I also have never seen much of a purpose to the addition of the flexible links. On someone the cuff closes fully on, the links can be shifted around and opened up, about the same size as a solid bow darby handcuff. Someone with a larger wrist, that these cuffs cannot be closed to the last notch, i could see the flexibility giving you one or two more notches than a solid bow cuff. That would allow the cuff to conform to the shape of the prisoner's wrist better. But, i dont see someone with a bigger hand, being able to slip the cuffs, even with the solid bow? People with smaller hands are the ones you would have to worry about, slipping the cuffs off over their wrists and hands. If you had a smaller sized flexible cuff, i could see that tightening up on a person with small wrists and conforming to the shape of their wrist better, to prevent the possible escape by slipping the cuff. That being said, I think the difficulty of use, outweighed any benefit they gave and these cuffs were pushed to the side of the production lines and were no longer made by major cuff manufacturers. India and Pakistan seem to be the only countries still producing them, today? Brands like KUB, that make the cuffs for a more niche' market, i believe they offer them, for their aesthetics, but that is a pure guess on my part.
As we see from restraint history, not all designs stood the test of time. Some never made it through the testing phase and others only sold on the market for a very limited time, before being pulled for whatever reason? The flexible darby seems to be a design of the latter. I have two flexible darbys in my collection now. One is a modern day cuff from India in black and i have a flexible that was made in India and used in the 1950s. The 1950s version is made a lot better than the new version is. The links fit together better and the cuff functions better. Overall, the older cuff works much better and weighs more than the newer cuff.
Another cuff that comes to mind in this style of design is the Burdick Chain Handcuff, which I do not own one, yet. This is of a similar design idea, that the "bows" of the cuff is made of a piece of chain. And the end piece is a solid piece of metal with the teeth cut into it. Having handled these, I dont find them as troublesome to use as the flexible darby is. (the picture I used of the Burdick Handcuff is not mine) Then there is also a chain cuff design for China called the Jing Cha Ten Cuffs. They can be used in multiple different configurations. Basically, a chain cuff with a barbed metal plug at the end that inserts and locks into the cuff's locking body. It can be used as a handcuff and as a leg iron.
There are other chain cuff designs out there. These are just a couple to give you an idea. If anyone would like to jump in and share some pics of some, it would be much appreciated!
-Richard Knip-
