How to make a left-hander's life easier (or not)

It's not always easy being in the minority, but left-handers have found ways to adapt in a world dominated by and built for right-handed people. But sometimes, companies do make versions of products for the roughly 10 percent of the population that primarily uses their left hand.

Wednesday is the 22nd annual International Left-Handers Day, but why can't every day be fit for southpaws? Paul McCartney has been playing a left-handed bass since the Beatles. Manny Pacquiao has "reinvented" boxing. But what's an everyday southpaw to do? Using scissors can be tough, but here's a handful of things made with the lefty in mind.

—By Robert Ferris, Special to CNBC
Posted 13 August 2014

Many power tools and machines can be used with either hand, but some are simply made for right-handed people. Sometimes this means that a power switch is farther away from your thumb than you would like and a few tools can wreak havoc if used with the wrong hand, according to an article in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings.

Circular saws are perfect examples—they are typically designed so that the spinning blade is positioned on the outside of the hand you are using to grip the tool—away from the hand holding the material you are cutting. Therefore a circular saw built for a right-handed person is difficult and unsafe to use with the left hand.

Fortunately, left-handed circular saws and other power tools are available. On a left-handed circular saw, the blade sits to the left of the handle, so it is further away from your right hand, which you are using to hold the wood, sheet rock, or other cutting material.

Guitars, banjos, mandolins and other stringed instruments (even those played with a bow) are usually made for right-handed people, leaving lefties out. Left-handed instruments are often more expensive than right-handed counterparts because they need to be specially designed and tooled, and they obviously sell in much lower volumes. But for many players, they are worth the expense.

While with the Beatles, Paul McCartney played a left-handed bass and still plays several other stringed instruments left-handed, according to Gibson Guitar. And he's in good company. Other left-handed guitarists include Iggy Pop, Kurt Cobain, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and Jimi Hendrix. Well, actually, Hendrix took a right-handed guitar, reversed the order of the strings and played it "upside down."

Southpaws don't necessarily need to play a left-handed guitar, though. Albert King, Paul Simon, Mark Knopfler, and Duane Allman are all lefties who played right-handed, according to Gibson Guitar.

Left-handedness is thought to be an advantage in some sports—the sheer minority of lefties in the world means that in combat sports such as boxing they typically have more experience fighting right-handed opponents than the other way around. Boxers such as Manny Pacquiao and Oscar de la Hoya are both southpaw fighters, according to Vice Magazine and ESPN, respectively.

Yet, sports such as golf require left-handers to make a choice: either learn to play right-handed or spend the extra time and money hunting down a suitable set of clubs from a narrower inventory of products. It can be done, though. Major golfing pros who play on left-handed clubs include Phil Mickelson (according to his page at the Calloway Golf website), Bubba Watson (according to USA Today), and Mike Weir (according to the BBC).

The same goes for hockey sticks, baseball mitts, fencing swords and fishing reels.

The first time southpaws use scissors may be the first time in life they become aware that being left-handed might actually present some real challenges. Scissors only work when pressure is applied to the blades in the proper directions. Many right-handers may not realize this, because the vast majority of scissors are made to work with their hands.

Writing can be tough on lefties. Writing with pencils or ink can leave smudges on the page, as the heel of the hand trails the writing instruments. Spines of notebooks often get in the way. Lefties also experience writing with things like fountain pens differently—they often have to use unusual writing positions and push a pen along a page, rather than drag it in the manner most right-handed people do. Left-handers who write with fountain pens can buy special quick-drying inks that are less likely to smudge, and some companies even make special nibs (the tip of a fountain pen that dispenses ink) that they say make writing left-handed easier.

There is even a company that makes a glove designed to protect the wearer's hand from markings.

Manufacturers even make left-handed notebooks, with the binding on the right-hand side.

As with power tools, a left-hander using a firearm meant for a right-hander can be disastrous. Many guns are made with particular features on the right-hand side, so most shooters can access them easily. For instance, the safety—a button or switch that locks the trigger to keep the gun from misfiring—is often on the right-hand side. So gun manufacturers will often make special versions of firearms, bows and other gear just to suit shooters who are left-hand dominant.

Sometimes, though, lefties are out of luck. Left-handed soldiers in the U.S. military have to turn some grenades upside down in order to throw them, which has injured at least one soldier, according to Stars and Stripes.