Darby handcuff keys

Hello ¡¡

I recently won the bidding for two sets of old Darby handcuffs. One of them were made by Hiatts and are a bit larger than the 104 model.

I am not sure about the manufacturer of the other set, but they are of a quite small size (56 by 46mm aprox) and there is a very faded inscription that reads "London harbour". Unfortunatelly no key available for any of the two sets.

I tried a Hiatt 115 handcuff key on the small sized cuffs and I could screw the key all the way in but this was not enough to open the cuffs and I had to pull from the key to get them open.

I have been unable to open the bigger cuffs because neither the Hiatt 115 nor the Hiatt 104 keys I have can reach the threads. The key in this case needs to be much longer.

As far as I know Cannon´s has no longer Hiatt Darby keys available, but I wonder if there is any other supplier.

Can someone give me thecnical data about the threads used in the 115 and 104 models? Perhaps I can try to manufacture my own keys.

Thank you very much for your help.

Hola! Francisco
your small cuffs read London Holborn and were sold by either William Parker or Parker, Field and Sons but they should have been made by Hiatt.
High Street, Holborn is one of the addresses in London where they lived and traded.
There are LOTS of different threads for those cuffs. Ian McColl is your best bet to get a good key made.
Nice cuffs, I bid on them too.
Pablo

Hello ¡¡

I recently won the bidding for two sets of old Darby handcuffs. One of them were made by Hiatts and are a bit larger than the 104 model.

I am not sure about the manufacturer of the other set, but they are of a quite small size (56 by 46mm aprox) and there is a very faded inscription that reads "London harbour". Unfortunatelly no key available for any of the two sets.

I tried a Hiatt 115 handcuff key on the small sized cuffs and I could screw the key all the way in but this was not enough to open the cuffs and I had to pull from the key to get them open.

I have been unable to open the bigger cuffs because neither the Hiatt 115 nor the Hiatt 104 keys I have can reach the threads. The key in this case needs to be much longer.

As far as I know Cannon´s has no longer Hiatt Darby keys available, but I wonder if there is any other supplier.

Can someone give me thecnical data about the threads used in the 115 and 104 models? Perhaps I can try to manufacture my own keys.

Thank you very much for your help.

Click to expand...

Hello Paul ¡¡

Thank you very much for the information. I expected to obtain some technical data from the people, but I will probably contact Ian in case he may give me counsel.

I suppouse thread patterns must have been changed often, but fortunatelly the key of my Hiatt 115 adjustable cuffs work on them, althugh not enough to get them open by just turning the key. I assume this key will be more standard.

I suspect the other cuffs might work with the 104 thread pattern if the key were long enough.

Best regards.

Francisco.