right hand tool holder or left handed tool holder

[tmenyc]

Imagine the guys who decided on the RH/LH convention. I bet there was so much confusion that someone said, "Look, this is going to be the way it is and you have to live with it. You can argue all you want but it won't change anything."

As a deeply committed lefty (as if I could do anything about it...), my guess is that headstock was always on the left so the right-handed world cut cut towards it, so their direction was right rather than left. The rest of us just learn to turn right-handed. All you have to do is get clouted by the chuck once and you remember.