now to make quality, so perhaps the craftsmen will appear in new places and in new markets.

I have not had chance here as yet to include the details on the great cutlery made in Japan, and still made on a small scale there, or the excellent pocket knives made in Switzerland.

There have also been many good knives produced in the USA, and the American manufacturers did much to advance mass production of Cutlery.

I hope this basic information has been of use and answered a few of your questions.

The Sheffield Cutlery Industry

Sheffield has been the home of cutlery for the best part of the last thousand years. Although there were many knife making and cutlery centres in Britain over the centuries, Sheffield became the pre-eminent centre for many reasons.

The first recorded mention of Sheffield cutlery is in the inventory of King Edward III's possessions in the Tower of London in 1340. King Edward must have valued the knife as he was very specific about leaving it to a beneficiary in his will. In the 1380's Chaucer wrote about a Sheffield knife in the Reeves tale, and can be seen wearing such a knife in the portraits that were painted of him. By the 1580's, Sheffield penknives were being recommended as the first choice for schoolmasters in The Writing Schoolmaster.

Sheffield has good natural resources. Five rivers flow from the surrounding hills down through the Sheffield area and powered the water wheels which drove grinding wheels for the cutlers. Coal for smelting and forging, and iron ore for making the blades were also both mined locally. Finally, nearby quarries provided the sandstone for the grindstones with which items were sharpened and polished, and it was the quality of these grindstones and the large number of water powered workshops using them that really gave Sheffield the edge above other cutlery making centres.

Another reason for the success of Sheffield's cutlery industry must be due to the system of organisation. Under George Talbot, Lord of the Manor of Sheffield, the cutlers operated under a system of guilds, with the Lord of the Manor at the head. Unfortunately, when George Talbot's successor died in 1617, the guild system fell down, as there was nobody to take over in the position of authority. The Sheffield cutlers were so concerned by the disorganisation, that 4 years later, they presented a bill to Parliament to form a new controlling body. This Act of Parliament formed the Company of Cutlers of Hallamshire (which covers the whole Sheffield area) which was established in 1624, and under this new authority, the cutlery industry flourished. The company is still around today, and although it lost it's authority in the early 19th Century, it still has some important functions, and is relevant today in Sheffield.

The Sheffield Cutlery trade grew throughout the 17th and early 18th Centuries, gaining extra growth when new developments in increasing the quality of steel gave the cutlers a finer basic product to work with. Specialisation of tasks also helped the industry to grow, and by the mid 19th Century, the Sheffield cutlery trade was very large, employing ten thousand people, and by the end of the Century more than fifteen thousand. In comparison, London had only one thousand, and then 500 cutlers at those dates. By the 1920's a new development - stainless steel started to be used, developed by a Sheffield metallurgist, and it is now the standard material for knife blades made today.

Knives

We always talk about knives and forks, never forks and knives, probably because the knife has the longest history. The first very simple cutting edges were made from flint and date back 2 million years, but recognisable blades were made out of stone from five hundred thousand years years ago during the palaeolithic period (500,000-10,000 B.C.)

By the Neolithic period four to seven thousand years ago (5000-2000 B.C.), stone blades were being polished and were fitted with crude handles along the top edge of the blade, which were made of wood or animal hides to protect the users hand.

Metal blade knives were first made from copper and then bronze in the years 3000-700 B.C., and they have many features that we still retain today. A bolster and tang was added so that a handle could be fitted to the end of the blade (just as they are today), and shapes developed that can still be seen in many carving knives that are still produced today. After the bronze age came the discovery that an iron blade had a much sharper and long-lasting edge, and iron knives were widely made from about 1000 years before the birth of Christ. The Romans in particular developed many different types of knife to suit a wide number of uses (including ritual animal sacrifices and knives for cutting hair!). Knives were considered to be very important possessions, and were treasured - people had their personal eating knives which they carried with them (they would not be provided at a table), and it was not unusual for people to be buried with their personal eating knives.

Forks

Personal eating knives first appeared in Britain in the 14th Century. However, individual forks to be used with the knives were not in widely used until the the end of the 16th Century in Britain. Interestingly, it was the Italians who first started using forks, and it took more than 50 years before they were adopted by the British - the Italians were obviously much more fussy about using dirty fingers to pick up pieces of food!

