These look kinda cool...

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

I have a iron like this, is this for animals, or human . Could the seller be wrong??

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Does anyone out there know anything about this cuff.......Like I said earlier I have one but I really don't know if it is for a horse or human , awfully complicated to lock up a horse .

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Awful insecure to use on a critter with fingers and thumbs.

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Actually, I once owned one that was almost identical and I can state from personal experience this thing in NOT insecure.

Both of the lock tubes house incredibly strong springs making it impossible to "rap" them open.

In fact, the springs are so strong the key must be levered like a see saw on the body of the lock tube to pull back the bolts.

One externally and one internally threaded key make "picking" these open highly unlikely unless one had something with 1) the right length, 2) the right thread pitch, and 3) that was strong enough to work on the springs.

Place these up against modern leg irons like Peerless and S&W and these outstrip them in the security department 200%

Steve Santini

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Houdini is reputed to have used rapping to escape from some Hiatt-style handcuffs. Rapping means striking the cuffs so that the sping-loaded bolt is projected forwards, and the cuffs fly open. But I think Houdini also had a split key for these cuffs, so presumably he found rapping to not be possible for all Hiatts. I find that two of the Hiatt cuffs in my collection have springs that feel obviously weak, ie not much twisting force is needed to screw the key in. All my others have springs that feel a lot stronger. I find the two cuffs with springs that feel weak can be rapped open, by striking the bow near the hinge against a block of wood, using a good solid impact. It was easy to do this with the cuffs off. Its a lot harder with them on, since the required impact hurts the wrists. For all my other Hiatts, with springs that felt stronger, I found I could not rap them open with a hard blow, even when not wearing them. I did not hit them as hard as I possibly could, because I didn't want to harm them, but I hit them pretty hard, harder than I think I could when wearing them. So I think these can't be escaped from by rapping.

To measure the spring force, I screwed the key in partially, then tied a weight to the key and gently raised the cuffs so as to lift the weight, and looked to see if the cuffs opened. I used a 5lb bag of potatoes as a standard weight, a baggage scale would have been better. I found the cuffs with the springs that felt obviously weak were just on the point of opening with the 5lb weight, and those with springs that felt stronger showed no sign of opening with the 5lb weight. So the cuffs that could be rapped open, the ones that had springs that felt weak, had an opening spring force of about 5lbs. The cuffs that I could not rap open had an opening spring force of more than 5lbs. There was no sign of these being altered, so I assume they were as manufactured.

Looking at all the Hiatts in my collection, I could see a couple with faint marks that could be past attempts to rap them open. One looked like it had had multiple impacts on the hinges, another had faint impact marks on the bow below the hinge. One had faint impact marks on the other (wrong) side! All these cuffs had strong springs, so the escape attempts probably failed.

I haven't done any trials with Hiatt leg irons, but I suspect these would be even harder to rap open, beause springs seem to feel stronger, and it would be hard to move the ankles fast enough.

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Almost anything told, said, or written by Houdini with a grain of salt.

He was infamous for well orchestrated B.S.

The "rapping the darbies open" is a prime example.

While it certainly can be done with some cuffs that have worn and weakened springs, a good pair of strong springed darbies will defy most rapping attempts unless one is fond of broken wrists.

Steve Santini

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

I think I read somewhere that Houdini would take a pair of Darby cuffs and stick them in a furnace til they were red hot and let them cool off. The spring would lose mose of its tensile strength but would allow the cuffs to snap shut.
Rapping them became much more possible.
Don't know if thiss is true and I am not about to test this theory out.

mark
O--O

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

There is some truth in what Santini says but not the end all of truth. Rapping, using metal fishing line, etc. are valid techniques to open darby type restraints. I have used all these techniques and can verify they do work. I used to do a routine with a pair of Thompson's of pretending to trip and having the cuff strike the floor and it pop open. And no, the cuffs were not altered....

-Dorosn

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

relisted again.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0447356358

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Click to expand...

This is the 3 rd go round for this model , not a very good selling leg iron , no matter if it was made for a horse or person.Nothing collectible about this.

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Click to expand...

Looks to me like the long links in the middle are machine welded. I wouldn't get too lathered up over them.

B.

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

I own a pair and I am not that thrilled about the welded links either.........I will be putting mine up on ebay thats how much I like them...

These restraints look better than some of the camel leg locks that come up on the online auction site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-HORSE-LOCKS ... 0440553139

Is that these were likely orignally made with all twist links.

At some period in time someone cut the chain and this led to the addition of the welded sections.

It is logical to figure that if the maker was capable of all the other hand forging work on them, he was also more than capable of making more than just 2 twist link sections.

