I don't think I would risk it myself use an old fashioned butchers steel or stone.

I don't know if it's any help but, at the bottom of this page under G there are a lot of sharpeners for different garden tools.

Thanks. that means i have to find where the steel is in hubby's garage! dont ask but the bread knife will be there too.

Once a year we have a knife grinder bring his cart round our village but never know when and I missed him this year.

We have to be careful that it is only myself that sharpens the kitchen knives, being left handed I hold the stone in my right hand. When himself sharpens he holds in his left... makes for problems with the blade

i've not seen ours for years. I suspect he is no longer with us. he looked 100 + when i last saw him and that must have been 5yrs or more ago.

Our local butcher will sharpen kitchen knives if I take them in to him... have been known to with the really big ones

now that is a good idea mg. we have the same problem with the baldes. hubby is a southpaw too.

if you know a joiner he will sharper your knive/'s better than anyone' hooks sythes spades,a round stone for a fine edge and one that last use an oil stone and put a shallow or longe edge on the tool, I use a grind stone but you must know what you are doing.

come to think of it hubby has an oil stone and a grind stone. the concern is the blade is curved and hubby is left handed and he hones blades to suit the way he cuts. I must sweet talk him into doing it for me.

being left handed is not a problem ,it is the same as being right handed but the other way round, and as you sharpen along the edge not acros it what is the problem, but a grind stone you will have to remove the guard and the rest, I use a hand grinder, but as I say if you are not used to them do not use them , use a round syth stone like you use a steel,

PS don't forget your hoe, a sharp hoe stops blisters and bachake lol

the hoe is constantly sharp as i run it along the concrete. I have kitchen knives just for me coz the balde shape does make a difference. and whilst slightly anberdextrus dont have those for knife skills. :o)
hubby can do it , he is insured :o)

I am anberdextrus so may be I am missing something'' but have never come across left or righthanded knives or tools,only as a joke like sending someone for a lefthanded spaner or a long wate, left handed people in the army used to have a problem firing the old 303 rifel , but even that has been overcome, you have me confused now SBG,

its the way you angle the blade that has been honed. one way the blade glides better. a bit like the nib of a quality fountain pen. scissors are notoriously difficult to use left handed. scalpel blades are honed differently too if you go for top quality ones.
my uncle used to say ' there are 2 things you should never lend your best friend for fear of them being ruined.
1 your fountain pen and 2 your wife . in that order. :o)
my pinking shears dont cut properly when in my left hand either, its due to the angle the blades are at to the fabric.

fountain pen yes' and hand saw, no two people write the same way or use a saw the same way, but scalpel's and pinking shears you are on a diferent planate than me, beem me up scottie'' lol

i am a biologist cliffo and dressmake in the very little spare time i have. :o)

I'm a southpaw as well SBG and yes scissors and knives are never the same for me either. I sharpen them for me ie: by holding the steel in my right hand and Carol always complains that they aren't sharp even though I've just sliced through newspaper with them!!!!!!

Cliffo I long for left handed secateurs which do exist but I'm too mean to go and buy! I am, just about ambidextrous BUT I always write and cut things with my left hand. It makes a major difference whether a blade of any description has been sharpened to use in your left or right hand, as I do 99% of the cooking and Mr MB is the chief dishwasher, all knives in the house are sharped by me so that I can use easily. Until reading SBG's enquiry I'd never considered sharpening secateurs - but I will now!

i was beginning to think i was imagining it. thanks for the 'support' ian. Carol and i have a lot to put up with, with you southpaws! nothing personal mg a you are the southpaw in this case. My seceteurs have one blade and a flat cutting against blade. if you know what i mean.

Huh it is us 'southpaws' who have a lot to put up with - though I am not really one, cane even write with my right hand if desperate!

i can write with both though the right hand is neater. I had to learn to do a lot left handed when i broke my right collarbone when i was 15. teachers were very mean then. mind you i enjoyed the admiration i got from people. I can even write with both hands at the smae time as long it is the same word.

Did you know that buying just about anything 'left handed' usually costs 30% more than the same item for a right handed person?

yes i did. its because they have to have new machines/moulds etc. and 1 in 10 people are left handed. supply and demand i'm afraid.

as I say I am proberly missing somthing but since I lost two fingers and the sinues in the other two on my left hand I do every thing with my right hand, I used to use which ever was the handist but haveing retired ha ha I do not use a lot of tools , although when I give a frend a hand in his gurage like today there are somethings I can do which he has problems with he being left handed ,I will have to ask him about tools , I certainly have no problem useing any of his tools, and I sharpen all his chisles and tidy his screwdrivers,

hubby reckons i am ambedextrus in the garage too. i find its a question of space with many tools. I also knit left handed. thats coz i learnt by sitting opposite an eldery aunt and 'mirrored' her actions. One of hubby's mates cant use his ball gouges on the lathe coz of the way he has ground them for his use. mind you i dont like the vibrations from the lathe so i dont try.

