Introducing the Schrade SCHC3N Hinged Stainless Steel Handcuffs.
A fairly lucky eBay purchase not to long ago and I hadn't seen the brand prior.
They're really solid feeling. Nice build, very tight tolerances and no wiggle in the bow. This set was second hand and has a few nicks/notches in the metal already from use.
Externally these cuffs look no different from the majority of other hinged cuffs. Same position for the double-lock, similar frame design, standard looking key-way.
However, closer inspection of the ratchet and ratchet area reveals some highly unusual differences.
These cuffs are actually using a dual-ratchet system.
The teeth are split down the middle to allow for an 'anti-pick-shield' to be placed in the center of the ratchet area.
Its only marginally higher than the ratchet teeth, and in my opinion, it could have been done a bit higher to improve resistance to shimming
However, when compared to other cuffs, you'll also notice that the ratchet teeth in the body of the cuffs are actually almost a third of the way along body. This is compared to the otherwise standard .5cm in that most of my other cuffs have. Its also at a lower point in the curve so it makes it much harder to reach with a shim.
This is what the side profile looks like when the cuffs are closed and flush with the body.
In another threads a member said that shimming is an inherent issue with handcuffs and that double-locking is standard procedure.
I mentioned that there exists defenses and this is what i was referring to.
Still on the topic of shimming, the tolerances are tight enough that i can't manage to get any material rigid enough down the sides either. There's obviously room for improvement there but i haven't been able to shim them terribly easily. I'll update this post if I do manage however.
Now. Unfortunatley i can't see inside these cuffs and i also don't want to dismantle them, but the ratchets in the body are split and from what i can feel with a hook pick, have a gap in the middle. (where the 'anti-pick-shield' is i suppose). The key is a standard flag key and not split so there isn't a bar in the way, but it's still very difficult.
This actually makes life really difficult for a would-be escapee. The best i can pick is one notch at a time after fumbling around. As soon as I release one notch the pick slips and i have to start again. Quite fustrating, quite difficult.
Now. The bad news. One of the cuffs allows for the 'ol bump against a wall with the double lock on to release the double lock.
Unfortunately this actually works. I really don't know WHY one cuff works and the other doesn't.
My wrists are quite sore from my few attempts. But i've also smacked them against the chair and the ground (concrete+carpet) and can't get the same result for both of them...
These are advertised as 'Pick-resistant' handcuffs, and they definitely do better than most.
Unlike pretty much every other vendor, they've actually tried to address the problem of shimming.
However, I'm very disappointed that I can 'bump the double lock off one of the cuffs. :/
So in summary:
Shimmable?
- No. I wouldn't rule out the posibility with some motor/mechanics feeler guages, but It's darn hard
Pickable?
- Yes.
- Definitely one of the hardest to pick. Keyway is farily restrictive, ratchets only open one at a time.
Double locking?
- Yes.
- Can be undone by slamming (one cuff does, the other does not)
- Can be picked but is also hard to angle to correctly
Join?
- double hinge
- Extremely solid.
Other vulnerabilities?
- None noted.
Any Type of additional or unique security?
- Yes.
- Difficult to pick keyway.
- Difficult to shim ratchets with pick-shield bar.
