I found that the phrase "be cut out for" is used only in negative sentences (for example, "He's not cut out for teaching"). Is it true? Or can I make a statement like "I feel like I'm cut out for this job"?
Learn English – Usage of “be cut out for”
expressions
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I don't know how bad it would mean, but the meaning when you are speaking will depend upon your voice modulation, facial expression and overall body language. For example, An accentuated 'not comparable' with a disappointing or disgusting look may imply its inferiority.
In written form, the meaning will depend upon the overall write-up. If you go on to praise the film in your next sentences, then 'not comparable', here, is used in superlative context. Eg:
The latest pirates movie is not comparable to the previous versions ...(and go on to follow it up by)... I'm like Wow!
As a stand alone written statement, It can be perplexing to the reader.
Summary
The American cut your stick, to die, comes from the British cut your stick, to depart, which dates back to at least 1813.
Americanisms
Uncle Tom's Cabin by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852 so let's check an almost contemporary dictionary.
Maximilian Schele de Vere's Americanisms; the English of the New World (1872) says on page 594:
Irish origin?
The OED has the British English sense of departing from 1825 but with no etymology.
The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2001) based on the original by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810 – 1897) offers an Irish origin:
I must cut my stick--i.e. leave. The Irish usually cut a shillelah bfore they start on an expedition, Punch gives the following witty derivation:--
"Pilgrims on leaving the Holy Land used to cut a palm-stick, to prove tey had really been to the Holy Sepulchre. So brother Francis would say to brother Paul, ' Where is brother Benedict ?' 'Oh (says Paul), he has cut his stick ! ' — i.e. he is on his way home."
OED antedating
The OED can be antedated in Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1823, page 107 -- but not in the 1788 or 1796 editions) which simply says:
CUT ONE'S STICK. To be off. Cant.
Further antedatings
Further antedatings can be found in Othello-travestie: In Three Acts, with Burlesque Notes in the Manner of the Most Celebrated Commentators and Other Curious Appendices by John Poole (and William Shakespeare) (page 8):
Roderigo.
Why not cut your stick ? (b)
Page 29, just before Cassio leaves:
Cassio.
I'll cut my stick.
And in the extensive footnotes:
Given the subtitle of the book -- "with Burlesque Notes in the Manner of the Most Celebrated Commentators" -- I don't think we can trust these notes to be real, and therefore the 1597 to be fictional, but they are at least 1813 examples.
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Best Answer
The idiom be cut out for means
As you see, the dictionary notes that it is usually used in a negative formation. The example sentence is, in fact, negative: "I'm just not cut out to be a policeman."
Most native speakers would probably agree that the negative variation is the more standard one. They might even cringe at the positive variation (or at least raise an eyebrow).
But still, the positive variation is perfectly acceptable. In other words, it is perfectly fine to say: "He is cut out to be a policeman."
To see this, just consult the results here. But note that some of these results contain another idiomatic construction: "We have our work cut out for us", which means (roughly) "We're going to have a tough time with this work" (here). Although this idiom is mixed in with the results, the positive use of be cut out for is nonetheless present.