Eye-Dominance
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Watching a DVD by Ron Herman, he was talking about How eye-dominance plays a part in making a straight cut when sawing. He said people that were right handed and left eye dominant, or vise versa would have the most trouble, as they would tend to lean over to one side and make a bevel cut.
I have had this trouble my self, he suggests making a block to keep you straight and square, till you learn how to hold your body in the right position. Could be worth a try I think 😉
Cheers 🙂
I find it interesting how other areas/endeavors of my life come into play with woodworking. In the post for hand tools vs. machines I wrote a little about the contraversy of hand painting art vs. digital painting art and technology applied in that area.
Here too with eye dominance, my experience as a pool (billiards/snooker) player comes into play. Many people start playing pool, but, never really think about eye dominance. To get better, they just learn to adjust through trial and error for what works. If they knew about eye dominance, they would cut down on their learning time. The major difference as I see it between pool and sawing (or even things like cutting dovetails for that matter) is that when playing pool, you have shot after shot after shot…. each being only a few seconds apart. In one hour you can get in a hundred repetitions easily. Not so with sawing. Therefore, you need someone who has pointed it out to you and you need thought and focus to cut down the learning curve otherwise you may never correct this especially as a part-time woodworker.
I am a lefthander and am right eye dominant,i work in construction almost all of my working life and had never heard about this untill my interest in real woodworking began.
I have always tought that sawing straight just wasn’t my thing ,and there was nobody around who could tell me why i couldn’t do this or give me some simple advice.
I seriously began to doubt myself in almost everything,i knew my stance was correct and i hold my saw correct and i even began to think that i did those things wrong.
And now , knowing about the dominant eye and aligning this eye with my saw and saw line and the huge step forward i made with my sawing, i wounder how many people there are not knowing about this and keep on struggling.
I think this should be one of the first things they must teach you as soon as possible,it is very simple to tell and teach someone and it can be the difference between failure and succes both proffesionel and private.
Lopik - Netherlands
Thank you Ken,
this is exactly what i mean,a simple solution explained in seconds for a problem that could take years to figure out by yourself.
My young nephew wants to be a Carpenter and i doubt they wil tell him(or even know about this) at his school.
Lopik - Netherlands
Eye dominance comes up in a lot of activities. It’s one of the things learned about early in the shooting sports, specially trap and skeet. If one sights down the barrel with the non-dominant eye, it guarantees a miss about 99.8% of the time.
One of the many techniques that shooters use to overcome the problem is to obscure the non-dominant eye. Prevent it from taking control. Imagine a right handed shooter with a left dominant eye. A small round opaque dot on the left lens of the shooting glasses (everyone wears safety glasses) is enough to do the trick. Give it a try.
Ken, that eye dominance test is mind-blowing! Many thanks. I am right- handed and left eye dominant. Who’d a thunk it? Juryaan, what exactly did you do to adjust your sawing technique. I can’t quite see what you mean (perhaps I’m looking at it through my right eye!)
Thanks again, Mick.
It seems I am a righty in both arm and eyeball and I still struggle sawing. Am I suppose to be looking down the saw with my right eye when sawing? I’ve always looked slightly off to the left when sawing on the left of the line and peek over the saw to the right when sawing on the right side of the line…
-Canada
Juryaan, what exactly did you do to adjust your sawing technique. I can’t quite see what you mean (perhaps I’m looking at it through my right eye!)
Actually my sawing technique was good ,the only thing wrong about it was that my dominant eye was on the right side of my sawing line,i am a lefty and my right eye is dominant,so i kept tilting my saw to the right because my brains told me so.
By moving my body a little more to the right(left for right handed)i can easily move my upper body and head to the left(right for right handed) so my dominant eye lines up with my sawline and my body does not get in the way of my left sawing arm.
Hope this explaines it better,don’t know if this works for you but my sawing has taken a big step forward.
P.S.
after reading my own answer i realised my sawing technique actually wasn’t that good as i thought and i did change my technique significant.
Lopik - Netherlands
Thanks juryaan, very helpful buddy. Another great technique that works for me. is to line up the reflection of the wood in the saw plate. this really helps in keeping you straight and square in both planes
Thanks for posting that Ken, very Eye Opening…. seriously though its crazy how much of a difference each eye has ( well my eyes ), I’m all right , right 🙂
DaddyChief.com - Welcome to my randomly scatty brain....
I am left handed with right eye-dominance, but I do a lot of tasks right handed (shooting a gun, cutting scissors, playing baseball and planing wood) for reasons I will never know. Perhaps I should try sawing right handed…
I remember a early podcast by Bob R. at Logan Cabinet Shoppe where he was discussing the topic of sawing to a line and eye dominance. He happens to be right handed and right eye dominant.
-Scott Los Angeles
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