Why Would someone plug a Key Hole on a Handcuff?

I wanted to bring this one to the crew here at the forum. I have talked with the seller, a very nice lady who has been very helpful, but I still cannot come up with an explanation why this would have been done. So here is the Ebay Item in question. A regular set of S&W Model 100 Handcuffs. The one side works fine and does everything it should. Covering the key on the other cuff is this fluted disc, that is press fit on to the center pin of the lock. It doesnt come off, without something to pry it out with (im guessing), so the key hole is permanently blocked. The cuffs are in single lock, so they can still be swung thru and opened. The backside of the cuff is unmodified and has no key hole or access hole cut into it. This side looks to be sealed with no practical way of unlocking it. Now, why would you think someone would have taken the effort to make the fluted disc and block one key hole, without a way of unlocking it, and leave the other side of the cuff, as it came from the factory? The factory side, of course, being easy to open. This block would offer zero extra security and would be quite pointless in my eyes. Without being able to remove the plug, also makes it pointless in my eyes. Can anyone here, come up with any ideas, besides someone got some new tools in the shop and was playing around with them? LOL! Maybe a Magician testing an idea he had for an escape?  I dont not discuss her pricing with her. I figured, buyer beware on this one.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/304301130938

-Richard Knip-

I agree that it would seem pointless plugging the hole if there is no easy way to remove it without possibly damaging the pin. The very decorative design makes me wonder whether it is half of a rivet for clothing or leatherwork and was not intended to be used on a cuff. 
Paul

If this particular #100 handcuff is the early, first model...then it makes a lot of sense...especially if you want to "challenge" another escape artist to escape from the "plugged" cuff - without using a shim of any kind.

Reminds me of converting handcuffs into "Handcuff King Breakers" -  that Norman Bigelow would write so much about.

A couple of questions come to mind: Can you rotate the 'plug'?  Can the plug be lifted out easily if a tool or strong fingernail is used? I have a couple of pairs of very similar looking objects designed to be used as training aids. They allow for quick unlocking of cuffs without using a key.  
I also have a set I made using some very strong magnets and little chrome buttons with a short piece of brass tubing to fit over the key post. They are extremely difficult to remove by the person wearing the cuffs and effectively block the keyhole.  

Tom 

Jeff Sinclair wrote: ↑

Jan 12, 2022

A couple of questions come to mind: Can you rotate the 'plug'?  Can the plug be lifted out easily if a tool or strong fingernail is used? I have a couple of pairs of very similar looking objects designed to be used as training aids. They allow for quick unlocking of cuffs without using a key.  
I also have a set I made using some very strong magnets and little chrome buttons with a short piece of brass tubing to fit over the key post. They are extremely difficult to remove by the person wearing the cuffs and effectively block the keyhole.  

Tom 

According to the seller, they do not rotate, move, slide nor can be removed. Though she didnt really try to pry up on them, very much. Judging by the way it sits over the centering post, I cant see it being very easy to remove. I asked if a thin tube could fit down in the inside of the hole in the center to maybe manipulate something to turn inside of there, but there is no space between the pin and the shaft of the disc.
-Richard Knip-

DUH!  
Sorry Richard. I just figured out that by using my touch screen laptop instead of my desktop, I could enlarge those pictures enough to really study that plug thingy. That is mysterious; nothing like what I first thought. My only theory is there's someone very serious about their handcuff games. Once on it stays on, but that begs the question, why just one cuff?  I'll be watching to see if anyone comes up with an explanation.

Tom

Again, if its an early model--the "plugged cuff" CAN be readily & easily opened without entering the keyhole, or using a shim of any kind, anywhere on the handcuff.

I THINK this could be a homemade "challenge" handcuff - to "test" the abilities of other escape artists.

Why only ONE handcuff is "plugged", that I do not know.....Perhaps some fool just did it that way for some reason.

If I had the "plugged" cuff on my wrist...and the other (regular) cuff was around the wrist of another escapist...I would be able to get out just as fast (or faster) - than if the other person had "keyhole-picked" or shimmed his cuff open...and I wouldn't need to use either of those two techniques.

A few people here know what I'm referring to, but I just assume to not go further into it.
 

Thanks to a google reverse image search I'm pretty sure what it is (Press stud) regardless of how or why it was used. The close up is from the cuff. Paul