Just an opinion.

Steve

Houdini is reputed to have used rapping to escape from some Hiatt-style handcuffs. Rapping means striking the cuffs so that the sping-loaded bolt is projected forwards, and the cuffs fly open. But I think Houdini also had a split key for these cuffs, so presumably he found rapping to not be possible for all Hiatts. I find that two of the Hiatt cuffs in my collection have springs that feel obviously weak, ie not much twisting force is needed to screw the key in. All my others have springs that feel a lot stronger. I find the two cuffs with springs that feel weak can be rapped open, by striking the bow near the hinge against a block of wood, using a good solid impact. It was easy to do this with the cuffs off. Its a lot harder with them on, since the required impact hurts the wrists. For all my other Hiatts, with springs that felt stronger, I found I could not rap them open with a hard blow, even when not wearing them. I did not hit them as hard as I possibly could, because I didn't want to harm them, but I hit them pretty hard, harder than I think I could when wearing them. So I think these can't be escaped from by rapping.

To measure the spring force, I screwed the key in partially, then tied a weight to the key and gently raised the cuffs so as to lift the weight, and looked to see if the cuffs opened. I used a 5lb bag of potatoes as a standard weight, a baggage scale would have been better. I found the cuffs with the springs that felt obviously weak were just on the point of opening with the 5lb weight, and those with springs that felt stronger showed no sign of opening with the 5lb weight. So the cuffs that could be rapped open, the ones that had springs that felt weak, had an opening spring force of about 5lbs. The cuffs that I could not rap open had an opening spring force of more than 5lbs. There was no sign of these being altered, so I assume they were as manufactured.

Looking at all the Hiatts in my collection, I could see a couple with faint marks that could be past attempts to rap them open. One looked like it had had multiple impacts on the hinges, another had faint impact marks on the bow below the hinge. One had faint impact marks on the other (wrong) side! All these cuffs had strong springs, so the escape attempts probably failed.

I haven't done any trials with Hiatt leg irons, but I suspect these would be even harder to rap open, beause springs seem to feel stronger, and it would be hard to move the ankles fast enough.

Click to expand...

Calculation (skip down to 'my opinion' if you are not an engineer)

Assume a Darby handcuff bolt has mass m. Assume the bolt spring is initially uncompressed (the locked state). Assume the handcuff is moving at velocity v when the handcuff strikes a massive object and comes to an instantaneous stop. The momentum of the bolt then moves the bolt forward (in the x direction, which unlocks the cuff) with initial velocity v, gradually getting slower as it is retarded by the force of the increasing spring compression x. The retarding force on the bolt at spring compression x is F = kx where k is the spring constant. The differential work done by the bolt movement against the spring compression is dW = Fdx = kxdx. So the total work needed at spring compression x is W = integral (kxdx) = k* integral (xdx) = k(D^2)/2 where D is the forward displacement of the bolt in the x direction, towards unlocking the cuff. Equating this work to the initial kinetic energy of the bolt ½ * m *v^2 we obtain an equation for the final displacement of the bolt D:
½* m*v^2 = k*(D^2)/2 or v^2 = (k/m)* D^2 = (k*D/m) * D
Now k*D is the final retarding force P exerted by the spring, when the bolt has moved distance D
Ie v^2 = (P/m)*D
Now the weight of the bolt in earths gravity is w = mg, so m=w/g and the final result for the rapping velocity v needed to move the bolt distance D is

v = square-root [ (P/w)*g *D ]

Conclusion:

the rapping velocity needed to open a darby is

square-root [ (P/w)*g *D ]

where P= pull force (in ounces) on the bolt needed to open the cuff, w= weight (in ounces) of the bolt, g=981 cm2/sec, D= distance bolt has to move (in cm) to open the cuff (the answer will will be in centimeters per second).

Numerical example:

If the bolt is 5mm diameter and is 5cm long, its volume is 1cc and its weight is 7.8gm = 0.27 oz. If the spring pull force P needed to open the cuff is 5lbs = 5*16=80 oz , and if the bolt has to move distance D= 0.5cm to open the cuff, the rapping velocity required is
square-root[(80/0.27)*981*0.5] = 380 cm/sec = 12.5 feet per second.

My opinion:

It should be practical to rap open darby cuffs which have a spring pull of about 5lbs or less with a good firm impact. This is roughly as my own experience indicates. Cuffs with pull forces as low as 5lbs have noticably weak springs. Most darby cuffs have spring pull forces above 5lbs, and personally I can't rap these open. Its also much harder to rap open darby leg irons (impossible?) because its very hard to hit hard enough whilst wearing them.