It is believed that forks were first developed from a small steadying knife that was used to hold a joint of meat steady whilst it was being carved. The single point turned into a single prong, and then a two-pronged fork, much like carving forks today. Three-pronged and four-pronged versions were developed as forks became smaller and more suited to eating with, rather than carving with.

Spoons

The first spoons were very crude - scooped out of the end of a bone or an animal's horn, or made out of a shell tied onto a stick. Spoons continued to be made out of these materials for many years, even though the bronze age and iron ages when knives were being made out of metal. Very few bronze spoons have ever been found, and iron was not suited for bending into spoons.

The Romans introduced more sophisticated spoons to Britain, making them out of bone, pewter, bronze and silver. The earliest Roman spoons are simply round bowls attached to a narrow handle, but different bowl shapes evolved as time went by, becoming thinner at the handle end, and more flared at the front. When the Viking and Saxon invaders came to Britain, spoon shapes changed again, the bowl becoming leaf-shaped, with decorative ends shaped like carved acorns. As with knives, personal eating spoons would carried with a person - they would not be provided for people at a table, and were often given as Christening gifts. When Cromwell and the Puritans were in power, the decorative ends to spoons were removed and the end flattened, and the bowl changed to an elliptical (oval) shape that is now the familiar shape of a dessert spoon today.

Information about Sharpening

We are often asked about sharpening of scissors and knives etc, this is a complex subject, and it is not easy to give a few word and simple explanation.

We try to give you here some basic guide.

Why do knives become blunt?

This may sound a bit of a silly question, but in fact its not. In the case of most domestic and professionally used knives for cooking, virtually all of the loss of sharpness is as a result of damage and rounding to the cutting edge caused by contact with items you do not want to cut.

These are other knives and implements in washing, dishwashing and storing (always use a knife block or rack, never a drawer with loose knives in it, they bang against each other). If you cut hard against bone in a joint of meat etc.

Cutting boards are a major source of damage, and regular ware  when the blade is forced down on to it, try to cut if possible with only the tip of the blade contacting the board, the worse possible boards are glass and granite .

Plastic chopping boards are ok, wooden boards are better and generally cause slightly less damage than plastic also they have a natural bactericide which keeps them infection free. Paper or cardboard cutting boards are now available which are disposable and reduce cross infection between foods as they are low cost they are good in food processing industry and many boards may be used and then discarded. They have a similar wear effect on the knife as that of a wood board.

We do not currently sell chopping boards, but to reduce wear on your knives at home we recommend the use of wooden board, or plastics, never glass or granite, these will wear away your knife edge very quickly.

What is the correct angle for sharpening the edge on my knife?

The answer to this is not simple; it depends on the type of knife, how you use it and your facilities to resharpen. However through many years of manufacture and development of knives Bexfields recommends the following included edge angles as the best compromise between sharpness and edge life.

There are many web sites that go into great detail about sharpening especially in the USA, and many sharpening systems, from wet stones to electric sharpeners.

For the home user a good sharpening steel used little and often, is the way to maintain your knives, little meaning a few strokes across the steel and often once or more a week depending how often you use a particular knife.

We do not re grind knives, at Bexfields as the post costs etc make it expensive, there are some good mobile sharpeners, and we hope to provide links at some future date to those we know and approve.

The butchers and fishmongers generally understand the need to maintain there knives with sharpening every day, and include it in there good hygiene practices.

Food processors and meat packing plants where knives are in constant use really need a professional electric grinding system in place to re grind the knives on a daily or weekly basis.

What about a ceramic bladed knife? Can I sharpen these?

Yes and no, conventional sharpening steels and domestic knife sharpeners have virtually no effect on a ceramic blade especially if the edge has become chipped. Diamond sharpening steels do work, and high quality Diamond wet stones.

Unfortunately although Ceramic knives are very hard, they are as a result very brittle so liable to chip or even shatter so need treating with care and respect as they are relativity expensive to purchase.

Dishwashers & Knives

Many knife manufactures do suggest knives are washed in warm soapy water by hand, then dried and put away in a block or other storage device, and not put in a dishwasher.

The hand washing method is the best way to maintain the life of your knives but the dishwasher should not in its self cause problems for most good quality knives.

The high washing temperature makes a dishwasher unsuitable for most wooden handles on knives or any old bone handle knives you may have.

The salts used in dishwashers together with the damp environment , makes for a very corrosive atmosphere, so leaving knives for long periods in a dishwasher prior to or after washing makes the chance of corrosion on the blades much more likely.

