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0	5980	Good morning everybody. My name is Stephen and I am representing the Kansas City chapter of
5980	12040	TOOL. And today we're going to do a really short video for you on cuff stuff. We're going to talk
12040	15800	about handcuffs. We're going to tell you the different pieces of them. We're going to tell
15800	20060	you about the key and how the key works. We're going to tell you how the inner workings work.
20060	24560	And we're going to tell you how, if you don't have a key, to get yourself out of a nice pair
24560	30500	of handcuffs. Now, this is going to be a disclaimer first. Remember, if the police
30500	37140	put you in handcuffs because they're arresting you or detaining you, it is very ill-advised
37140	43560	to get yourself out of the handcuffs. If you do that, we take no responsibility for that, number
43560	49340	one. And number two, you're going to find yourself in a much worse situation than you were in before.
49340	56040	This is just to be used for fun. This is not to be used to get yourself out of handcuffs if you
56040	62640	have been detained or arrested by the police. Again, TOOL takes no responsibility for that.
62640	67960	We are merely here to teach you the inner workings of the various locking mechanisms that exist in
67960	75480	the world and their various flaws. So, let's start with a very simple pair of handcuffs.
75480	81700	A handcuff is made up of multiple different pieces. This is the ratchet arm. Now, the ratchet
81700	88980	arm is what swings and allows it to go around your wrist. We also have the housing. We have the
88980	96820	little keyhole. Inside of our housing, we have what's called the pawl or the P-A-W-L. It is a
96820	104920	set of teeth that actually is what causes your ratchet arm teeth to lock in and not be able to
104920	112360	be pulled free. Now, underneath your pawl, you're going to have a spring. The spring is what allows
112360	118580	the pawl to be compressed down to let you out. And it's also what pushes the pawl back up in
118580	124700	order to make sure that the handcuffs don't get tighter or don't get looser. That's the whole
124700	131860	point of it. So, let's take a look at our key. This is a handcuff key. It's very, very simple.
131860	138500	You see, it's very small. It's made of solid metal. And all it has is just this one little
138500	146660	notch in here. Now, that's because inside of here, what we have is we have a little metal lip.
146760	154520	So, what happens is when you insert your key, your key is going to connect onto that metal lip.
154700	160780	And as you push it down, it's compressing the spring. And it's what allows your handcuff ratchet
160780	170960	arm to freely spin. Now, you can see that when I let go of it, now the pawl engages your ratchet
170960	176420	arm. And you can hear the little clicks. And that's what's keeping it in there. So, what you've
176420	181060	really got is you've got little teeth that are down in here. And you've got teeth that are on
181060	188500	your ratchet arm. Your ratchet arm teeth are going to engage your pawl teeth. And they're going to
188500	195480	set in. When you try to pull it backwards, it doesn't work because the teeth are interlocking.
195580	200160	That's what keeps you safe from being able to get out of them. But it's also what
200160	205440	tries to keep you safe from being able to further ratchet it down. That way, you know,
205440	210520	you don't get it too tight around your wrists. Now, if for some reason we find ourselves without
210740	216600	a key, let's say we find ourselves maybe handcuffed to a bed. I don't know your situation and I don't
216600	223860	judge. So, what would we use in that case? So, one of the main tools that we would use is a very
223860	230320	simple lock pick. And this is just called a lifter. Now, if we look at our lifter, we can see that it
230320	239100	is very, very similar to our key. All it is, it's just a very simple hook. So, we want to mimic the
239100	247360	motion of the handcuff key into the lock. So, we locate our lock, we take our lifter,
247360	252920	we slide it into the very top, and all we're going to do is go up and to the right and twist
252920	261000	just a little bit until we have engaged the metal lip in the pawl and compress the spring down,
261000	267860	pushing the pawl back down in order to open our handcuffs. So, let me demonstrate that one more
267860	274120	time. We're going to take our lifter, we are going to put it right into our keyhole, we're
274120	279400	going to move it up and to the right, and then we're just going to give it a very simple and
279400	286200	light twist. Once you feel it engage, all you need to do is pull the arm, the ratchet arm out,
286200	291940	and then you can let go because now you've gotten yourself out of that. Now, you can really use a
291940	294700	lot of other different picks. You could use a half diamond if you wanted, or really whatever
294700	300840	one you have around. It just needs to fit properly into the hole and it needs to mimic what the key
300840	306520	looks like, or as close as you can get to that. Because remember, all that exists within here
306520	313980	is just a little metal lip and that is all that you are touching. So, as long as your tool can
313980	320160	touch that lip and is strong enough to push it down and maintain the downward pressure while you
320160	329790	pull the ratchet arm out, that's really all you need to be able to do that. There's also another
329790	335350	way with which you can do that if you don't, for some reason, have access to the keyhole or you
335350	339510	don't have anything that's going to work in there. And what we would use is called a shim. A shim is
339710	345610	a very, very, very thin piece of metal. You can make them out of titanium, which lasts a lot longer,
345610	350710	or you can make them out of a simple pop can. Now, if you're going to make them out of a pop can,
350710	356050	just remember they're not going to last nearly as long because they are very, very, very thin,
356050	364450	lightweight aluminum. So, in order for a shim to work, you're just going to stick it right down in
364450	372110	between your ratchet arm and your paw. And what that shim is doing is it's pushing those teeth
372110	377310	out of the way and it's making it so that there can't be a connection between the teeth on your
377310	383070	ratchet arm and the teeth on your paw. Keep in mind that when you do this, you are most likely
383070	390670	going to end up tightening the handcuff one to two notches as you push the piece of metal into there.
390670	394950	So, if it's already very tight or you're already at the very end because you have small wrists or
394950	401150	the person put them on too tight, this method may not work or it may put it in so tight that it
401150	406830	starts to cut off the circulation and it starts to actually hurt you. So, please be aware of that.
406830	413990	If you want to test it and play with it, make it multiple notches too big for your hand. That way,
413990	418950	when you push the shim in and it locks it down a couple notches, you're not hurting yourself. You're
418950	424750	just putting it right where it should be in the first place. So, that is a very, very simple
424750	431030	overview of a handcuff, of how a handcuff works, and how you can get yourself out of one. Remember,
431030	437470	the handcuff key is very, very simple and all you need in order to mimic it is a simple tool
437470	444350	such as a lockpick lifter or a lockpick half diamond. Anything that mimics the key is going
444350	448350	to work. It's going to be able to get you out of there. And once again, I will remind you,
448350	455370	if you get placed in handcuffs by the authorities, please do not try to get yourself out. And we
455370	460690	absolutely do not and will not condone that. You will find yourself in much worse trouble.
460690	464690	If you have further questions about handcuffs, or you want to talk about some of the more advanced
464690	469890	types of handcuffs, or even the international handcuffs, please find the right channel in the
471190	475470	Defcon Lockpick Village and we would be more than happy to discuss this with you.
475470	476790	Thank you so much for watching.