Hello,
I just bought these cuffs on Ebay, but after searching the web I can find little background
information on them.
They are over-sized cuffs stamped #5000 USA.
Does anyone have any info on these?
These cuffs appear to be the 'Big Brutus' model which were made by Hiatts in Birmingham. I suspect the cuffs you have were actually made in the UK (though in your picture they are stamped Hiatt Thompson USA).
I have a pair just like this purchased in the first half of the last decade. They are exactly the same however the chain link is the normal Hiatt chain, not the two rings that the Hiatt Thompson cuffs you have are attached with. Interestingly, although they are Hiatt spec and have a serial number, they have no other stampings indicating that they are Hiatts. With the quality of them and the fact they were sold as being Hiatts, I have no doubt they came from the Birmingham factory.
Some may recall that Hiatt's were accused of exporting oversize handcuffs to the Hiatt Thompson in the US to overcome a ban for exporting leg irons (around 1999 I think). It was said that Hiatts were exporting the model 5000 shackle with no connecting chains. Hiatt Thompson were then adding the chains on the US side making them leg irons or oversize handcuffs. If this were the case, they weren't technically in breach of the law. I believe in the final years that the Big Brutus was made in the UK, the Hiatt markings may not have been put in place to allow them to be stamped by HT after export and/or so that they were not obviously made by Hiatts as there was controversy at the time. (again, just my theory). There certainly was a demand from the US at the time for oversized cuffs, and we have seen that Peerless & SW both have a solid offering of oversized restraints as well.
The two ring chain your cuffs have suggests they were probably connected together in the US, and then packaged for sale in the HT box (which you have in the picture).
Certainly an excellent pair of cuffs you have, I prefer them to the 9010 offering that Hiatt Thompson came out with on their own. I also liked the 4050 Big Brutus hinged cuff. It's rare to find such a large hinged cuff (I'm talking considerably larger than the SW Model 1 Hinged). American Handcuff had the N 520 but those are long gone. I don't think anyone presently makes a hinged cuff of that size.
