Cuff of the Day for March 31

Please post a picture of one of your favorite cuffs.  One everyday.

Following up on yesterday's discussion here is another pair of Sheffield handcuffs. This one is a rare Hiatt flexible.
The Sheffield cuffs were designed with a center post. The key is a tube open in the inside with threads on the outside.
But the center post is sometimes missing.  In this pair the post is missing from one side.   I have three pairs of Sheffield Darby cuffs.
Two pairs have the center post, the other pair is missing the post on both sides.  

So the obvious question is why are the posts missing.  Were the post simply left out when the cuffs were made or were they broken off when the cuffs were used?
Joe

As Joe started this with a set of German Stotz, I will continue.

Here is a set of unusual Stotz. First, they are not connected alike. Second, these are much heavier than ordinary Stotz and the lock house differ in design. See photo for comparison.

Lars

Lars
Very neat!  I like the way they are connected wrong.  Must have been made on a Monday morning.
Joe

Joe,

Probably! LOL
I'm not even sure these are made by Stotz but they are for sure very sturdy and left hand threaded like ordinary Stotz.  -Like a "big brother" to the ordinary Stotz.
I have a few different Stotz but only one of them is stamped "A. Stotz". This one is unmarked.

Lars

I still like the Bean Giants... The association with Houdini being challenged to escape from them the $500. reward if anyone could escape from them and Houdini forfeiting the $500. reward because he refused to show his method of escape  this cuff isn't in the best of shape but it is marked Iver Johnson on the hinge

Way to go Fred I was unaware that any of the Bean Giants were stamped Iver Johnson and I couldn’t agree more that few cuffs have a great story like these do.

Spencer

   I did say Bean Giants was one of my favorite cuffs so a couple of more photos

Today, I bring to the table a set of John Bushey's Thumbcuffs. These are ones that he made or maybe just assembled? If i recall, he said that he made 6, such sets. I am very fortunate to have gotten one from a collected who passed away. This came from the McGinn (sp) Collection.
-Richard Knip-

Bean giant

Hey Ian, I'd love to hear about the Bean Giant with a post key. Is that one of yours or was it a modified original or is it a factory piece that I'm unaware of.

Here is my Hiatt Flexible. Nowhere near as rare as Joe's super rare Flexible Hiatt Sheffield, but pretty rare anyway.

another pic



and the markings plus key



Glenn M.

The orginal Bean Giant post key was from the Houdini/Hardeen collection sold by Houdini's brother Hardeen
 to A. Nugent a locksmith and collector from Richmond Virginia later that collection was sold to another locksmith collector Dick Wresch from Battle Ground Washington. The Wresch collection was broken up and part of it was bought by Joe Tanner.  Joe later sold the Bean barrel key to our friend and locksmith collector in Southern California where it is today. I know John Bushey had made a copy of one not sure who else???  

At the height of Houdini's handcuff career performers were popping out of the woodwork calling themselves Handcuff Kings a Houdini quote" I’ll wager that if I throw a stone in the air it will fall down and hit someone who has a handcuff key in his pocket and a Handcuff King idea in his head"
Houdini  had no patience for these imitators who where claiming they where the "True Handcuff King"…. So Houdini came up with an idea how to slow these imitators down and that idea was turning  common pairs of handcuffs into what Houdini called King Breakers.  These where handcuffs that Houdini had altered that would appear to be in good working order when opened and closed…. with one slight exception Houdini modified the key so only Houdini’s key would be able to open these handcuffs…… Houdini would sit in the audience in a disguise wait for his competitor to ask the audience members to come on to the stage with their handcuff Houdini would come to the stage with his King Breakers place them on his imitators wrist and when the performer realized he couldn’t escape … Houdini would not release them in till they would shout out that Houdini was the True Handcuff King. There are only a few examples of these handcuffs around today one is this Bean Giant that I have the privildge to be there caretaker

I have heard of the "King Breaker" handcuffs, but i have never seen them. Thank you for sharing the pics and the story to go with it! I was also unaware of the post key Bean Giants that Ian has brought to the discussion! Very cool, pieces!
-Richard Knip-

John Bushey never made a pipe key Bean Giant.  

Fred, I was lucky enough to have visited your collection only once and I was completely blown away. If I live to be 100 I would be lucky to acquire a collection 1/10th as impressive. I only hope that when this Carona nonsense ends one day, that you'll be gracious enough to invite me back again. I still owe you a case of glass bottle Coke's and look forward to replacing them. Especially since I've switched to water and diet ginger ale. 

On one of my visits to Bushey he had shown me a pair of barrel key Bean Giants he told me he had made as well as a pair of Cumming that he turned into a pair of  Carberry's. I'm only relating what I saw and what John had told me.
 By the way Glenn you have an open invitation to come by anytime you would like

Thank you, Fred. It's something I'm definitely looking forward to.

A few self proclaimed Handcuff Kings

Joe, I had never heard of a Sheffield Key Flex Cuff before.
Very nice!
I had to settle for this one that John Bushey bid and won for me.

Ian, I had never knew about your copy of my cuff until now.
Nice job on that. Do you still have it or know who does?

This King Breaker was taken to a locksmith in Leeds to be modified with some internal levers so that a regular Giant key would not only work but not even fit into the lock. There is a collector in Michigan that has the original leather bound shoe box that Houdini carried this cuff in as well as his disguise (Fake beard/mustache, hat, scarf, etc) when attending his competitor's show. He also has one of the Slander trial padlocks that Houdini opened in front of the judge in one of the 3 trials in Cologne.

The arming buttons were removed in the original as they took up too much space in the lock body and were plugged at each side.  I can see where they were plugged even though the locksmith did a very good job with it.

Houdini stamped an inventory number on many of his cuffs as seen on the very bottom of the lock body.
I have this inventory list that I am keeping private.
If I were to release it, unscrupulous sellers might try to mark their ordinary cuffs and sell them as authentic Houdini's.
If anyone has a cuff with these inventory numbers, I can verify that the number belongs to a particular style of cuff so that no one can just stamp 54321 on a Carberry and say that this is a Houdini cuff.  Most of the items in the Wresh Collection had these numbers stamped into the cuffs.

I spoke to John Bushey about this and he knew of no one else who has this inventory number list which has me wondering how important this is and where it should go once my time is up.