The Forum at Handcuffs.Org

Storing your collection

28 visible archived posts · 28 preserved total · topic ID 1581

Nils 05 Nov 2006

Dear fellow collectors,
where do you keep your collection? I have something close to
80 pieces, and I'd like to put them somewhere they don't get
scratched and all that (boxes).

The best I saw looked like a closet with flat drawers. I think
coin collectors use similar types.
Any ideas? Ikea? Ebay?

Cheers,
Nils

larho01 05 Nov 2006

Hi Nils,

There are several ways to store and display a restraint collection. Many collectors have them hanging on the walls which is a very nice way to display a collection.

Another way to store and display a collection is in cupboards. I have three lockable cupboards in metal with ten drawers in each one of them. I guess these cupboards were made to store drawings since each drawer are very ground. I have put cloth in the bottom of the drawers to enhance the appearance and prevent the restraints to be scratched.

Since most of the drawings are digitalized nowadays there is no need for cupboards like this and you will probably find a used one to a fair price. If they are worn it's very easy to repaint them in a suitable color.

Lars

www.holstcollection.com

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Bjoern 06 Nov 2006

Hi Nils,

I use to hang my restraint collection on the wall. The plates are made of flake boards covered with black velvet. The collection items are hanging on black screws that are covered with heat shrink tubing in order to prevent scratches.
Mail me if you're interested in more details - my email-address is included in the picture.

Bjoern

M 06 Nov 2006

I store mine in the bedside table.

Cindi 06 Nov 2006

Nils
I would base this answer depending on your living environment. I am located in South Florida. Heat and Humidity rule the roost here. For Tropical environment I suggest a Gun Safe with a couple of small buckets of Damp Rid inside. Empty the buckets as instructed or needed and refill with new crystals. Cleaning and lubricating never ceases.

Good luck,
Cindi

Dorson 06 Nov 2006

Fow what it is worth department, I clean metal professonially in my job and make my own mixture for cleaning and preserving metal. I mix up a spray bottle of 20% mineral oil you buy at the drug store and 80% mineral spirits that you buy at the hardware store or paint store. What this does and provide a good solution for getting rid of the oils and so forth left by handling. As the mineral spirits evaporates, a thin film of oil is left behind. This cleans everything from bare steel, stainless steel, Aluminum, and plated finishes.

-Dorson

Nils 06 Nov 2006

I like the drawer idea best. I've seen a couple of those around, but I like the ones made of wood best. Wall displays work nicely, too, I guess. I tried an Ikea picture frame and added a box behind the glass with two hinges. Works for $25, that will take about 6 handcuffs and three leg irons, plus they're protected from dust. I don't want to jam in more, because I feel it would look overloaded (and you end up trying to figure out where which cuff starts). However, it takes a lot of wall space and I don't have a lot more of these in my place.
Humidity is not a problem where I live (S GE), but it's really getting cold these days.

Thanks for the great ideas, guys! Keep em coming.
Nice collection of Marlins, Lars.

Nils

silvermy 06 Nov 2006

About a fifth of my collection hangs on my living room wall, on a bunch of pegboard pierces wrapped in felt - the boards have a backing structure to distance them from the wall and make them more rigid - http://www.blacksteel.com/hcs/ . The rest are stored, wrapped in inexpensive towels in "SUV boxes" (heavy plastic, about 36"x14"x14" - 40-50 lbs per box, to allow them to be lifted and moved - there are lots of boxes - LOL). I live in a relatively low humidity part of the country and have yet to experience any major issue with rust or other deterioration.

Stan Willis 06 Nov 2006

I use a mixture of 3 methods. I use pegboard with vinyl wallpaper covering it. Then use the pegboard hooks and find a lole on the one inch centers. The wallpaper is washable and flexible. The large green cabinet has drawers that are shallow top to bottom and deep front to back. It is an old dental supply cabinet. A blueprint cabinet would serve the same purpose. The grey cabinet is surplus from some commercial warehouse and it is great for storing cuffs in the box.
Stan

Mark Lyons 06 Nov 2006

#10

You guys have some very nice ways to display your collections.
Being in the security business and having 2 teen-aged boys with tons of friends coming and going, I elected to keep pretty much all of the collection locked up in a big safe.