Remember the word stainless does not mean it will not stain or corrode, it means it will stain less often, less easily.

With the right or wrong conditions depending how you look at it most stainless steel will rust or corrode.

The same rules apply to stainless steel cutlery more or less, if you leave a tea spoon in many sauces, like Mint sauce for example over night, the next day you will see discolouration caused by the abrasive environment caused by vinegar, salt etc that are presents in many sauces.

How do scissors cut?

Mechanism of cutting with scissors and shears

The scissors has three parts:

Blade, Fulcrum and Handle

The cutting force of the scissors works on the law of lever. Levers are one of the basic tools that were probably used in prehistoric times. Levers were first described about 260 BC by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes (287-212 BC).

The force applied on the blade can be calculated by length of the handle and force applied on the grip of handle. A pair of scissors is an example of two first class levers connected together at the joint known as fulcrum.

Mechanically, scissors are a first-class, double-lever with the pivot acting as the fulcrum. For cutting thick or heavy material, the mechanical advantage of a lever can be exploited by placing the material to be cut as close to the fulcrum as possible. For example, if the applied force (i.e., the hand) is twice as far away from the fulcrum as the cutting location (e.g., piece of paper), the force at the cutting location is twice that of the applied force at the handles. Specialized scissors, like bolt cutters exploit leverage by having a long handle but placing the material to be cut close to the fulcrum. Scissors cut material by applying a local shear stress at the cutting location which exceeds the material's shear strength.

Scissors

Scissors work by two blades passing against each other and pinching the item to be cut. The scissors blade is sharpened on one side only (some specialists scissors have 2 sharp edges), and is flat on the other side. The two flat sides pass against each other and the edges can then cut. (It is the grinding action which makes the scissors cut rather than a sharp edge)

Both the angle of the sharpened edge and the strength of the metal it is constructed from determines how sharp the scissors are, how long the edge will last, and what it can cut.

Do not force the scissors to cut an item. If you have to use excessive force, such as using two hands, the scissors were probably never designed to cut that kind of item. You could also be trying to cut too much at once.

Be sure the item you are cutting is clean. If you cut an item which is dirty, little pieces of grit will be pinched between the blades and damage the edges. It will be like cutting little pieces of rock.

Be sure to keep your scissors clean and dry. This is especially true after cutting wet items, such as flowers or foodstuffs. Keeping scissors dry will avoid corrosion which can damage the edge of the blades.

Scissors are a tool used for cutting thin material which requires little force.

They are used for cutting, for example: paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin plastic, food, cloth, rope, and wire. Scissors can also be used to cut hair and nails.

Unlike a knife, a pair of scissors consist of two pivoted blades, each called a scissor. Most types of scissors are not particularly sharp; it is primarily the shearing between the two blades which cuts. Children's scissors are even less sharp, and have rounded ends for safety.

Left hand information

Bexfields are scissors and cutlery specialists, so offer proper Left hand items,

Most of the products in Bexfields left hand range have been specifically designed to solve problems that are encountered by left-handers every day. It can be a real struggle for many lefties to cut a straight line, open a tin can or prepare a meal. Right-handers don’t often understand the difficulties faced by lefties in some of these quite simple every day tasks.

Scissors

The most important thing about a pair of left-handed scissors is that the left blade is always on top when viewed from above. This means that you can see the line you are cutting as you go, which is absolutely vital for accurate work. And the paper, board or material naturally moves over the thumb and under the hand to keep that clear view and accurate cut.

When using scissors, the natural hand action is to gently push with the thumb and pull with the fingers in order to keep the blades together. (This also helps put the cut on)

Only left-handed scissors will allow you to do this when using the left hand. Using right-handed scissors in this way will cause the blades to separate and the paper will just fold between the blades without cutting! (As you are pushing the blades a part) The compromise is to use a very unnatural action which will cause pain and discomfort in the short term and callus formation in the long term – not a good idea!

Some times it take a few hours to learn the change if you are left handed and been using right handle scissors for many years.

Don’t be fooled into buying scissors that are labelled as "Suitable for left or right handed use" or ambidextrous – there’s no such thing! They are just right-handed scissors with a grip that passes for use in both hands but the problem remains: they are not left-handed scissors! And it doesn't work turning a right-handed pair of scissors upside down - they are still right-handed scissors!

Try a real pair of left-handed scissors and you’ll wonder why you ever put up with the discomfort.

