Restoring Old Handcuffs, Nickel Finish

I have a pair of handcuffs I'd like to restore. The nickel has wore off part of them. I read somewhere in this forum that there is a painted enamel that some collectors use to replace the worn nickel. That they paint the cuffs with this stuff? Is this true, dose it work, or look good, and where do you buy it?

Or dose anyone have anything else that may work or other suggestions?

I have never heard of such a thing.....

I have a pair of handcuffs I'd like to restore. The nickel has wore off part of them. I read somewhere in this forum that there is a painted enamel that some collectors use to replace the worn nickel. That they paint the cuffs with this stuff? Is this true, dose it work, or look good, and where do you buy it?

Or dose anyone have anything else that may work or other suggestions?

I can't imagine a paint product that would replicate the finish of nickle plating. You might speak with a gunsmith about having the plating repaired. They sometimes get into that with nickle plated firearms. Similar to handcuffs, they must be careful to maintain the fit.

I would personally be reluctant to replate an old artifact unless they really in bad condition. Replating or rebluing generally reduces the collector's value of an artifact. With firearms, the destruction of value can be dramnatic. Others here are more expert in the value of handcuffs, so I'll defer to them.

I believe the cuffs would need to be disassembled to replate them. That would be difficult to do on most cuffs without damaging orat least altering them.

I have a pair of handcuffs I'd like to restore. The nickel has wore off part of them. I read somewhere in this forum that there is a painted enamel that some collectors use to replace the worn nickel. That they paint the cuffs with this stuff? Is this true, dose it work, or look good, and where do you buy it?

Or dose anyone have anything else that may work or other suggestions?

Hi to all,

I don´t recommend such a reparation made at home at all.

As an amateur constructor and collector, I have been interested in various surfaces for handcuffs - nickel, chrome, blackening and so on and technologies. And of course I have been studying how to repair the surfaces during the reparations of handcuffs.

Reparation of nickel and chorme is very difficult and needs very good technical backgroung. However I have got several very detailed technical descriptions of these procedures - directly from the factories and laboratories, it´s almost impossible to make this finish at home with normal equipment. In addition nickel surface is originally intended as lower layer for chromme only (in machinery industry). Both nickel and chrome needs very smooth surface, each asperity is visible. So there is a great problem with the remains of old nickel layer - where old nickel layer is there will be "hill" on the new nickel layer and in areas where is old nickel peeled there will be "hollows" in new surface.

Reparation of blackening is more difficult and in addition this procedure is usually poisonous!!

I don´t repair nickel or blackening on my cuffs at all. No of us have original technical documentation from the manufacturer and to tell the truth technical procedures have been changed during the ages. So I have the opinion that if we repair the surface and don´t use absolutely original procedure, we destroy the cuffs. They will have no historical value. I don´t know if you agree with this opinion. But I think that all cuffs represent certain level of technological, constructional and technical abilities of the period they were made in, their manufacturer. They represent these ages and that´s necessary to preserve this standard of manufacturing. Not make a modern surface on them with the use of modern procedures and machines.

Best wishes

Josef
Czech Republic
http://cz-pouta.wz.cz

I have a pair of handcuffs I'd like to restore. The nickel has wore off part of them. I read somewhere in this forum that there is a painted enamel that some collectors use to replace the worn nickel. That they paint the cuffs with this stuff? Is this true, dose it work, or look good, and where do you buy it?

Or dose anyone have anything else that may work or other suggestions?

I couldn't agree more. Well said. I might clean surface dirt off of a cuff, but I never try to repair the finish.
Stan

I have a pair of handcuffs I'd like to restore. The nickel has wore off part of them. I read somewhere in this forum that there is a painted enamel that some collectors use to replace the worn nickel. That they paint the cuffs with this stuff? Is this true, dose it work, or look good, and where do you buy it?

Or dose anyone have anything else that may work or other suggestions?

My rule of thumb, which applies to guns as well, is to clean with nothing more aggressive than a soft cloth and gun oil, a toothbrush, and a dental pick to gently remove turds from the corners. You can take a surprising amount of crud off that way, but ya gotta be patient.

That patina is valuable.