Unknown cuff from Korea

In a high stakes eBay bidding war I managed to beat out the big guys in highly fought $5.00 Buy-it-Now show down. The cuff has no factory markings, but someone scratched Seoul on one cuff and Korea on the other. According to the seller it was found in "my grandpa's garage".

Does anyone recognize this cuff? It could be Korean or perhaps Japanese?

thanks

Joe

Hi Joe,

I had one exactly like this about 8 to 10 months ago but sold it.

Mine had no plating left on it at all and was totally rust covered.

The very same words were crudely scratched into each cuff.

I don't know about yours, but mine had a locking mechanism almost exactly like the Strauss cuffs and irons.

One partial turn to double lock, a fuller turn the other way to disable the D.L. and open the single lock.

The seller I bought mine from, also on Ebay, said that the cuff had been owned by a relative who was an MP during the Korean War.

This of course does not mean it was his duty cuff but rather that he may have brought it back to the USA after serving.

I remember being struck by how crude and unfinished it was.

Mine had sharp edges, and the straight part of the keyway for the bit of the key looked like it was carved out with some sort of tool (it was not exact on both cuffs) and was not stamped out cleanly.

The way it was made had me thinking perhaps it was Russian but the chain links look very Asian to me.

Cheers, Steve Santini

In a high stakes eBay bidding war I managed to beat out the big guys in highly fought $5.00 Buy-it-Now show down. The cuff has no factory markings, but someone scratched Seoul on one cuff and Korea on the other. According to the seller it was found in "my grandpa's garage".

Does anyone recognize this cuff? It could be Korean or perhaps Japanese?

thanks

Joe

Steve

I thought I had seen one of these before, including the markings. The mechanism of this one works nicely. A standard Peerless flat key works just fine.

I was thinking that the Seoul Korea name may have been scratched in my the locals in order to sell it as a better souvenir to the American GIs.

Joe