Sadly there are few real scissors and cutlery Companies left, many items are sold by marketing Companies who understand little if any thing of how any why the products are made.

Garden Secateurs & pruners

These are made similar to the scissors with the top blade on the left and the safety lock easily accessible to the left thumb. During the squeezing action on a right-handed pair, the blades separate for a poor cut and damage to your precious plant. A left-handed pair feels so much better and gives a perfect, clean cut every time.

Knives

There is a lot of confusion around the world as to what makes a knife left-handed, especially the knives with serrated or scalloped edges etc.

Even the knife manufacturers can’t agree! To ease the confusion, we pass on some of our extensive knowledge and research in order for you to better understand the issue.
While reading this segment, please remember that using a kitchen knife generally requires movement only at the shoulder (back and forth) and a little at the elbow (up and down): the wrist and hand remain still and straight!

At the dinner table, we ten to use a little more hand movement in order to be kind to those seated beside us.

Straight-Edged Knives
almost all straight-edged knives are bevelled (angled) toward the centre of the blade. Both sides are shaped the same and the blade is symmetrical if viewed from the point. All of these knives will perform the same way in either the left hand or the right hand. If you get poor results using these knives, you have either selected the wrong knife for the job or your technique needs adjustment.

The exception to this rule is the sashimi type knife (becoming popular this type of oriental blade).

It is bevelled on one side only to assist the chef to make very thin slices. Many actually have a concave ‘flat’ side to create an air pocket to prevent the moist meat from sticking to the blade creating a tear in the meat. There is a left-handed version and a right-handed version of the sashimi knife, the bevel being on the opposite side.

Serrated/ scalloped and fluted edge Knives
Serrated knives are generally bevelled and scalloped on one side of the blade only. Very few are centrally bevelled. The most commonly used serrated knives are bread knives and small vegetable knives; however, there are full knife sets available with serrated edges. The general rule is that the bevelled edge should lie on the outside of the bodyline the cutting side) while the flat edge is toward the centre of the body (the holding side).

Most serrated knives are designed to help stop the cut slices from sticking to the blade and tearing. The one-sided bevel helps the cut slice to peel away from the knife. If the bevel is on the wrong side, the slice doesn’t fall away but sticks to the back of the blade. There is also a natural twisting action created by the serrated knife as it cuts: the flat edge tries to go straight down while the bevelled edge causes it to curl under toward the holding side.

This natural action is counteracted by the chef’s grip on the handle: the bottom of the handle pushes against the ends of the fingers and the top pushes against the butt of the hand, giving the greatest level of comfort and control. Using a knife with the opposite bevel requires the chef to grip the knife more firmly than would otherwise be required as the handle pushes against two natural spaces in the grip. For this reason, a right-handed knife is bevelled on the right side of the blade and a left-handed knife is bevelled on the left side of the blade.

Table Knives
cutlery manufacturers generally follow tradition rather than a scientific reasoning for the way that the table knives are serrated. Formal place settings are laid out with the knives on the right side of the plate, with the sharp edge pointing out. This is why almost all cutlery sets have knives with the small serrations on the right side of the blade for presentation purposes. The small serrations make little or no difference in how these knives perform in the left hand.

Steak knives are generally bevelled on the left side of the blade in order to create a distinct difference from the regular table knives. Again, there is little difference in performance; however, many people like to purchase left-handed steak knives for presentation purposes.

The correct cutting edge on knives is a compromise between how sharp it  needs to be and how long you wish the edge to last, the sharper the less time the edge will last is a general rule, plain edge kitchen or chefs knives are generally ground at an edge angle in ° of 30-35 a table knife is around 55-60

So it is the human effort rather than the sharpness of the edge which makes a table knife cut, this is very true for a lot of restaurant knives which have seen many years use and never been  sharpened.

Can Openers

Conventional can openers cause you to hold the handles with your right hand and bring your left hand over the top to operate the cutting rotor or else hold onto the handles backwards. Either way, you are tied up in knots and the opening of the lid is often unsuccessful as the blade skips across the top of the lid. Left-handed can openers allow a natural action and a clean cut – just the way they were intended to be!

Corkscrews

The most comfortable, natural action for all people is to twist the hand from the centre to the outside (external rotation). For right-handers, it is a clock-wise twist. For left-handers, it is an anti-clockwise twist. Using a standard corkscrew is not a natural action for lefties and it can be downright uncomfortable.