I did make a display out of the inner door with some of my favorite cuffs. I used a foam covered piece of melamine cut out to exact specs of the door and covered it with synthetic suede. I used a special brass hook used in neck tie racks to hand each of the cuffs. They have a ball tip on its end and will not scratch the cuffs.

One day, when at least one of the kids moves away, I hope to hang some on the wall and have some cabinets made. I already have a jail door that I plan on using for the entry way to the bedroom.

Lets see some more displays as I am still getting ideas.

mark
O--O

larho01 06 Nov 2006

#11

...a picture of parts of my collection.
When looking at my fellow collectors restraints I only feel envy when looking at their extremely nice cuffs. I wish I never...
eBay, please bring back the good times when rare cuffs were seen and the wallet was the limit. Also take all fakes and crap away.

Cheers,

Lars

Mark Lyons 06 Nov 2006

#12

Lars,
Your collection is one of the most impressive that I have seen. There are cuffs in there that I would love to have.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.....or as Guenter tells me, the neighbors cherry tree bears better fruit than mine.

You just keep looking for Euro-Dupes, continue coming out to the convention and we will trade.

mark
O--O

Fred 07 Nov 2006

#13

I always prefered storing my collection in draws. I liked the idea of them not being out but, yet still being able to get to see them when I wanted to with out having to dig around. Then I had the pleasure of visting some GREAT FRIENDS with some AMAZING collections!!! And,I came to the conclusion it's what works for you!!! I don't think there is a wrong way!!! If it makes you happy it can't be wrong!!!

http://handcuffs.org/pittella/

ALL THE BEST
Fred

lauher 07 Nov 2006

#14

I have had the honor of visiting three of the collections pictured or mentioned in this thread, Stan's, Mark's and Fred's. They are all great collections, each with unique items.

My own collection is spread out over the house, but the central part of the collection is housed in a pair of cabinets that I had custom built. The guy who built them specialized in making cabinets for mineral collectors. Rocks are heavy, handcuffs are heavy - so it works.

Here is a sample

A few rarer Hiatts. Left handed Darbies, backstrap Darbies, flexibles, Sheffields, home office key and early swing throughs

A selection of Plug 8's

A few more Plug 8's

Mattatuck Drawer

Joe

RMP 07 Nov 2006

#15

Hi Nils,

I've just had the same dilemma as you are currently having and I decided to go with wall mounting. I feel the downside to this is every time you make a new addition to your collection things need to move if you have any kind of order.
I really like the flexibility of draws but I like to be able to see my collection laid out.

Personally I didn't know if I should go by county, type age or some other system but I guess I went by age and country. I'm still only part way though but the remainder of my cuffs are in storage.

Don't worry the USA section is still to come.

To all you other guys your collections look great " Oh to be able to play "

RMP.

Nils 07 Nov 2006

#16

Amen, Lars: there used to be cool things on ebay. But I guess there's still plenty of Towers going around, and a nice set now and then. I'm still waiting for one Bean Collar to come around, haven't seen one of these in 6 years.

Fred's display is really what I want to go for, I think. The chunkier ones might need a bigger drawer, though, so the mineral cabinet is probably a good guess, too.

Nils 07 Nov 2006

#17

Oh gosh, this is pretty much what I was waiting for. It can actually be split into three parts:

http://cgi.ebay.de/Schubladenschrank-Ei ... dZViewItem

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Eeeexcellent.

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larho01 07 Nov 2006

#18

Mark, thanks for the nice words!

Nils, you started a very interesting thread. It was nice to get a glimpse to our fellow collectors drawers and walls. I hope the pictures helped you to decide how to store your collection. I agree; Fred's cupboards are really awesome.

Lars

PETCHI 08 Nov 2006

#19

Very good question!!

Personally I use the suitcases with foam robber. I think that it is the best solution to keep my collection out of dust and out of dampness by adding some small buckets of damp rid inside.

The foam robber is for me one of the best way to prevent the restraints to be scratched. When I have got a new set, I measure it then I make an ideal hole

An other great advantage: when I need to carry a part of my collection of course

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lauher 22 Dec 2006

#20

Carla Fong has sent some great pictures of their collection.
Joe
-------------

Hi Joe -

I finally got around to doing the photos and compressing them a bit for email.

