I stumbled across this site and have found it fascinating.
I'm a retired cop, after 37 years, and many of the questions posed on your Forum about field handcuffs are things I remember.
I don't claim to be any kind of expert, but if anyone cares to know about practical experience with handcuffs from 1968 on (and stuff I gathered from those before me), let me know.
Phil:
Probably more than you want to know, but what the heck.
Dorson is right about natural oils (petroleum, whale oil, lard, etc.) gumming up the works of any metal mechanism. As the oil dries up, it leaves behind a residue. Also, natural oils will absorb dirt and grime, thereby aggravating the residue problem. To combat this, oil manufacturers began adding detergents (which are synthetic) to help dissolve the natural oil residues. The detergents do not eliminate the problem, they just make maintenance a little easier.
The first widely marketed synthetic oil was Mobil 1, which came out in the mid 1970's. In addition to automobile engines, it is a perfectly fine lubricant for just about anything; my mother used it on her sewing machine and never again had the problem of that black junk leaking out and getting on the cloth (the black junk being the natural oil residues mixed with dust).
All synthetic oils are non-detergent; they don't absorb dirt and grime, but merely keep it "suspended;" thus, there's no reason to add detergent. That's why if you use pure, synthetic oil in your car, you almost never have to change the oil, but you do have to periodically change the filter.
With handcuffs, stuff is going to get into the works, unless they stay in a desk drawer. If all you do is oil them, even on a regular basis using synthetic oil, they will still get gummed up over time. So, just do the same thing you do with a firearm. Clean it/scrub it/soak it/blow it out with gun solvent to remove the grime. Then oil it. It's a two step process.
Since it's kinda hard to put a set of handcuffs together after you've taken them apart, you can't easily scrub out the insides. So, just squirt the mechanism full of gun solvent, let it sit for a while, then blow it out with an air hose, or more gun solvent if you get the kind in an aerosol can. You'll be amazed at the crud that builds up in there.
If you have to decontaminate handcuffs, or anything else, you use a chlorine bleach solution. You put a splash of plain laundry bleach in a gallon of water, immerse (or rinse) the object in the solution for 10 seconds, and it will kill every germ and virus known to medical science. It's exactly the same thing restaurants do with all their cooking and serving utensils.
But, by decontaminating your handcuffs with the chlorine solution, you've now got water in the mechanism, which will cause rust, unless they're stainless steel. So, then you get the water out using WD40, then oil them.
In the old days, before the synthetic stuff came out, we all used kerosene. You could buy a gallon of it for less than the cost of a little bottle of gun solvent. You tossed your revolver and handcuffs in a bucket, filled it with kerosene, soaked them for a few hours, occassionally brushing them and swishing them around in the kerosene, let them air dry or blew them out with an air hose, oiled them, and went on your way. It also stunk up the house and made your wife mad at you, but it was cheap and quite effective. Also, if you had a dirty gun and an inspection was called, you dabbed a little kerosene inside your holster and hoped the smell would cause the captain to think you'd recently cleaned your gun and pass you by.
If you use handcuffs for a living, just get in the habit of cleaning them with solvent, then oiling them, on a routine basis and every time after you have to wrestle with a guy down in the dirt or mud getting the things on him. Also, spend the few extra bucks to get stainless steel S&W M-103's; they're a lot easier to keep clean. I've got one set that I used for twenty years or so and never had a problem, mainly because I cleaned and oiled them every time I cleaned my sidearm. Yeah, the finish on them is not as sexy looking as the nickel, but I never had a prisoner gripe about that.
As for running handcuffs through a dishwasher, I've heard about this for years but never knew anyone to actually do it. Unless perhaps they were stainless steel, I don't think it would be a good idea. I suspect it would get them clean, but the drying cycle would probably rust up the insides. I had a girlfriend once who ran my cast iron skillet through the dishwasher. I nearly cried when I saw the poor thing (the skillet, not the girlfriend) all covered in a fine film of light brown rust due to the heated drying cycle.