Pencil Sharpeners

The same rule applies as for the corkscrews. A left-hander’s natural rotation means that they twist the pencil anti-clockwise in the barrel. A left-handed sharpener has the blade set specifically for that motion - very important for children.

Left Handed Trivia

Yes they have a day devoted to Left hand people,

Every year around the world, they celebrate there uniqueness on Left-Hander’s Day. August 13th it is also an opportunity to show all the right-handers just how difficult it can be living in our modern world.

Despite the obstacles, there have been many prominent left-handers in history and today: physicist Albert Einstein, artists Leonardo da Vinci & Michelangelo, musician Paul McCartney, children’s author John Larkin, actors Nicole Kidman & Judy Davis, cartoonist Matt Groening, tennis stars Mark Woodforde & John McEnroe.

Left-handedness occurs in 10-15% of the population

Males are slightly more likely to be left-handed than females

Your chances of being born left-handed increase with your parent’s left-handedness:

It is generally accepted that the hand you write with defines your handedness. However,

Many people use their other hand for other major activities, such as throwing a ball or batting

Left-handers are generally more capable of using their right hand for tasks than right-handers are using their left hand. If you are ambidextrous, you can perform almost all tasks equally with both hands. Less than 1% of the population is truly ambidextrous.

Left-handers generally wear their wristwatch on the right arm. This is to prevent the paper from catching on the watchband and tearing whilst writing. It also protects the watch as the right hand is used for fewer tasks and is therefore less likely to be bumped and damaged.

One in four Apollo astronauts was left-handed – more than twice the general population.

The animal kingdom also has its left-handers. The majority of polar bears prefer to use their left front paw while nearly half of all gorillas, chimpanzees and cats show a preference for the left side.

Women’s clothes button up on the opposite side to men’s clothing. This comes from Victorian times when the English upper class ladies were dressed by their right-handed maids

The Ancient Romans invented the handshake. By extending the right hand, which most soldiers used to hold their weapons, it showed they had no intention of harming the other person. This was only a custom until Julius Caesar made it law. Caesar was left-handed and he wanted to keep his stronger weapon-hand free while shaking hands. This gave him an advantage if he met a secret enemy!

In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, children were often beaten to force their use of the right hand. Others had their left hand bandaged to tied behind their back In some African, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures today, the left hand is still considered to be ‘dirty’ or ‘the bathroom hand’.

On a more serious note

Left-Handedness Is Natural.

It is built into our genetic makeup. You and your partner created your little left-hander. Even if you are both right-handed, a left handed person can be born into the household!

All it means is that the child's right side of the brain is more dominant than the left, especially in motor control (muscle movement and co-ordination). A left hander will naturally go to do a task with his/her left hand. They can often do it with their right hand, but with a huge amount of effort, concentration and training. Some just can't - they have to use their left hand. Many left-handers are labelled as being awkward, through no fault of their own - they are just trying to do what their body says is natural, but the tools they are using don't suit.

We usually don't see a child's handedness come out strongly until they are around 3 years of age. Before then, we can see glimpses of it in activities but don't be surprised if the preferred hand changes a few times - they're just exploring which is the better hand to use! Some babies will be observed to use their left hand to pull the dummy out of the mouth or to grab the bottle and these may turn out to be the ones who have a very dominant left hand later on.

Left-Handedness Is Not A Handicap.

Our handedness is something that we can't change, although many will try. In years past, children had their left hand tied behind their back (and worse) in an effort to force the child to write with the right hand. This resulted in children with very low confidence and self-esteem, and adults today with very poor handwriting.

Thankfully, we are a little more enlightened as a society today and left-handedness is now accepted and encouraged. Developing a child's strengths is one of the cornerstones in today's education process, and their handedness plays a big part in that. Also, there are now products available that help the left-hander to develop and grow in confidence and skills using their natural abilities that just weren't available before.

Left-handed children need to be taught to perform skills in a left-handed fashion, just as right-handed children are taught to do things right-handedly. Anyone who thinks it does not matter which hand a child uses should try going through just one day performing all manual tasks with the non-preferred hand.”

Left-handed students should always be seated to the left of a right-handed student to prevent bumping elbows while writing. An easy left-handed writing style is now being promoted to form their letters and words legibly without smudging. And the students should be positioned in the centre of the classroom to help reduce mirror writing. Even in the computer age, we will always need to be able to write clearly and comfortably!

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