Our collection is housed in a reconstructed jail cell that was salvaged from the old county jail when they converted the space into a law library about 15 years ago. My 'other half' hired himself out to the demolition company in exchange for some of the bits and pieces that were otherwise going to be turned into scrap. The work had to be done at night so the noise would not interfere with court operations in the building. There was no electrical lighting in the space at night other than a few 'trouble lights' strung around - most of the illumination came from the cutting torches and a couple of flashlights - rather a surreal scene. Even using an acetylene torch it was very slow going - the case-hardened steel bars are 1.125 inches in diameter and the sliding door alone weighs about 220 pounds. It makes a very authentic 'ker-chunk' when it latches shut.

As you can see from the photos, we've outgrown the available display space and need to either weed what's displayed or add more pegboard!

Photo 1 is a wide shot of our basement showing the whole collection display area. The 'cell' measures about 13' wide by 5' deep and there's
24 lineal feet of pegboard used to display a portion of the collection.

Photo 2 is a detail view of the 'overflow' from the display room seen on the left in Photo 1. After filling the pegboard in the display room we added this section, and now we're looking for yet another spot to put up more pegboard!

Photo 3 is the main 8" pegboard section inside the display room. At the lower part of the photo is an authentic wall-mounted bed also salvaged from the jail. (BTW, It's comfortable to sleep down here during the hot sumer months since the house is not air-conditioned) There's a bunch of new additions piled up there that haven't made it to the pegboard just yet, and still more in drawers and cabinets in another part of the basement. This thing just seems to grow like topsy!

Photo 4 is a closer look at the left wall of the display room. We're still trying to figure out how best to arrange and display the pieces- Should we do it chronologically, geographically or by type of restraint?
Haven't figured that out yet

Photo 5 is a view of the right side of the display room (this view overlaps view 3 a bit). Yes, the toilet/sink works. We found a pair of them with all the fittings and valves at a government auction for $75.

I hope you can use the pix and description

Have a Great holiday season!

Carla

lauher 22 Dec 2006

#21

Carla

What a nice collection! Thanks very much for sharing it with us.

thanks and Merry Christmas

Joe

Nils 06 Oct 2013

#22

I know this is a thread I started 7 years ago, but I finally got my hands on a very nice wooden closet. I put close to 20 hours into restoring it, taking off the paint, de-rusting the handles, but I think it was well worth it! 25 drawers. In the long run, I hope I can have a small room for everything.

That's how I bought it:

Taking off the paint, waxing it:

Finished!

Bruce Thomson 06 Oct 2013

#23

That is a wonderful restoration of that cabinet, Nils. Thanks for posting it.

Maxwell 06 Oct 2013

#24

Nils, Good job.

Depending on the floor structure you may want to consider adding a support beam below the cabinet.

It should be super heavy once filled with cuffs.

Best regards.

Ariochmagician 06 Oct 2013

#25

I bought a 20 drawer printer's cabinet from 1880 and lined (not glued!) the shelves with red felt. Before that, I made felt covered frames of sheet steel so that the cuffs could stick using neo magnets.

Unknown / guest 06 Oct 2013

#26

Don't know why it responded Anon, the printer's cabinet post is mhttp://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/o48 ... M_4957.jpg

Nils 07 Oct 2013

#27

That's a great collection, Ariochmagician! The cabinet is very similar to mine. The inside of the drawers is only a little over an inch, maybe I'll remove the bottom of one drawer to create a "double drawer" to make room for thicker cuffs.

I was actually wondering how to keep the cuffs from getting mixed up in the drawers. Magnets sound like an interesting idea. Lotta magnets, though.

Maybe sticking broad-head nails through the felt from below would do the trick.

Nils

dltvette 07 Oct 2013

#28

I posted a topic "jail door restoration" sometime ago, but just cleaned the door up and built this. A little different, but it's portable. It is 8' (W) x 12' (L) x 8' (H), and is housing my collection of early Peerless & Smith & Wesson handcuffs.
Dave

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