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Preserving fabric on vintage shackles?

13 visible archived posts · 13 preserved total · topic ID 3515

Nils 09 May 2010

Hello everyone,

I recently acquired these vintage handcuffs / shackles from China. The bows are wrapped, or sewn into, a cotton, almost leathery kind of fabric. However, the smell is quite bad.

Does anyone have experience with fabric on shackles? Is it worth preserving? Should I could it off with one clean cut, and keep it?

Dipping them in boiling water with some all purpose cleaner seems to be the least invasive.

Thank you for your ideas.

Nils

Anonymous 09 May 2010

A clothespin on the nose and some rubber gloves is where i would start first.
That thing needs to be sanitized!

They sell something here in the United States called febreeze.
Its made for taking musty smells out of clothing. I have a feeling because its wrapped over itself so many times it will be hard if not impossible to get the stench out.

Who knows what the smell is...
It could be sweat, urine, or even been on a dead body for all you know. From looking at them and knowing they are from china... probably all 3.

As far as disinfecting them? It looks impossible to get the germs off that cloth. Bleach kills everything but bleach would ruin the fabric.

I thoroughly scrub,degrease,disinfect and oil every handcuff I buy.
You never know what someone did with them.

I got a pair of handcuffs from a correctional facility and it had blood flaking off in between the double bows. I can only imagine what other germs are on them. It never hurts to clean handcuffs.

Ian McColl 10 May 2010

Hi, if the cuffs and fabric are dry, then there won't be anyhting for any bacteria to feed on. If they haven't been used for years, then all the bad stuff will be dead. Pure sun light is the best to kill off anything. If you put them in boiling water, the you will start the reactions of possible bacteria and rust. I would leave them alone and never lick them with your tongue, just to be safe.

Study the cloth and how it is wrapped and take photos, one day you might want to replace it and could copy it as close as you can.

Ian

Anonymous 10 May 2010

You can always enter them in the Cannon's "Guess the Handcuff" smelling contest in 2 years!

Dorson 10 May 2010

I would spray them with either Envirocide, Cavicide, or like chemical which is what hospitals use for cold sterilization. So if there is anything, it will be dead for sure... I have seen many pictures over the years of leg irons on people in China and were done by the inmates to protect there ankles. Just hope they are haunted by those who wore them and moved on to a different plane of existence.

Edgeplay_Cgo 10 May 2010

A museum conservator would be appalled at the idea of "sanitizing" the cuffs. It could destroy their historical value.

I guess it depends a lot on what you figure they're worth historically, and what you want to preserve. We handcuff maniacs are generally interested in the metal bits, but you have a seldom seen bit of history that is relatively intact. Someone wore them in that condition, probably for the rest of his life.

Again, I'd talk with someone in the museum restoration/preservation racket, and perhaps some medical types. Baking them to sterilize them, might not hurt too much. There are gas/vapor sterilization techniques that might not be too invasive.

LK 10 May 2010

i have 1/2 a dozen puzzle shackles, blacksmith made ,but don't think mine are from china,none came with or show any indication that they had wrapping if u use anything i would think it will rust the metal under them if it isn't already rusted , think about carefully unwraping and perservere the wraping separtly ,then u can clean the shackles and handle them when ever u want, and display them with wraping separt, also nice lock!

LK D~D

Paul Davies 10 May 2010

There's another pair of interesting Chinese shackles which has been on ebay for a long time which I'm surprised no one has bought. Not my style or price range for that kind of thing but interesting just the same.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Rare-Old-Chinese ... 518f1f8362

Anonymous 10 May 2010

those r interesting,and lock itself is probably half the value

Anonymous 10 May 2010

#10

Thanks for the posting Paul.

Nils 24 May 2010

#11

Hi everyone,

I decided to remove the wrapping, mostly for health, or hygenic, reasons.

It was very tightly wrapped and sewed; since one whole cuff has the be threaded through the other, I was amazed it fit through.

I removed all the fabric, desinfected, de-rusted the shackles (without the lock and key) for three days in electrolysis, cleaned and oiled them.

Maybe I'll reapply some similar fabric to suggest the original appearance. Thank you for all your kind advice.

All the best
Nils

Steve Santini 24 May 2010

#12

You may have noticed it, but the chain links appear to have been electric welded.

IMHO, these "Tibet' or "Chinese" slave shackles that have been showing up on Ebay over the last 2 years are modern made items.

If they were in fact made for real prisoners, I highly doubt they are any more than 50 years old.

The padlock that came with your set if typical Tibetan manufacture.

They make and export these by the bucketful for use on oriental style boxes and incense chest.

Steve Santini

Bruce Thomson 24 May 2010

#13

Great pics. I think they look better without the cloth wrapping.