Question for collector

Hey guys,

I'm curious so I ask the question to all of you.. How old you were when you started your handcuffs collection?

About me, I was in love with handcuffs around my 15yo and I started my collection at around 18yo. Now I'm 26.

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I was fascinated with Houdini at a young age. Around 10 years old, I got a pair of Takeda style cuffs from a County Fair. I made a makeshift pick by shoving a large sewing needle into a small pink, rubber ball i had gotten out of a gumball machine at the grocery store. I ground of the end of the needle on a grinder and tried out my pick. It took about 10 minutes of fumbling around until i figured out what i had to hit, inside of the cuff, to pop them open. I was hooked from that point on! I started to explore the world of magic, which led of course to escapes. I bought my first real pair of cuffs when I was 12. A pair of Smith and Wesson Model 103. Gave $40 for them at a local shop. I made a smaller pick and used it to open them. Then I learned how to pick the double lock on those cuffs. I started to train in the art of escape with a professional when i was 13. Andy Dallas. A Magician/escape artist from Champaign, IL. When I was old enough, i worked in his costume/magic shop. The place was named, Dallas and Co. It is still open and Andy is still there. I continued to perform for magic shows and always ended with an Escape. Toward the end of my career, i started to do an hour long show, that was entirely based on escapes and escape type magic tricks. When I was 22, i had a stroke and had to retire from the stage. I took the cuffs and the straitjacket I had collected to use on stage and turned them into my collection. Most of my cuffs were acquired when i was around 18. Im now 43. My collection has now spanned about 25 years. I have 788 cuffs and restraints in the collection. That number grows, almost every week. I no longer have my first pair of cuffs. Stupidly, I sold them, when i got a model that was in better shape. The one pair of cuffs, I wish i could find.
-Richard Knip-

12, when I learned to pick locks, which I taught in the Army, now 72 and retired.

Howy
Cincy

Always had toy ones as a kid but wanted the ones the police had (hiatt speedcuffs) also grandfather had a set of darbys that had me hooked when he lent them to a local musium for a police display so once i turned 18 the bay had just gone massive so was plentiful at this time i discovered you could infact buy the police cuffs a had always wanted so i did and from there found this site and got hooked now 30