SBG if you are geting vibrations then you are taking too big a bite,

no i dont use the lathe. The 'buzz' of the machinery gets to me. It is properly set up before you suggest it needs re doing its the 'frequency' it runs at. I had trouble finding an electric sewing machine that didnt work at a specific frequency too. finally did but it was a long wait.

I understand that, SBG. We have a blender/food processor thingy in the kitchen that goes straight through me! It's not loud or unballanced but the (in your words) frequency drives me mad!!!

lol :o)

even hate the washing machine on full spin :o(

By the way, I didn't think about the tooling changes required for left handed implements! It makes sense now!!! :~))

Maybe I 'should' go and buy those left handed secateurs...

use the xmas excuse then mg, it works for me every time.

well our son ws asking what I would like for Christmas... I can, ad do, use normal ones with my left hand but long for a pair that sit properly :-)

go on then get in early; just incase he opts for the bedsocks option. one of my brothers bought our mum bedsocks for 4 yrs on the trot until i took him to one side and threatened to strangle him with them :o)

SBG I am not about finding fault,I may seam a bit sharp ( age) you will be old yourself one day so stop laughing lol, I just wont to help were I can,I have used tools all my life , well not yet I havent, I hope ,but all ways had to make do with what I had or make the tools I needed,so I find it hard to understand people needing specal tools I don't know if it was you or someone else who said about the pruners haveing a flat on one side and a blade on the other ,how do you change that may be bend the handles the other way, PS Hay can you get lefthanded nail clipers I could do with them as I have a full set on my right hand lol

Cliffo using secateurs for right handed folk in my left hand the latch which keeps them open or shut catches on my hand and them they jam. I have admired the left handed ones for ages in our local garden centre but they ARE expensive due to the fact taht so few are made, same with a grafting knife but that does not worry me happy to let Mr MB do the grafting. A friend accidently bought a pair of left handed dressmakers scissors she simply could not use them in her right hand so I got new scissors, my pinking shears were left handed too! Sadly time and arthritic hands means I don't sew or knit anymore.

Our local nurseryman gives talks to gardening clubs. He is left handed. If he is doing a propogation talk he will call up one of the audience and invite them to prepare some cuttings with his knife. After they have made a complete mess of it he will explain about the left handed knife. If right handed people have difficulty with a left handed knife it follows that left handed people will have problems with a conventional (right handed) knife. The same applies to other bladed tools.

my secetuers have an upper blade that cuts onto a flat edge/blade. you wouldnt be able to bend the handles if that was what you are suggesting as they are strong / made of steel.
left handed nail scissors yes but clippers are a curved blade that work in either hand thats why they were developed.

SBG, I ment in the manufactor,my paper hanging scissors have two blades sharpensd on one sideand and are to pass eachother,with a loop for fingers and a loop for the thum, and work the same in either hand, my nail clippers cut by closeing togather with the said curve but can be used in either hand, the leaver on my secateurs, the leaver to hold them closed is a nusens in either hand, and I ashore that your nurserymans knife I would not even notice the differance, I agree that in the past cagiehanded the name alone must have made you feal different, you were made to write with your right hand infact the way left handed children were treated was stupid in the extreem,but today most things are made to suit which ever is your strong hand, and no one expects to be treated different today, I may get a few backs up over this but don't you think that it is mostly in the mind a throughback from when people were stupid towards you.

Cliffo, whether YOU think it is necessary or not is, to be honest, beside the point. Left handed people do need tools designed for their use take a look at http://www.growsonyou.com/shop/product/10796 to see left handed secateurs. I can also promise you that unless you used your left hand you would not be able to use his left handed grafting knife - I've watched far too many right handed folk try and fail.

Whilst Cliffo might be of the opinion that left handedness is all in the mind I bet that all the kids that got the tawse/belt/cane at school for being left handed have a different opinion.

not quit what I said BH'I know what left handed children used to go through, I said earler , which you could not have botherd to read' that the way they were treated was stupid in the extream, but they sufferd nothing conpaired with the dyslectic (I think that is how it is spelt ) I did a corse on teaching adults reading and writing,and we were given a page to read and no one could make any sence out of it, and we were told that is what it is like for dyslectic people and we were taught to read it,I just think that you are so used to being left handed you have not noticed the changes ,yes you can still get things for left handed people, and that must make it more confortable for them, but dont blame me for not being dissimulate, it is called being strate,, no hard fealings for being miss quoted.

i think it is time to say a big thanks for the contribtions to my dilema.

hope santa delivers the goods mg :o)

me to SBG, I am now going to stop following this question